David and Berdine Treweek House

David and Berdine Treweek House

David and Berdine Treweek’s house is a member of the Silver Lake Colony. The two-story home is distinguished by its many terraces which extend both to the west, embracing views of the lake, and to the south, serving as a buffer between the house and the rest of the neighborhood. According to an office memo, the ground floor was designed to permit “all services [to] be done by the hostess,” and the floor plan allows for easy access between the laundry and kitchen areas and the dining area. In the kitchen area, a built-in breakfast niche complemented the birch cabinetry and cork tile floors while beyond the dining area, a large patio to the south was frequently used for outdoor dining. Neutra placed a row of eucalyptus beyond this south patio to enhance the property’s privacy.  The dining and living areas are divided by a free-standing fireplace composed of rose- and buff-colored stones that resemble those used for the outside terrace walls which could be seen through the sliding glass doors. On the second floor, Neutra designed two bedrooms that serve as independent suites: each run along the entire east-west length of the house and have access to their own bathrooms and private terraces. Including the furniture, the building cost a total of $45,000. Five months after the house was completed, Berdine Treweek wrote to Neutra: “Living in a house whose design and character has been modeled by you has things to offer that people can never appreciate until they enjoy the experience of living with it every day… there is a better way to live at home and enjoy it.”

Adapted from Neutra – Complete Works by Barbara Lamprecht (Taschen, 2000), p. 208.