Neutra, for beginners

Four years ago, Modernist scholar Lamprecht wrote “Neutra: The Complete Works.” Weighing in at 464 pages with a wooden cover and a hefty $200 price tag, it was the definitive volume on the Viennese-born Los Angeles architect and his groundbreaking split-level steel and glass houses that merged indoor and outdoor spaces.

This slender and economical follow-up serves as a beginner’s guide to the work of one of the most fetishized architects of the 20th century, focusing on Neutra’s work in Southern California, from the 1927 Lovell Health House in Los Angeles to the 1964 Taylor House in Glendale. The iconic 1946 Kaufmann House in Palm Springs, immortalized by photographer Julius Shulman, graces the cover, but equal weight is given to anecdotal, although sometimes jargon-laden, chapters on Neutra’s low-cost Case Study homes and commercial buildings such as the 1953 Eagle Rock Park clubhouse.

Although Neutra preached simplicity, his work exudes sophistication, even drama. So too does Lamprecht’s history of the architect, which states: “Today, Neutra’s forms -- if not his social concerns which drove the form-making -- are again ascendant.”

David A. Keeps