Description
An iconic villa designed by Richard Neutra in Los Angeles
EXCEPTIONAL – Preceding John Entenza’s Case Study Houses programme, Richard Neutra’s Brice residence, also known as the Plywood Demonstration House, was one of six houses built for the 1936 California House and Garden exhibition in Los Angeles, which showcased the latest developments in residential construction.
The house spans 210 sqm on two levels. It includes a living room and dining room, a maid’s room, two bedrooms (originally three), two bathrooms, a garage and an artist’s studio.
The living spaces have been designed to offer a modern lifestyle, between indoors and outdoors. Most rooms are bathed in light thanks to large windows and open onto a patio, terrace or garden.
The architecture of the villa features a geometric design typical of Richard Neutra’s work. It features an open-plan layout, wide ribbons of windows, an open-plan kitchen and a partially open staircase.
The villa is located in the Brentwood Glen district of Los Angeles.
History
Marketed to the public under the name Maison Moderne, the residence was designed to be easily transported, with all the houses to be drawn at the end of the exhibition. The winner was Stella Gramer, a lawyer associated with John Entenza’s father, who later created the Case Study House Program. Stella asked architect Harwell Hamilton Harris to help transport and install the house on its current site. She then sold the property to architect Maynard Lyndon in 1943.
After completing his new family residence in Malibu, Lyndon sold the house in 1950 to the artist William Brice and his wife Shirley. William Brice commissioned Richard Neutra to build an artist’s studio in the garden.
Richard Neutra, star architect of the Californian Dream
Richard Neutra (1892-1970) was a leading figure in the Modern Movement in the United States. Austrian by birth, he studied at the Technical University and the School of Architecture in Vienna, where his teachers included Max Fabiani and Adolf Loos. He went on to work for the Expressionist architect Erich Mendelsohn in Berlin in 1921. He left for the United States in 1923, where he met the architects of the Prairie School, Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright. He opened his architectural practice in Los Angeles in 1925, and quickly built a number of modern villas for a wealthy clientele, most of which are famous today, such as the Lovell Health House (1929), the Beard House (1934), the Von Sternberg House (1936), or the famous Kaufmann House (1946), built in the desert for Edgar Kaufmann. He also built numerous public facilities and large-scale buildings, housing estates and town planning projects.
