Jump to Content

Collection Guide
Collection Title:
Collection Number:
Get Items:
View entire collection guide What's This?
Search this collection
Collection Details
 
Table of contents What's This?
  • Conditions Governing Access
  • Conditions Governing Use
  • Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
  • Immediate Source of Acquisition
  • UCLA Catalog Record ID
  • Preferred Citation
  • Processing Information
  • Biographical / Historical
  • Scope and Contents
  • Arrangement
  • Related Materials

  • Contributing Institution: UCLA Library Special Collections
    Title: Richard and Dion Neutra papers
    Creator: Neutra, Dion
    Creator: Neutra, Richard Joseph
    source: Neutra, Richard Joseph
    source: Neutra, Dion
    source: Neutra, Raymond
    source: Neutra, Dione
    Identifier/Call Number: LSC.1179
    Physical Description: 3192.2 linear feet (663 boxes, 895 oversize boxes, and 379 oversize folders)
    Date (inclusive): 1904-1987
    Date (bulk): 1925-1970
    Abstract: Richard Josef Neutra (1892-1970) was born in Vienna. He was the city architect for Luckenwalde, then worked as a draftsman-collaborator with Erich Mendelsohn in Berlin before immigrating to the United States in 1923. He worked with Frank Lloyd Wright (1924) before settling in Los Angeles. His most productive years were during the 1930s and 1940s. From 1949 to 1958 Netura had a partnership with Robert E Alexander. The collection consists of correspondence both personal and professional belonging to Richard J Neutra as well as his wife Dione Neutra, travel records and sketches, publications, drawings, blueprints, oversized rolled plans, audio recordings, and photographs.
    Physical Location: Portions of the collection stored off-site. Advance notice is required for access to the collection. All requests to access special collections materials must be made in advance using the request button located on this page.
    Language of Material: Materials are in English, German, French, and Spanish.

    Conditions Governing Access

    Open for research. All requests to access special collections materials must be made in advance through our electronic paging system using the request button located on this page.

    Conditions Governing Use

    Copyright to portions of this collection has been assigned to the UCLA Library Special Collections. The library can grant permission to publish for materials to which it holds the copyright. Commercial use may require additional rights that must be determined and obtained by the researcher. All requests for copyright permission to publish must be submitted in writing to Library Special Collections. Credit shall be given as follows: The Regents of the University of California on behalf of the UCLA Library Special Collections.

    Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements

    CONTAINS AUDIOVISUAL MATERIALS: This collection contains both processed and unprocessed audiovisual materials. For information about the access status of the material that you are looking for, refer to the Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements note at the series and file levels. All requests to access processed audiovisual materials must be made in advance using the request button located on this page.

    Immediate Source of Acquisition

    Gift of Richard Neutra, 1954. Gift of Dione Neutra, 1976-86. Gift of Dion Neutra, 1981-97. Gift of Raymond Neutra, 1994.

    UCLA Catalog Record ID

    UCLA Catalog Record ID: 9924703433606533 

    Preferred Citation

    [Identification of item], Richard and Dion Neutra papers (LSC 1179). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.

    Processing Information

    This collection was processed by UCLA Library Special Collections staff over the course of many years from the initial donation in the late 1950s up through the 2020s. 600+ boxes of project files, correspondence, travel sketches and audio tapes were processed by Kenneth Holsley, 2005-2007. Correspondence in Series 4, Subseries 4.6 was processed by Yana Demeshko, under the supervision of Courtney Dean, in the Center for Primary Research and Training (CFPRT), 2020-2021. Finding aid updated by Kelly Besser, 2021.
    Processing of the Richard and Dion Neutra papers was funded in part by a grant from the Getty Research Institute.
    Collections are processed to a variety of levels depending on the work necessary to make them usable, their perceived user interest and research value, availability of staff and resources, and competing priorities. Library Special Collections provides a standard level of preservation and access for all collections and, when time and resources permit, conducts more intensive processing. These materials have been arranged and described according to national and local standards and best practices.
    We are committed to providing ethical, inclusive, and anti-racist description of the materials we steward, and to remediating existing description of our materials that contains language that may be offensive or cause harm. We invite you to submit feedback about how our collections are described, and how they could be described more accurately, by filling out the form located on our website: Report Problematic Content and Description in UCLA's Library Collections and Archives. 

