HISTORY

Based on archival letters and correspondence, the Connells first became aware of Richard Neutra while living in San Marino, a small Southern California city south of Pasadena, where Arthur Connell, a professional photographer, owned a camera store. While there is no known correspondence in the Connell House file at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) prior to April 25, 1957, his daughter Alexandra Connell recounted her father’s strong sense of aesthetics based on his many activities in photography, the arts, and architecture, leading to his strong admiration for Neutra’s work. Though by the 1950s Neutra was internationally famous, the Connells decided to approach him, initially visiting his Silverlake home and practice.

Neutra was immersed in one of the most productive periods of his career, designing twenty-seven built projects between 1957, when the Connells contacted him, and 1958, when the family moved in. The single-family suburban dwellings designed during this period became known as Neutra’s “Golden Era” of house design. Often naturally finished wood post-and-beam, these houses were more relaxed than his earlier work, characterized as a series of planes set into their surroundings in contrast to his earlier white interlocking volumes of the 1930s.

The Connells purchased the Pebble Beach lot for $13,000. Their primary goal was to create a home that was so fitted to its sloping site that it almost disappeared into the land. In part, this objective also reflected a desire to have a minimum impact on the site, as Alexandra Connell noted. (4) During this time Arthur Connell co-founded Friends of Photography with photographers Brett Weston (Edward Weston’s son), Imogen Cunningham, and Ansel Adams, with whom Connell had taken master classes. Connell and Weston were close friends, often photographing and camping together, deepening the Connell family’s deep affection for the rugged topography and seascape of Carmel and Monterey. 

Overlooking the Pacific Ocean and surrounded by two signature golf courses, the Connell House occupied a commanding site in Pebble Beach, Monterey County, lying near the historic 17 Mile Drive and facing the rugged Cypress Point and the ocean.6 Within the canon of Neutra’s deluxe upscale dwellings, only a handful have enjoyed such sites so privileged in striking natural terrain. (7) Here, the dwelling's Pebble Beach setting, with its dunes and wind-pruned trees, was a perfect fit for Neutra, whose background in landscape architecture sharpened his appreciation for special sites. 

One of the chief tenets of Modernism is the Wrightian “breaking” of the boundary between indoors and out. In all of Neutra’s work the role of the site and the setting was paramount. Neutra invariably intended to enhance qualities of human well-being by designing houses that melded with nature and the landscape. In many of his single-family free-standing houses including the Connell House, he incorporated the experience of nature at a variety of scales—nature near, nature.at mid-range, and nature distant—to animate interaction with the outdoors. Here, the Connell house itself was an important part, and only one part, of a larger composition.

Neutra’s first gesture was to orient the house to face the spectacular view to the west. A garden courtyard, forming the hollow of the U-shaped upper level, was still bordered by the grape-stake fence. This courtyard acted as the most intimate part of the setting. Conceived in the manner of a Japanese rock garden, a Connell wish that included sand hand-raked by Arthur Connell, the garden also implemented the “nature near” quality Neutra desired. (9) While the original plan called for a solid wall on the east, enclosing the garden, budgetary constraints forced the Connells to erect wood fencing, necessary to keep the deer out, they wrote Neutra. (10) 

Mature juniper bushes and large boulders, characteristic of Neutra’s settings, were also present. He consistently employed boulders as devices to contrast the smooth machined finishes of the industrialized world with the rough textures found in nature. Boulders were features of residences such as the Tremaine and Kaufmann villas and small speculative dwellings such as the Hailey House, Los Angeles, 1959 as well as present in public buildings such as the former Garden Grove Community Church, Garden Grove, 1962 (now the Arboretum), and the Orange County Courthouse, Santa Ana, 1968. The extant staggered zig-zag entrance was a Neutra feature intended to decelerate a visitor’s approach to the house, here exaggerated to six quarter-turns.(11)

