Silver Lake Modernism - Ask Silver Lake

rburton850

10 hours ago6 min read

Silver Lake is widely known, among other things, for its residential architecture. There are many fine examples of California Craftsman, Streamline Moderne, and all sorts of revival styles. Perhaps no style is more celebrated and more closely associated with the neighborhood, though, than Modernism. “Ask Silver Lake” readers have requested more information on several architects, and we decided in the Silver Lake Neighborhood Council’s Outreach Committee to focus on two absolute titans, Rudolph Schindler and Richard Neutra.

Modernism was a movement not just in architecture, but in art, literature, and music that, at its core, rejected tradition in favor of experimentation. Modernist architecture arose in the 1880s with practitioners embracing new building materials and architectural expressions. It grew in popularity in the early 20th century and, by the 1950s, so-called Mid-Century Modernism would become especially associated with the city of Palm Springs, which has, since 2006, hosted the annual Modernism Week.

Modernism came to the Palm Springs area in 1922, when Schindler designed a cabin for Paul and Betty Popenoe in Coachella. Rudolph Michael Schindler was born Rudolf Michael Schlesinger in Vienna in 1887. In 1914, he emigrated to Chicago, where he found employment under Frank Lloyd Wright. In 1920, Schindler came to Los Angeles to work on Wright’s Hollyhock House in Los Feliz. It represented a striking break with the “Old California” evoked by the then ubiquitous Spanish Colonial Revival home – by drawing upon the pre-Spanish architecture of the Maya. In early 1921, Schindler became architect-in-charge on the project.

In 1922, Schindler designed a home in West Hollywood for two couples. R.M. and his wife, Pauline Gibling Schindler, occupied one side. Schindler designed his first Silver Lake commission, the McAlmon House (2717-2721 Waverly Drive), in 1923. Schindler’s next Silver Lake commission was the How House (2422 Silver Ridge Avenue), built for James Eads How who, on account of his advocacy for the unhoused, was nicknamed “King of the Hobos.” Overseeing the landscaping was another Vienna-born architect, and collaborator on the Hollyhock House, Richard Neutra.

Clockwise from top left: Richard Neutra, R.M. Schindler, Dione Neutra, and Dion Neutra (circa 1929)

Neutra and his wife, Swiss cellist Dione Niedermann Neutra, joined the Schindlers in their home (now the MAK Center for Art and Architecture). The two pairs were apparently odd couples. Photographs of Schindler usually find him looking windswept – and dressed in a blousy middy, slacks, and sandals. Neutra, on the other hand, was nearly always photographed in a dark-colored suit and tie – with a pocket square. He apparently owned just three suits, regarding anything more as a ridiculous extravagance. Their home was something of a salon, hosting the likes of Edward Weston, Galka Scheyer, and Upton Sinclair. Despite prohibition, the alcohol apparently flowed unceasingly. The architects occasionally collaborated on projects, submitting a rejected design for the headquarters of the League of Nations in 1927, but mostly worked separately.

Pauline left Rudolph and the house in 1927 (although she later returned). The Neutras followed in 1930.

Schindler continued to find lots of work in Silver Lake after the McAlmon House. He designed the neighborhood's Manola Court (1807 Edgecliffe Drive, 1926, 1939), Oliver House (2236 North Micheltorena Street, 1933-1934), Elizabeth Van Patten House (2320 Moreno Drive, 1935), Walker House (2100 Kenilworth, 1936), Falk Apartments (3631 Carnation Avenue, 1939-1940), Westby House (1805 Maltman Avenue, built as a duplex in 1938), and Yates Studio (1735 Micheltorena Street, 1938), and Luby and Anastasia Bubeshko Apartments (2036-2046 Griffith Park Boulevard, 1941). All are located in Silver Lake’s western half.

Schindler, meanwhile, worked in Silver Lake’s east. Neutra’s family residence, the Neutra Van der Leeuw Studio and Residences (Neutra VDL) was built at 2300 Silver Lake Boulevard

in 1933 (and largely rebuilt in 1963, following a fire, in collaboration with Dion Neutra). Around the corner, on Argent Place (renamed Neutra Place in 1992), the so-called Neutra Colony arose, including in it the David Treweek House (2250 Silver Lake Boulevard, 1948), Sokol House (2242 Silver Lake Boulevard, 1948), Reunion House (2440 Neutra Place, 1949-1950), Flavin Residence (2218 Neutra Place, 1957), Yew House (2226 Silver Lake Blvd, 1957), Ohara House (2210 Neutra Place, 1959), Inadomi House (2238 Silver Lake Blvd, 1960), Kambara House (2232 Silver Lake Blvd, 1960), and Akai House (2200 Neutra Place, 1962). The Neutra Office Building opened around the corner, at 2379 Glendale Boulevard, in 1950.

Misfortune – or fate – brought Schindler and Neutra together again in 1953. Schindler was then at Cedars of Lebanon Hospital, undergoing treatment for prostate cancer. After a second heart attack, Neutra was placed into the same room. More than twenty years since their falling out, they – by all accounts – reconciled – and just in time. Schindler died that August. Neutra recovered and lived until 1970.

The Modernism that Schindler and Neutra exemplified spread across Silver Lake, with Raphael Soriano and Gregory Ain creating beautiful Silver Lake homes beginning in the 1930s. John Lautner, Harwell H. Harris, and Eugene Kinn Choy followed in the ‘40s. The ‘50s saw James Homer Garrott, Jr., Carl Maston, Rodney A. Walker, Gilbert L. Leong, Eric Lloyd Wright, Allyn E. Morris, Josef Van der Kar, and Alan Siskind all contributing to the neighborhood’s stock of Modernist homes. Today, Neutra, Schindler and their followers continue to influence architects more than a century later, the contemporary architecture of which represents, perhaps ironically, a continuation of a century-old tradition.

I’m, unfortunately, no Julius Shulman and I own a phone rather than a camera – but hopefully these images at least hint at their subjects’ beauty. Many resist even a talented photographer’s efforts and all are best seen first hand, where your eyes can better navigate barriers of fences and foliage. Make sure to follow our ongoing series of Silver Lake Walks, which are focused on history, culture, and architecture. And if you’re passionate about our built environment, also consider joining the Silver Lake Neighborhood Council’s Silver Lake History Collective or Urban Design and Preservation Committee.

RUDOLPH SCHINDLER