Two Modern Steel Houses

In May 1927 Richard Neutra had begun to work on the design of a “Steel, Glass, & Shot Concrete Residence, Los Angeles”. ¹ This was to be the Health House, (Figure 1.1) built for Dr Philip Lovell at the top end of Dundee Drive in the Hollywood Hills. Rudolph Schindler had already built a Modern, health-conscious, concrete house for Leah and Philip Lovell out of town at Newport Beach and a cabin for them in the mountains. But the site for the projected town house was both prominent and precipitous, and Schindler had failed to convince the Lovells of the reliability of his architecture: the new beach house flooded in the rainy season and the mountain cabin collapsed under snow. Lovell could have commissioned a historicist Spanish Colonial Revival design from his friend Fred Manhoff, but he wanted something Modern and in Richard Neutra he recognised a fellow-spirit. Here was an architect who would build him a Modern house out of modern materials for a modern lifestyle in a modern country. ²