The Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday added the Reunion House, by prominent modernist architect, Richard Neutra, to the city’s list of Historic-Cultural Monuments. 

The hillside residence was built in 1950 and sits at 2440 Neutra Place in Silver Lake. It was built as a speculative house, designed to accommodate grandparents and visiting family members, hence the name Reunion. 

The Neutra family bought the home in 1963, and in 1966, it was transferred to Richard’s son Dion who lived there until his death in 2019. Dion, also an accomplished architect, trained under his father starting at the age of 11. He studied at the USC School of Architecture, where he graduated in 1950. Neutra went on to work in his father’s firm, where the pair worked together through the 1950s. He became a partner of the practice in 1965 and led the company following his father’s death in 1970. Over decades, minor alterations were made on the house by both Richard and Dion. Most notably, Dion added an apartment over the garage in 1968.

The home is hidden by abundant vegetation and as stated on the nomination form it is "an excellent example of a single-family dwelling in the Mid-Century Modern architectural style, and a highly intact work by architects Richard and Dion Neutra."

"The property represents the progression of Richard Neutra's innovative design concepts for small but flexible residential dwellings,” reads the nomination form. “Despite its modest size, the residence features many elements of Richard Neutra's evolving vocabulary, including the use of contrasting glass and stucco planes, projecting beams extending beyond the building envelope and deep overhangs with strip lighting at the edges."

Consideration for the Reunion House’s designation as Historic-Cultural monument began in November of last year. It was nominated by Raymond Neutra, the younger brother of Dion and president of the family non-profit, The Neutra Institute for Survival Through Design. According to The Eastsider, the nominators claim the property remains highly intact and its integrity of location, design, setting, materials, and workmanship have been retained. 

“I just want to emphasize how the Neutra Institute hopes to use this historic monument, not only as an artistic object but also as a reason for beginning further conversation on topics that are important now, and this relates to multi-family housing and multi-generational housing and (accessory dwelling units) and also the housing of people as they increase in age and the ability to take care of people as they become ill,” Raymond Neutra told the commission.

“My brother Dion ended his life in this building, and his wife currently is in hospice care, and this design that was done 70 years ago is wonderfully compatible for that.”