    Biographical / Historical

    Richard Josef Neutra was born in 1892 in Vienna. He immigrated to the United States in 1923 to work with the architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Neutra's wife Dione Neutra (1901 – 1990) and their eldest son Frank immigrated in 1924. During the fall of 1924, Frank Lloyd Wright invited Richard Neutra to his Taliesin Estate located in Spring Green, WI where Wright resided and worked. Neutra subsequently moved to Los Angeles, CA in 1925. His most productive years were during the 1930s and 1940s. During his last decade, Richard Neutra worked in partnership with his son Dion (1926 – 2019), who worked on numerous projects in the Neutra and Neutra and Alexander offices. Dione Neutra was involved with her husband's career and served as his executive assistant and publicist. Richard Neutra published several books, including Wie baut Amerika? (1927) and Survival Through Design (1954). He died in 1970.

    Scope and Contents

    Collection consists of travel sketches, papers, drawings, rolled plans, blueprints, audio recordings, photographs, speeches, research notes, and publications related to the career of architect Richard Joseph Neutra. Includes office files containing correspondence, client files, manuscripts, architectural models, clippings, magazines, and photographs generated by Neutra and his architectural firm. Also includes awards and honors received by Neutra. The earliest pieces in the collection, pencil drawings of Baroque interiors from Neutra's student trip through Italy in 1913, reveal his developing skills as a delineator of architectural space. The collection also includes records related to Richard J Neutra Institute, papers of his wife, Dione Neutra, as well as records of Richard J Neutra's partnership with Robert Alexander.

    Arrangement

    This collection has been arranged in the following series:
    Series 1: Personal Papers, 1909-1971 Subseries 1.1: Biographical Information, 1910-1971 Subseries 1.2: Correspondence, 1943-1970 Subseries 1.3: Photographs, undated Subseries 1.4: Travel Records, 1925-1970, undated Subseries 1.5: Travel Sketches, 1909-1970
    Series 2: Professional Papers, 1904-1977, 1987 Subseries 2.1: Associations and Committees, 1939-1970, undated Subseries 2.2: Awards and Honors, 1955-1970 Subseries 2.3: Correspondence, 1945-1970, undated Subseries 2.4: Presentations Series Subseries 2.5: Recordings, 1955-1970 Subseries 2.6: Reference Files, 1904-1977, 1987 Subseries 2.7: Research Material, 1945-1970, undated Subseries 2.8: Writings, 1926-1970, undated
    Series 3: Office Records, 1910-1980 Subseries 3.1: Administrative Records, 1927-1980, undated Subseries 3.2: Construction Reference Files, 1946-1967, undated Subseries 3.3: Correspondence, 1910-1977 Subseries 3.4: Financial Records, 1968-1976 Subseries 3.5: Presentation Materials, 1931-1967, undated Subseries 3.6: Product Literature/Vendor and Contractor Correspondence, 1950-1959, undated Subseries 3.7: Prospects, 1941-1971 Subseries 3.8: Public Relations Material, 1930-1971 Subseries 3.9: Scrapbooks and Clippings, 1928-1976, undated Subseries 3.10: VDL Research House, 1950-1969 Subseries 3.11: Visual Material, undated
    Series 4: Project Records, 1915-1975 Subseries 4.1: Client Files, 1915-1975 Subseries 4.2: Drawings, 1920-1959, undated Subseries 4.3: Models, undated Subseries 4.4: Oversized Rolled Plans, 1946-1949, 1966, undated Subseries 4.5: Photographs, 1966-1969, undated Subseries 4.6: Correspondence, 1932-1969
    Series 5: Richard J. Neutra Institute Records Subseries 5.1: Administrative Records Subseries 5.2: Correspondence
    Series 6: Dione Neutra Papers, 1924-1971 Subseries 6.1: Correspondence, 1930-1971, undated Subseries 6.2: Office Records, 1936-1957 Subseries 6.3: Personal Records, undated Subseries 6.4: Travel Correspondence, 1924-1967 Subseries 6.5: Writings, 1932-1968
    Series 7: Neutra and Alexander Office records, 1942-1968 Subseries 7.1: Administrative Records, 1942-1956, undated Subseries 7.2: Correspondence, 1947-1968, undated Subseries 7.3: Models, undated Subseries 7.4: Prospects, 1951-1957, undated

    Related Materials

    To tell the truth [oral history transcript] / Dione Neutra, interviewee.  UCLA Oral History Department interview, 1978. Available at the UCLA Library Special Collections.

    Subjects and Indexing Terms

    Architectural drawings (visual works).
    Photographs.
    Blueprints.
    Architecture, Domestic -- California, Southern
    Architecture -- California -- 20th century
    Architects -- California -- Los Angeles -- Archives
    Richard and Dion Neutra, Architects and Associates
    Neutra, Richard Joseph
    Neutra, Dion
    Neutra, Dione
    Richard and Dion Neutra, Architects and Associates -- Archives
    Neutra, Richard Joseph
    Neutra, Dion
    Neutra, Raymond
    Neutra, Dione