Richard Neutra and the Making of the Lovell Health House, 1925‐35

This book tells the story of the Lovell Health House in Los Angeles, designed and built by Richard Neutra from 1927 to 1929, from its inspiration through its construction to its impact. It was a ‘demonstration house’: widely documented and written about in leading architectural journals when it was built. These publications elevated the house to the status of an icon in the history of modernism and an essential work of the international modern movement, from Berlin to Tokyo and Paris to Milan, at the high point of its influence and fame. The Lovell Health House helped to launch the international career of one of the central figures of 20th-century architecture, pioneered the use of concrete and steel in the dwelling, radically advanced the ideals of hygienic, carefree, and open-air living, and explored new relationships between space, structure, the natural world, and physical and psychological well-being.

The book includes new texts by Edward Dimendberg, Crosby Doe, and Nicholas Olsberg, a chronology by Thomas Hines, historic texts by Willard D. Morgan and Richard Neutra, and specially commissioned colour photographs by Grant Mudford. At the heart of the book are six narrated portfolios of visual and textual documentation on the background, design, making, circulation, reception and resonance of this seminal house. Including photography by Willard Morgan in which he documents every stage of construction to the building's completion, this published imagery was exceptionally rich, refined, varied, widespread, and influential.

Edward Dimendberg is Professor of Humanities at the University of California, Irvine. Nicholas Olsberg was Director of the Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montreal, and founding Head of Special Collections at the Getty Research Institute, California. His latest book The Master Builder: William Butterfield and His Times is published by Lund Humphries. Crosby Doe is Founder and CEO of Crosby Doe Associates, real estate specialists in historic and architect-designed properties in Southern California.