Essay: "Richard Neutra’s Architectural Vanishing Act" by Alex Ross
Suraj's Arts Log: an essay about architecture from the New Yorker's music critic
Talk about an interdisciplinary work… As Alex Ross — music critic for the New Yorker — writes about the architecture of a twentieth-century Austrian modernist, he finds ways to embed fascinating anecdotes of Angelenos encountering John Cage and Sergei Rachmaninoff. I was enjoying the article so much, pleasantly surprised that an “architecture writer” knew so much about music that I didn’t even notice the byline until I started to write this “Arts Log” post.
Before reading this essay, I had never heard of Richard Neutra. I realized, though, that I had seen his architectural influence all around Los Angeles. Many LA houses attempt to “erase the boundary between inside and outside,” imagining the home as merely a window into the surrounding space. This article gets into the history of Neutra’s work, the architectural school that he was a part of, the failed public housing project he tried to develop, and how his legacy could be at risk due to the high cost and inaccessibility of his remaining works — rich people are buying up his homes. According to Ross, Neutra would have been rather upset about this new development.
My favorite Neutra quote, mentioned in the article: “If there are trees granted you by fate, can you conceive a layout to conserve them? Never sacrifice a tree if you can help it.”
