Richard Neutra's Windshield House

About this book

In 1936 John Nicholas and Anne Brown commissioned Richard Neutra the great Vienna-born architect to design a summer house for them on Fishers Island New York. Completed in 1938 Windshield (named for its large expanses of glass) was Neutras most significant residential building outside Los Angeles and the only one on the East Coast. A striking example of International Style architecture that featured many modern innovations including two of R. Buckminster Fullers Dymaxion bathrooms the house was severely damaged by a hurricane only weeks after its completion. The Browns rebuilt the house and continued to occupy it until 1959. The house was destroyed by fire in 1975. This engaging publication written by prominent scholars of contemporary architecture and design is the first to focus on the collaborative design process for Windshield as revealed by the extensive Brown/Neutra correspondence as well as on its role in modern American architecture. J. Carter Brown has contributed personal recollections about growing up in Windshield. Distributed for the Harvard University Graduate School of Design