Buena Park Swim Stadium and Recreation Center

Buena Park Swim Stadium and Recreation Center

For this project Neutra designed an entrance that allowed the visitor to pass “humbly and modestly” through the landscaping, in contrast to historic open-air baths like those in Vienna, Prague, and Budapest which he observed have “often been psychologically distorted and concealed behind a monumental front.” He sought to achieve an informality in opposition to what he referred to as “pretentious Roman Thermae.” Beyond the entrance, a simple structure is Miesian in its character, with a roof floating above a long rusticated-brick wall. While these intersecting planes and lines seem independent, their carefully calculated positioning achieves a satisfying tension.

Adapted from Neutra – Complete Works by Barbara Lamprecht (Taschen, 2000), p. 388.