Strathmore Apartments
- Architect
- Richard Neutra
- Style
- International Style
- City
- Los Angeles, CA
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The Strathmore Apartments is an 8-unit complex at 11005-11013 1/2 Strathmore Drive in Westwood, designed in 1937 by Richard Neutra in the International Style. A landowner originally commissioned Neutra for a 4-unit building; when the lot next door became available, Neutra added four more units for himself. The complex belongs to a cluster of Neutra apartment buildings in northwest Westwood Village that also includes the Landfair, Elkay, and Kelton Apartments.
the building
A complex built in two halves. Neutra was hired to design four units, then expanded the project into eight when an adjacent lot opened up, keeping a set of units for his own family. The result includes a modern bungalow court arrangement within the complex.
Famous tenants. Early residents included Case Study House program founder John Entenza, Charles and Ray Eames, actress Luise Rainer, playwright Clifford Odets, and Orson Welles — though Rainer and other early occupants, including Neutra's own extended family, reportedly called the International Style architecture 'cold' and 'industrial.'
Later conversion to condos. UCLA oceanographic and atmospheric scientists and a mathematician later converted four of the eight units into condominiums, believed to be the first and only conversion of its kind at the property.
the style
The Strathmore is an International Style building — stripped, glazed massing legible from the street — though its own early tenants, including Neutra's relatives and actress Luise Rainer, found the look 'cold' and 'industrial' rather than fashionable.
More on International Stylethe architect
Richard Neutra was a Los Angeles-based modernist architect who designed a cluster of apartment buildings in northwest Westwood Village in the 1930s, including the Landfair, Elkay, and Kelton Apartments alongside the Strathmore — a rare case of one architect shaping several buildings on the same few blocks.
More on Richard Neutrasignificance
The Strathmore Apartments hold individual designation as Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument #351 and are listed on the National Register of Historic Places, both dated to 1988.
more by Richard Neutra
nearby
- Sheats Apartments
- Regency Village Theatre
- Janss Investment Company Building
- UCLA MacDonald Medical Research Laboratory
- Bratskeller - Egyptian Theater (Ralphs Grocery Store)
- Wilshire Federal Building