Hollin Hills is listed on the National Register of Historic Places in part because it is the largest collection of International Style homes in the country designed by a single architect — Charles M. Goodman — and built by a single developer — Robert Davenport — in a style now popularly known as Mid-Century Modern. But it by no means is the only concentration of such homes.

There are numerous examples of homes inspired by the International Style, not necessarily confined to a single neighborhood but clustered in communities across America. They were designed by noted architects and reflect the diverse character of the terrain, the climate, the historic heritage of the area, the tastes and income of the owners for whom they were built, and the evolution of the Modern style of architecture itself.

This is the first in a series to consider residential architecture elsewhere built in a style inspired by the same influences that inspired Charles Goodman. Doing so will hopefully increase our understanding of our own neighborhood and tempt us to do a little exploring on our own.

Southern California

Like so many trends in 20th century America, the International Style in architecture first appeared in Southern California. This was largely due to the efforts of three architects: Irving Gill, Rudolph Schindler, and Richard Neutra. None of these men studied architecture in this region. Rather they migrated there after doing so elsewhere. All of them were inspired by, and worked for, Frank Lloyd Wright. But as their careers progressed, they moved away from Wright’s Arts and Crafts-inspired style toward what would become known as the International Style.

Irving Gill (1870-1936)

Born near Syracuse, New York, Irving Gill moved to Chicago in 1890 to study architecture via on-the-job training with the firm of Adler & Sullivan. He worked directly for Frank Lloyd Wright and under the tutelage of Louis Sullivan, considered to be the foremost father of the high rise office building. In 1893, Gill moved to San Diego to recover his health and to practice architecture.

After designing houses in the then-popular Shingle and Prairie styles, Gill developed his own distinctive approach. He was intrigued by concrete as his basic method of construction. Inspired by the reform spirit of the emerging Progressive Era and the focus on efficiency in industry, as well as by his Quaker upbringing, he wanted to design homes that were simple, easy to keep clean, and had a minimum of ornamentation. Most importantly, he was impressed by the Spanish-inspired design of adobe homes and churches in the region.

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Beginning in 1910, he designed a series of homes that looked like crisp, more substantial versions of adobe buildings: white or off-white exteriors, with concrete walls and floors, flat roofs, no overhang, no ornament inside or out, often featuring arcades and walled gardens, but with modern touches such as metal-framed casement windows. Architectural historian Thomas Hines says of these “residential masterworks” that they “rivaled, or surpassed, in historic importance any modernist structures being built” anywhere else in the world at this time.

It appears that Gill came up with these designs solely on his own, contrary to his claim to have been inspired by Sullivan and Wright. His designs anticipated the tenets of the International Style, a term not even used until the early 1930s. Unfortunately, his career suffered from his being rejected as the chief architect for the 1915 Panama-California Exposition, celebrating completion of the Panama Canal. The architect chosen instead developed a florid style rich with ornamentation that led to the popularity of various Mission Revival styles thereafter. Nevertheless, twelve of Gill’s buildings are listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and roughly 90 of the homes he designed were built in Southern California, along with many commercial and cultural buildings.

Rudolph Schindler (1887-1953)

Born in Vienna, Rudolph Schindler studied architecture in Austria under the emerging modernists Otto Wagner and Adolf Loos. He was inspired to emigrate to America in 1914 by Loos, who was a strong advocate of new architectural trends there, and because Schindler had been inspired by the famous Wasmuth Portfolio published in Germany in 1910 to showcase Frank Lloyd Wright’s Prairie Style. He arrived here just before World War One began, thereby avoiding the trauma it brought to his countrymen in Austria.

Schindler initially moved to Chicago to work under Wright and then followed him to Los Angeles, where he assisted in the design and construction of the complex of buildings at Hollyhock House while Wright was in Tokyo working on his Imperial Hotel. Schindler then went out on his own, starting by designing his own home in West Hollywood (just two blocks from Irving Gill’s Dodge House).

