Maurice and Marceil Taylor House

Maurice and Marceil Taylor House

For Maurice and Marceil Taylor, Richard Neutra designed a narrow house suited to its site, a thin strip of land in Glendale. While it is located in a more dense, suburban environment, the elevation and orientation of the lot give the house a sense of privacy. Preserving the trees on the property, Neutra designed the house to engage with these natural elements, and the many glass walls in the building provide panoramas of gnarled oaks and the squirrels that scramble through their branches. Inside, open spaces are maintained by minimizing the use of doors as barriers, and none block entry to the master bedroom. Spaces are defined instead through the use of built-in, mahogany cabinets specific to each area’s purpose. A Roman brick-and-plaster fireplace has sculptural identity with a floating hearth. The master bathroom’s sunken tub is set beneath a glass wall, offering views of the outdoors and the wildlife that inhabit them.

Adapted from Neutra – Complete Works by Barbara Lamprecht (Taschen, 2000), p. 434.