Texas Architect

Houston Legacy: Hugo V. Neuhaus, Jr.

Exhibit beautifully illustrates the modernist postwar houses designed for city's elite

On Aug. 2, more than 400 guests attended an opening preview of Houston Mod's third architectural exhibition, Hugo V. Neuhaus, Jr., Residential Architecture, 1948-1966, at Architecture Center Houston. Neuhaus was the premier gentleman architect for Houston's elite society in the 1950s. The exhibit includes selected items from the private collections of Olive Neuhaus Jenney (Neuhaus's widow) and Graham Luhn, FAIA (a Neuhaus associate for over 20 years), among others.

Accompanying the exhibit is a thoughtfully investigative short book authored by Ben Koush, comprising a series of essays, an illustrated catalogue, and a foreword by architectural historian Stephen Fox

Educated at Harvard's Graduate School of Design and a fellow classmate of Philip Johnson, Neuhaus, exposed to a Johnson-filtered Miesian doctrine, identified his own version of a Miesian modern rhetoric of "stability, nobility, and enduring value."

As Koush observes, these were, ironically, the same virtues previously associated with classical architecture. As the intention of modern architecture was to overthrow historicism and its associated class-conscious decorative detailing, this represents a fundamental irony. Johnson's "subversive skill in positioning Mies's architecture as the socially superior form of modern architecture by 1950 was matched by his efforts to infuse Miesian architecture with historical resonance, especially the memory of classical architecture," Fox writes in his foreword.

Contradictions between the conservative and progressive aspects of midcentury values are noted by Koush, who describes Neuhaus's adaptation of Mies's materials, construction methods, and sense of proportions, which he combined with ‘subtle, regional inflections' to make the work locationspecific and his own. "It is the "phenomenal attributes of Neuhaus's houses - their clarity, dignity, and proportioned generosity - that guarantee their status as admirable works of modern architecture... ," he adds.

Evidently, prevailing taste and sensibilities among 1950 Houston's privileged were characterized by this and other oppositions. The essay "Courtyard Houses in Texas: The Domestication of Miesian Architecture" describes Neuhaus's architecture as a reflection of those oppositions. Many of his houses "exhibit the tension between informality and the tendency towards order and restraint that continually animates Neuhaus's work," Koush observes. "The rational use of materials - solid brick load bearing walls that wrapped around glass-enclosed living areas under a roof supported by steel columns and beams - established a strong and contradictory relationship of open-to-closed and public-to-private in the Miesian courtyard house... "

In 1987, the year Neuhaus died, Anderson Todd, FAIA, wrote (as an epitaph for Cite) that Neuhaus's work "embodied all that was best about the modern movement." He notes that the separation of walls from structure and roof allowed for a free and open space, making "the individual one with his world... [a] world that could comfortably encompass various trappings and leftovers from the past."

Of his own work, Neuhaus wrote, "Order is a condition instantly recognizable to the human eye, deceptively simple in appearance but achieved only by constantly sifting away the extraneous." The catalogue portion of the book, "15 Houses 18 years," Koush demonstrates the breadth, variety, and high level of refinement Neuhaus brought to his practice: "Neuhaus, working in a city without a long established architectural culture, was able to reproduce in many of the exquisite Miesian courtyard houses he designed the qualities of ‘Baukunst' (literally, ‘building art'). They represent a rare and inspiring integration of a codified architectural language with ‘utilitarian aspects of building" in ways that referenced the distinctive social culture and [the] physical environment of Houston."

In spite of Houston's reputation for remarkable heat and humidity and unremarkable flatness, Neuhaus's houses without fail enjoy lushly vegetated and topographically eventful sites. He integrated his houses into that nature, carefully offering and framing views and, pushing the development of the courtyard house, cooling them and their owners with distinctively Houston touches - shaded porches and patios, delicate trellises, large-leaf subtropical plantings in biomorphic beds, and swimming pools.

In his concluding essay, Koush compares Neuhaus's achievements to Palladio's (an intentional classical reference) in applying "good form" to his clients' lives, elevating routine activities by formalizing them and thereby assuring their inheritance: "The social role of Neuhaus's glass walled pavilions, as well as his ranch type houses, was to reassert the relevance of Houston's established elites... [as having] a continuing role to play... by asserting leadership in matters of civic stewardship, cultural philanthropy, and resource conservation."

Neuhaus's architecture of elegant restraint and refined proportions was a good fit for Houston's elite who avoided drawing attention to themselves and whose wealth certainly could have materialized in showier edifices. Koush cautions in his closing words that "as Houstonians go about eradicating the city's cultural legacy of modern architecture, these houses face a particularly grave danger."

Of the 15 houses documented in the catalogue, seven appear in the exhibit curated by designer Don Emmite and installed in Architecture Center Houston's Walter P. Moore Gallery. To define the exhibit area within the open space of the gallery, Emmite used some of the gallery's props (i.e., rolling boxes) that he painted either charcoal or cantaloupe, which he describes as "a popular 1950s color making a comeback." The layout works very well.

As in the original Neuhaus House, the anticipation of the view is hidden upon entry by the location of solid walls (two of the boxes) bearing exhibition narratives. From here the main exhibit opens eastward in a uncoiling path, beginning with Neuhaus's own house.

The Neuhaus House 1949-50 is certainly the largest and most refined of those shown. Original drawings, on loan from the Houston Metropolitan Research Center, sit in protective cases. Stunning in their clarity and preservation, Neuhaus's drawings are reminiscent of a time when architects enjoyed making beautiful drawings by hand. They are composed - precise, black, hard lines for the house contrast with decidedly paler, free-hand lines depicting the landscape design. A vintage firm brochure sits with watercolor sketches by the landscape architect C.C. Fleming and an inkwash rendering by Neuhaus's partner, Herbert Cowell, FAIA,who at 93 remains an accomplished watercolorist.

Of certain interest are the construction documents displayed. Several references made in the essay's texts relay how carefully Koush examined these in researching Neuhaus's work. The sheets are as carefully composed as the buildings, reserving generous amounts of white (paper) framing each detail, revealing both the care that went into the construction information and the level of maintenance eventually bequeathed to the owners.

Models by University of Houston architectural students further illustrate the Neuhaus House, the Detering Bay House 1955-56, and the Letzerich Ranch House 1962-63.

Each house is described in large-scale vignettes - black-and-white photographs accurately depicting the house as the owner occupied it, often from their seated point-ofview. Emmite eliminated color from the photographs (when it existed) to unify the variety of the houses selected. The effect is successful and very readable. Graphically, the exhibit is quite sophisticated and achieves the serene experience that Emmite sought, which evokes the feeling of the actual houses.

The nonprofit Houston Mod is dedicated to promoting knowledge and the appreciation of modern architecture and design in Houston and Texas. Through education efforts such as this exhibit and book, Houston Mod encourages "careful preservation and conscientious rehabilitation" of Houston's modern architectural legacy. It is a sobering fact to note that, of the 15 houses documented, only eight remain.

--Val Glitsch, FAIA, is a TA contributing editor

Hugo V. Neuhaus, Jr., Residential Architecture, 1948-1966 remains at Architecture Center Houston through Sept. 28. Admission is free.