The History

The Origin

In 1940, the International style arrived abruptly in the conservative Northwest when the celebrated Los Angeles architect Richard Neutra designed a house for Jan De Graaff. Jan and Peggy De Graaff were a wealthy young couple, he from the Netherlands and she from the fabulously wealthy New York City family that owned the Macy’s Department Store.  Having come to Portland to establish a bulb farm in the fertile farmland east of the city, the De Graaffs brought their international collection of contemporary paintings, furniture and artwork with them.  Equally knowledgeable in architecture as in the other arts, they turned to Richard Neutra, pioneer of the International style on the West Coast. Neutra would design for them Portland’s first residence in the style.  The design that Neutra presented, in association with local architect Van Evera Bailey, has all the International style characteristics…  The exterior emphasizes long horizontal bands of windows and similar expanses of vertical tongue-and-groove siding.  House design had become an abstract art, relying on floating planes of varying irregularity to achieve the asymmetrical balance.