Since there is a house, designed by Richard J. Neutra,
listed in Bryn Athyn, we thought that it would be a good time to remember who
Neutra was.
Neutra was born in Austria Hungary, on April 8, 1892. He was
famous for the attention he gave to defining the real needs of his clients,
regardless of the size of the project, in contrast to other architects eager to
impose their artistic vision on a client. Neutra sometimes used detailed
questionnaires to discover his client's needs, much to their surprise. His
domestic architecture was a blend of art, landscape and practical comfort.
Neutra had a sharp sense of irony. In his autobiography,
Life and Shape, he included a playful anecdote about an anonymous movie
producer-client who electrified the moat around the house that Neutra designed
for him and had his Persian butler fish out the bodies in the morning and
dispose of them in a specially designed incinerator. This was a
much-embellished account of an actual client, Josef von Sternberg, who indeed
had a moated house but not an electrified one.
Neutra (1892–1970) was a prophet of clean, crisp modernism
said Time Magazine and put him on the cover.
To see some of his work and check out the listed house;
http://www.everyhome.com/Home-For-Sale/2860-Paper-Mill-Road-Bryn-Athyn-PA
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