Based on life style and programming needs defined by the Connells, Neutra began designing the house in late April 1957, with a final print set dated July 1957. Lead project architect John Blanton and others in the busy office drew the design development and construction document drawings and served as liaison as required. Neutra also advised the Connells on general landscaping. He was concerned, for example, about the Connells’ privacy from Signal Hill Road, especially the view of the “private patio and east windows... Mr. Neutra is very interested in contacting a very good nurseryman in this area to see what can be planted that will grow tall enough to alleviate this condition.” (20) Landscape contractors Solomon and Hoy got the job, with principal George Hoy praising Neutra’s “very distinguished work.” (21) The Connells’ own sensitivity to the unique setting led to planting native and compatible plants, shrubs, and trees, intended to harmonize with existing landscape. According to Neutra office site visit notes, the Connells intended to “plant some cypress trees near the entry.” (22) Connell planted several cypress trees from seed. (23)

The building was constructed by the Monterey-based general contractor Harold C. Geyer, with the Neutra office providing commentary, site visits, and suggestions on a frequent and regular basis. The Connells selected subdued tones of greygreens, sand, and off-white for the house to further nestle the house into the landscape. As was typical with many Neutra houses, especially those away from Southern California, some minor alterations to the plans occurred during construction. These included flipping the casement windows from one side of the regularly spaced posts on the west elevation to the other side of the post (although the rhythm alternating casement and fixed windows was retained) and the elimination of the exterior light strip on the west elevation in favor of spot lights. (24) The Connells also decided against Neutra’s specification for a steel “Slidemaster” door in favor of an aluminum Arcadia door because of their concern for corrosion in this oceanside climate, although their framing, spacing, and openings remained as Neutra designed them. Near the end of August 1958, the Connells took possession of the house, stating enthusiastically that they “would not change one stick.” (25) According to daughter Alexandra Connell, the family changed nothing.

The Connell House was featured in a four-page spread in World and Dwelling, a book of selected Neutra houses published in Germany in 1962.26 Alexandra Connell said that the family loved living in the house, with the “uninterrupted views, and the [visual] exposure to the weather.” The Connells finally sold their home when their daughters grew up and moved away, and they were spending time in Fiji, where for decades they nurtured a school they had established.

As originally constructed, the house was a low one- and two-story residence. In 1978 the kitchen, situated next to the dining room on the upper floor, was remodeled for property owners Clifford and Patricia Mettler. The Mettlers had acquired the property in September 1975 from William and Audrey Mennan, who purchased it from the Connells in April 1973. During the course of the work, the four casement-combination windows on the west side of the kitchen and adjoining utility rooms were possibly replaced. The original plans from Neutra’s office show four windows, each a single-light casement to the south of a single fixed-light window. A hand-written note on the back of a snapshot of construction progress, dated July 7, 1958, in the Connell House file at UCLA, stated that the “complete window frames” had been approved by Arthur Connell, even though “casement windows on wrong side of posts.” (27) 

The residence originally featured a service yard at the southwest corner of the upper level, enclosed on the east and north by the house itself, and on the west by a nineteen-foot long wing wall that extended south from the west side of the building envelope. An early floor-plan sketch from Neutra’s office shows the service yard marked as such and annotated, in parentheses, as “Future Maid’s Room.” (28) In 1992 the Carmel architect Edward M. Hicks designed a plan to enclose the yard and create 220-square-foot “studio addition” for William and Audrey Mettler. The addition, constructed the following year, extended the house approximately five feet beyond the garage wall and slightly more than a foot beyond end of the wing wall and retained all existing walls, as well as the old doorway at the east end of the north side of the former service yard, which provided passage between the studio and the rest of the house. An entry door was set in the wall perpendicular to the garage, while nearly the entire southern exposure of the studio was filled by a large single-light fixed window and a small adjoining single-light casement. From the early stages of planning, it appears that Neutra may have anticipated the construction of a room where the service yard stood. 

Quite likely at the same time as the addition was built, alterations were made to the band of windows on the lower level of the west elevation and to the large fixed lights on the upper level of the same side. As built, the house contained seven sets of louvered windows on the lower floor, each located to the south of a sliding door or fixed light. A 1958 photograph shows a long ribbon of glass composed of two sliding doors, six fixed windows—four of them above Masonite panels and three of them floor to ceiling—and seven jalousies. Presumably in 1993, when the addition was built, all of the louvered windows were removed. Three of the jalousies—one above a Masonite panel and two floor to ceiling— were replaced with narrow double-hung and casement windows, the work retaining the vertical window bar between fixed and operable lights. Four of the louvers were replaced by large fixed windows that took the place of a smaller fixed light and an adjoining jalousie, interrupting the pleasing rhythm of the windows. It was likely at this time that two of the four Masonite panels, at the northern end of the west elevation, were also replaced and the large fixed-glass windows on the upper floor set into aluminum channels. 

