William and Melba Beard House

William and Melba Beard House

While Richard Neutra had experimented with construction materials and techniques in previous projects, covering steel frames in Gunite, he broke with the tradition of adding cladding to the frame with his design for William and Melba Beard’s house. Here, he used a system devised by the Los Angeles architect and contractor Vincent Palmer to create load-bearing walls, cantilevering them from the foundation and welding them to roof decking so that they better endured wind and earthquakes. Neutra believed corrugated steel decking used on the roof would allow the structure to inhale and exhale, encouraging the circulation of air. This all-steel design was particularly appealing to the Beards given the house’s location in the San Gabriel mountains which were vulnerable to forest fires. The architect frequently used biological metaphors for his designs, and he compared the Beards’ house to a beetle, suggesting the sturdiness of its shell. As if to announce the house’s steel substructure, its exterior was initially painted in a reflective aluminum hue, although neighbors’ complaints led to a change. Among the other experiential elements of the Beards’ house was a special glass that was intended to reduce the warming effects of the sun. Instead, radiantly floors and panels allowed for the controlled heating of the house with a system Neutra compared to a Roman bath. The house also included early examples of sliding glass and steel doors which would become a mainstay of Neutra’s later work. Expansive views through these doors and other glass windows offered a panorama of surrounding mountains. The house’s layout conformed to the slope of the hill, and its proportions, such as the nine-foot-high ceilings, were scaled to encourage livability. Although Neutra and the Beards explored the possibility of an addition in 1947, the project was ultimately abandoned.

Adapted from Neutra – Complete Works by Barbara Lamprecht (Taschen, 2000), p. 108.