Windshield and the Neutra Legacy- Reflections of Dion Neutra

I'd like to dedicate these remarks to J. Carter Brown, friend to the Neutra family, and son of the clients who commissioned Windshield. When I heard of his illness I was happy to stand in for him. We are all the poorer for his not being able to be here to speak of his personal relationship with the object of this beautiful exhibition. May we observe a moment of quiet in silent contemplation of this good man who suffers in Boston; let's send our joint healing energy that he gains the strength to struggle successfully with his illness…….[pause; sending silent prayers]

I'd like to tell you of my own memories and relationship to Windshield; show you some slides of other parts of our practice including buildings that I designed after my dad's passing in 1970, and finish with some remarks about the future of examples of the Neutra practice.

I well remember the phone call. It came in the late 30s on a Sunday morning. My mom called out to my dad; "There's a gentleman calling from Newport asking if you could visit his site soon to consider designing a house.' My dad calls out; "I could meet him on the lot this afternoon, if he has time!" My mom; after a sort pause and consultation with the prospect on the phone: 'that's Newport, Rhode Island!'.

And so started a remarkable saga; this was by far the largest commission my dad had ever had in his practice; now about 10 years old. The rest of the story is chronicled here in this remarkable exhibition put together by the efforts of many people, notably Carter Brown with what he had put together over the years and Dietrich Neumann, of Brown University in Rhode Island, who is here this evening; will you stand and be recognized, Dietrich?

To my knowledge, the genesis of this show actually happened in late '91 or early '92 when I told Carter that I was planning a series of gala events to commemorate my dad's Centennial which came in 1992. Of many events that year, a high point was a series sponsored at UCLA including a presentation by Carter Brown. For that, he spent some weeks doing research in the UCLA archives where resides the entire record of this remarkable project which came to be known as 'Windshield'.

As a result of that research, Carter was able to put together a video where he chronicled the life of this house during its gestation and design, as well as its life thereafter up to its destruction by fire on New Years eve, 1973. It is on display here; worth watching if you have the time. The rest of this exhibition is a direct outgrowth of that effort.

Let me run through a few slides. Everyone loves images; it's our shorthand of what architecture is about.

[Slides]

So there you have it; the visuals.

Are people sufficiently outraged about what happened in Rancho Mirage to want to put a stop to such wanton destruction of priceless resources? How to go about this? I invite your input; write me care of our website Neutra.org.

What's the future? I'm hoping to do some lobbying tomorrow and Wednesday. The idea is to line up a sufficient number of congress people to where an appeal can be made directly to the executive to STOP the juggernaut of the National Park Service in their intent to add yet another Neutra to the list of destroyed monuments. Can anyone in this audience help? Again, write me, or speak to me afterwards; I badly need entre to Congress and Senate people.

Are we going to sit idly by and wait to wring our hands yet again about the loss of an irreplaceable example of the Neutra oeuvre?

I'd welcome your comments and questions. Thank you for the opportunity to be here.

[Remarks at the opening of ‘Windshield’ exhibition at the National Building Museum, DC 6/10/02]