4 Alexandra Connell, daughter of Arthur and Kathleen Connell, telephone interview by Barbara Lamprecht, January 3, 2014.

5 Alexandra Connell was away at school at the time and could not confirm that the visit occurred.

6 The 17 Mile Drive opened in 1881.

7 These are Kaufmann Desert House, Palm Springs, 1947; Tremaine House, Santa Barbara, 1948; Maslon House, Rancho Mirage, 1963; Rentsch Villa, Wengen, Switzerland, 1964; Rice House, Richmond, Virginia, 1965, designed for Ambassador Walter Rice and his wife Inge; and Bucerius Villa, Lake Maggiore, Switzerland, 1966, designed for German politician and journalist Gerd Bucerius, a founding publisher of Die Zeit, Germany’s leading newspaper. While four of these properties have been meticulously maintained or restored, the luxuriously appointed Maslon

House, exquisitely sited the 17th hole between two fairways on the fabled Tamarisk Country Club golf course, was torn down one week after a permit was issued for its demolition. Neutra’s genius in selecting or addressing sites sometimes proved fatal to his buildings.

8 Page and Turnbull, Pebble Beach Historic Context Statement (San Francisco: Page and Turnbull, August 29, 2013), 15, 50, 52.

9 Neutra office notes, September 1, 1958, Box 1660, UCLA.

10 The original grape-stake fencing was photographed by Arthur Connell; see also Connell’s letter to Neutra office, October 31, 1957, Box 1660, UCLA.

11 This is a strategy Neutra gleaned from his visit to Japan in 1930, earlier established with his apprenticeship in 1921 with Gustav Amman.

12 The original broom-finished concrete terrace has been replaced, although the footprint of the original appears to have been retained.

13 While the retention of the Formica countertop cannot be confirmed, the fireplace/barbeque is intact.

14 Connell House File, Box 1716, Roll 725, UCLA.

15 Connell House File, Box 1716, Roll 725, UCLA.

16 Connell House File, Box 1716, Roll 725, UCLA.

17 The earliest correspondence present in the Archives is dated April 25, 1967, Box 1660, UCLA.

18 John Blanton, telephone interview by Barbara Lamprecht, December 26, 2013.

19 These preliminary sketches include approximately twelve perspective drawings, ten sketches of stepped approaches and topographical studies, and eight floor plans. Connell House File, Box 1716, Roll 725, Richard and Dion Neutra Papers, Collection 1179, Charles E. Young Research Library, Special Collections, University of California, Los Angeles (hereafter Box 1716, Roll 725, UCLA).

20 Richard Neutra via George Blanton to Arthur and Kathleen Connell, June 3, 1957, Box 1716, UCLA.

21 George Hoy to Richard Neutra, Connell House File, Box 1660, Richard and Dion Neutra Papers, Collection 1179, Charles E. Young Research Library, Special Collections, University of California, Los Angeles (hereafter Box 1660, UCLA).

22 “Record of Supervision Visits,” Visit No. 5, Sept. 1, 1958, Box 1660, UCLA.

23 Connell House File, Box 1716, Roll 725, UCLA.

24 For budget reasons the Connells also elected to forego exterior light strips at the edge of overhangs, another typical Neutra feature intended to evenly light exterior balconies. Richard Neutra to Arthur and Kathleen Connell, October 29, 1957, and March 12, 1958; Arthur Connell to John Blanton, March 14, 1958, Box 1660, UCLA. Several other Neutra clients made the same decision, such as Herbert Kronish for his lavishly appointed home in Beverly

Hills, constructed 1955.

25 Richard Neutra to Arthur and Kathleen Connell, October 29, 1957, and March 12, 1958; Arthur Connell to John Blanton, March 14, 1958, Box 1660, UCLA.

26 Richard Neutra, World and Dwelling (Stuttgart: Verlagsanstalt Alexander Koch, GmBH, 1962), 104-107.

27 Notation by John Blanton on the back of snapshot of construction progress, Box 1660, UCLA.

28 Connell House floor plan, Box 1660, UCLA.