Schindler’s home, in which he lived for the remainder of his career, is known as the King’s Road house. It became known as the first International Style home built in the United States, with a very simple rectangular structure, consisting of two residences, made of unfinished concrete, redwood, canvas and glass, with no ornamentation. Each occupant had a studio room, sleeping porches were located on the roof, there is a shared kitchen, and the main rooms have large sliding doors that open onto sheltered patios which function as outdoor rooms.

Schindler’s most famous residence was designed only three years later, the Lovell Beach House in Newport Beach, considered by architectural historian Thomas Hines to be “one of modernism’s major monuments.” It differs from the pure International Style in its use of concrete, load-bearing walls and an interior chopped up into many rooms, but it was unquestionably modern and dramatically different from any other homes in the region.

Schindler’s career did not flourish as he had hoped. Many clients were radical intellectuals and artists with limited funds. To design houses they could afford, he used cheaper materials, switched from concrete to wood frame and stucco walls, and occasionally employed shoddy construction practices. Viewed as laid back and casual, he also had a prickly personality. To the end, he denied that he designed in the International Style, instead following the inspiration of Frank Lloyd Wright. His homes generally exhibited more structural variation than the simple geometry of the International Style, and he abandoned the use of flat roofs. Over the course of his career, he designed 500 homes of which 150 were built, almost all in Southern California.

Richard Neutra (1892-1970)

Also born in Vienna, Richard Neutra was raised in a prosperous home peopled by the artists and intellectuals that flourished in that city before the Great War. He became friends with Rudolph Schindler when they studied architecture under Otto Wagner and Adolf Loos. But unlike Schindler, Neutra stayed in Austria and suffered the trauma of war, serving as an artillery office on the Balkan front and contracting malaria and TB in the process.

Before migrating to America in 1923, Neutra worked in Berlin for the German modernist architect Eric Mendelsohn. While there, he become acquainted with the emerging Bauhaus School of design. He came to America for the same reasons that Schindler did, as well as in response to Schindler’s urging him to do so. Neutra first worked for Frank Lloyd Wright in Chicago and taught briefly as Wright’s Taliesen compound before moving to Southern California, living in Schindler’s King’s Road home and forming a partnership with him.

Neutra designed homes that anticipated the International Style from the very beginning, rejecting Frank Lloyd Wright’s love of masonry and ornament. Neutra wanted to create homes that were simple, modular, with a light weight skeletal frame, that featured industrialized components, and integrated the indoors and outdoors. He varied his specific materials and design based on client and location, but his approach was the same.

Neutra’s most famous residence was the Lovell Health House, built in 1929. It was the first home built in America with a steel frame, with white walls made of Gunite and such industrial style features as interior lights made from headlamps in the Model A Ford. When it was completed, the proud owner invited Angelenos to tour it, and thousands responded. This building made Neutra’s career, enabling him to enjoy a flourishing architectural practice over the next four decades. It also served as a major factor in rupturing his friendship with Schindler, who had designed the Lovell Beach House for the same customer.

Neutra even managed to attract commissions for expensive homes during the Depression. These came from the Hollywood movie colony, since motion pictures flourished during that era as a form of escapism for the public. His design concepts formed the basis for the pioneering Case Study House program in Southern California following World War Two that imprinted the International Style in the American consciousness and fomented the spread of Mid-Century Modern homes. Eventually he would be featured on the cover of Time. By the end of his career 197 of his designs for homes were constructed, of which 138 were in Southern California, along with numerous commercial and cultural structures. He designed one home in Washington, DC, the Ann & Donald Brown house at 3005 Audubon Terrace NW.

Conclusion

These three great architects did not operate in a vacuum. All three were influenced by Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright. Schindler and Neutra studied under Otto Wagner and Adolf Loos, and Neutra worked for Eric Mendelsohn. They also influenced each other. Schindler’s home was two blocks from one of Gill’s most well-known houses, and Schindler’s first house mate in his duplex was a man who constructed many of Gill’s homes. Schindler and Neutra were partners for a brief period. And Neutra, who was a prolific author in espousing his theories of architecture, introduced Irving Gill to Europe in one of his books.

A new force for Modernism arrived in America in the 1930s, as members of the Bauhaus School fled Hitler’s Germany. Had it not been for their arrival, Gill, Schindler, and Neutra would be the unchallenged founders of the International Style in this country.