The past year has not been especially kind to the memory of modern architect Richard Neutra, who died in 1970. One of his best known residences, the 1962 Maslon House in Rancho Mirage, Calif., was torn down in March. The National Park Service threw its support behind a plan to demolish Neutra's 1961 Cyclorama Center at Gettysburg National Military Park.

But at least one Neutra building is ending the year in better shape than it began.

St. John's College in Annapolis has completed a $12.9 million restoration and modernization of Mellon Hall, the 1959 classroom and laboratory building that the California-based architect designed for its campus. Now, because of the college's efforts, one of the few remaining Neutra buildings on the East Coast has a secure future, and St. John's has a modern classic enhanced by sensitively designed improvements that make it more useful than ever.

St. John's is better known for its classic books than its classic buildings, modern or otherwise. All students are required to focus their studies on approximately 130 "Great Books." Many people who drive by the campus, with its signature Georgian buildings along College Avenue, don't realize it contains one of the first examples of modern architecture in Annapolis, much less a building by the noted architect Richard Neutra.

Unconventional choice

Neutra and St. John's came together when the architect was invited to give a lecture on campus in April of 1954. The college, which traces its history to the founding of King William's School in 1696, was planning to expand on the north end of campus by building classrooms, laboratories and a large auditorium.

Born in Vienna, Austria, in 1892 and educated in the universities of Vienna and Zurich, Neutra (pronounced NOY-tra) had come to America in 1923 to practice architecture. He settled in California and made his mark with simple structures that had flat roofs and expansive glass window walls that showed off the surroundings. One of the few architects ever featured on the cover of Time magazine, he was particularly known for blurring the lines between the interior and exterior of a building. "Place man in relationship with nature," he said. "That's where he developed and where he feels most at home."

When he came to St. John's, Neutra was at the peak of his popularity. A recent article in Time magazine described him as second "only to the lordly Frank Lloyd Wright," with whom he studied. His lecture at St. John's was part of a speaking tour to promote his book, Survival Through Design, which outlined his approach to architecture. In it, he argued that modern architecture must go beyond providing shelter and act as a social force to improve mankind.

"Neutra created a unique and visionary architecture that integrated nature, environmental responsibility, science, technology and an optimistic humanism," said Steve Ziger, a partner in the firm of Ziger/Snead Architects, which was hired in 1999 to carry out the renovation. "He established an eloquent and dramatic relationship between modern building technology and carefully controlled landscapes."

St. John's president, Richard Weigle, was impressed with Neutra's views. He also saw the potential benefit of having a celebrity architect design the college's new building, which would be the largest on campus. Neutra, meanwhile, wanted more work on the East Coast. One year after the lecture in Annapolis, he and partner Robert Alexander signed a contract to design the St. John's building for considerably less than their regular fee. Cochran, Stephenson and Wing of Baltimore, headed by leading Maryland modernist Alexander Cochran, was the associate architect.

It was an unconventional choice for St. John's and Annapolis, so steeped in Colonial history. But it suited the governors of the college, who wanted to contribute to the campus the best in contemporary architecture, not a rehash of buildings from another age. The selection also won support from donors such as philanthropist Paul Mellon, a St. John's graduate whose Old Dominion Foundation gave $1.25 million toward construction, more than half the total cost of $2.1 million.

Neutra traveled from Los Angeles to Annapolis and spent time on St. John's campus, consulting with faculty members, attending classes, learning about the Great Books program. He was clearly intrigued by its unique curriculum and position as a leader in liberal arts education - and saw the commission as a chance to express his ideas about architecture and education.

"A school," he said before his Annapolis lecture, "is essentially a container out of which organic life can bloom."

The faculty of St. John's "has this fascinating capacity of Time-binding," he subsequently wrote in a letter to Architectural Record magazine. "From the start we ... tried to grasp and express this faith in values that last beyond historic and modish relativities."

Acropolis and agora

The 99,000-square-foot building was designed to contain classrooms, offices, laboratories and an auditorium. Like many of Neutra's schools, it was a low, abstract building with a outdoor courtyard in the center, opening to a larger green space beyond. The building's large horizontal windows and relatively low scale helped integrate it with the campus, while making it seem smaller than it is. One of its distinctive features was a series of aluminum louvers, linked to motors that enabled occupants to open or close them depending on the amount of natural light they wanted.

Given the college's emphasis on classics, "it is likely that Neutra saw this long, U-shaped building enclosing a central court as an agora-like meeting place which complements the acropolis-like structures on the upper campus," Ziger said.

Despite Neutra's attention to detail, the completed building had its share of flaws. Its central court never got much use. Its long and unbroken corridors were monotonous and dark. The solar louvers, while innovative and environmentally responsible, broke down soon after opening day and were never fixed.

Mechanical and electrical systems were quickly outdated. Interior spaces lacked air conditioning. The roof leaked. The auditorium was inadequate. A reflecting pool around the planetarium couldn't hold water.

Later additions closed off the court and negated Neutra's effort to create a building that was open to its surroundings.

Part of the problem was that design ideas that worked in California may not have translated well to Maryland. A tight construction budget also led to shortcomings that would not have emerged if the building had been better funded from the start.

Asked to renovate and modernize the building, principal-in-charge Steve Ziger and project architect Joseph Cellucci aimed to capitalize on the best of Neutra's principles and designs and address as many of the flaws as possible. As part of the design process, the architects conducted extensive research on Neutra and consulted with his son, Dion, an architect who shared insights about his father's design philosophy.

"When we first took on the renovation, there was a generalized belief at the college that modern architecture was kind of evil, in part because of the problems with the building over the years," Cellucci said. "We thought we would be successful if we changed that perception."

Concepts saved

The renovations began in April 2001. As of this fall, the exterior has been completely restored, and the classrooms, offices and common spaces have been improved. Modern mechanical and electrical systems were installed. The auditorium got enhanced theater lighting, a better sound system, refurbished seats and improved lobby space. Even the louvers work again.

A red tile floor was installed to humanize and brighten once-dark corridors. A solarium cafe was created to add life to the center court, and a new wing was added along St. John's Street to house a pottery studio, darkroom and a teleconferencing and seminar center called the Hodson Trust Conference Room. Both the cafe and Hodson Trust wing are compatible with Neutra's original design.

Neutra, an environmentalist, would have liked the new cooling system in which basement-level tanks hold water and glycol, which are chilled to ice every night. During the day, air cooled by the ice is circulated through the building. The system is environmentally friendly because it makes ice at off-peak hours, saving the college energy and money.

Not every flaw has been addressed. The additions that closed in the center court were left in place, and will most likely remain. The reflecting pool still doesn't hold water. A conversation room off the auditorium was "post modernized" in a previous renovation and is now out of character with the rest of the building. Wood cabinets in certain hallways don't match the exceptional quality of woodwork in the Hodson Trust room. More improvements can still be made, when money becomes available.

For now, though, the recent changes have brought new luster to a modern classic. By working in harmony with the original architecture, rather than attempting to leave their own mark, Ziger Snead brought out the best characteristics of Neutra's design, while eliminating many of its shortcomings. In an era when other buildings by Richard Neutra face an uncertain future or are being altered beyond recognition, Mellon Hall is one building where his principles remain as clear as ever.