Richard Neutra's Windshield House

Winner of the 2003 Philip Johnson Award given by the Society of Architectural Historians

In 1936, John Nicholas and Anne Brown commissioned Richard Neutra, the great Vienna-born architect, to design a summer house for them on Fishers Island, New York. Completed in 1938, Windshield (named for its large expanses of glass) was Neutra’s most significant residential building outside Los Angeles and the only one on the East Coast. A striking example of International Style architecture that featured many modern innovations, including two of R. Buckminster Fuller’s Dymaxion bathrooms, the house was severely damaged by a hurricane only weeks after its completion. The Browns rebuilt the house and continued to occupy it until 1959. The house was destroyed by fire in 1975.

This engaging publication, written by prominent scholars of contemporary architecture and design, is the first to focus on the collaborative design process for Windshield, as revealed by the extensive Brown/Neutra correspondence, as well as on its role in modern American architecture. J. Carter Brown has contributed personal recollections about growing up in Windshield.

Dietrich Neumann is a professor in the department of the history of art and architecture at Brown University. Joyce Botelho is director of the John Nicholas Brown Center for the Study of American Civilization at Brown University. Thomas S. Hines is professor of history and architecture at UCLA. Thomas Michie is curator of decorative arts at the RISD Museum. J. Carter Brown is the former director of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.