Richard Neutra / Lovell House

The Lovell Health House by Richard Neutra was designed starting in 1927 and completed in 1929. It was built for Philip Lovell. The Lovells had just had a beach house built for them by RM Schindler. Philip Lovell, a physician and naturopath, had an LA Times column, “Care of the Body.” He promoted vegetarianism, exercise, nude sunbathing, drugless healing, and a healthy sex life.

Neutra and Schindler were both trying to get the commission for the family's second house. Obviously, Neutra won out. This probably made things pretty uncomfortable considering Neutra was living and working at Schindler's Kings Road house and studio.

The house brought a lot of attention to Neutra and was a huge boost to his career. With the exception of Frank Lloyd Wright, Neutra was probably the most prolific architect of the time. Schindler continued to get commissions, although mostly smaller projects in Los Angeles.

The Lovell house is thought of to be the first residence with a steel structure integrated with tension cables in the United States. It was also the first to use gunite (spray-on concrete).

That's the Griffith Observatory up above.

1929 photo by Luckhaus

Source: LAMA

In the 1950s or 60s

Source: Julius Shulman, © J. Paul Getty Trust. Getty Research Institute

Neutra used two Ford Model-A headlights in the stairwell, which can be seen here. Apparently Neutra admired Henry Ford. Neutra apprentice Gregory Ain provided the headlights.

The Historic American Buildings Survey described the Lovell House as "a prime example of residential architecture where technology creates the environment."