In 1959, a working-class government employee in the tiny desert town of Lone Pine, California, asked world-famous modern architect Richard Neutra to design his modest family home. To his surprise, Neutra agreed. Thus began an unlikely friendship that would last for the rest of Neutra’s life. The Oyler House: Richard Neutra’s Desert Retreat tells the story of this house and its stunning desert setting, through interviews with Richard Oyler, actress Kelly Lynch, who currently owns the house, Neutra's two sons, and well-known LA real estate agent Crosby Doe.
Director: Mike Dorsey
2012 / 46 min / USA  

This feature film will be screened in the Museum's Pension Commissioner's Suite. 

This feature film is followed by Windshield: A Vanished Vision.
Director: Elissa Brown
2016 / 46 min / USA
Windshield: A Vanished Vision reveals an intimate portrait of a 1930s patrician couple, a leading modern architect, and the story of the ill-fated house they create. John Nicholas Brown's fascination with modernism, innovation and the rapidly-evolving American building scene spurs him to commission what he hopes will be a “distinguished monument in the history of architecture.” Brown and his wife Anne, herself a daring and eccentric figure, select the young and ambitious Richard Neutra to build them a house that they name “Windshield.” Through an enormously detailed correspondence, patron and architect discuss every detail of the house’s design and together pursue cutting-edge technology, much of which had only previously been used in commercial architecture. Then, just weeks after the Browns move in, tragedy strikes. Windshield: A Vanished Vision explores the pivotal impact of the house on Neutra’s career and takes us on a journey with a couple caught between the values of their upbringings and their evolving social ideals. Visually supported by John Nicholas Browns’ evocative home movies, the film features J. Carter Brown’s inspiring lecture about the summer house of his youth and voices of architectural historians such as Thomas S. Hines and Dietrich Neumann.

1.0 LU (AIA)

The Architecture & Design Film Festival: D.C. is presented by the Revada Foundation, courtesy of the estates of Reva and David Logan.

$12 Museum | $10 Student | $15 Non-member | $125 All Access 

Click here to buy the all-access pass which includes the opening night, reception, and auto-registration to all 27 films.

Tickets can be purchased at the door when available.

Tickets are non-refundable and non-transferable.

Image Credit: Still from The Oyler House: Richard Neutra's Desert Retreat by Mike Dorsey, 2012.