George and May Kambara commissioned this residence in 1961, barely a decade after wartime internment, when racial covenants struck down in 1948 were still informally practiced throughout Los Angeles. The Japanese-American couple worked with Richard Neutra as part of his experimental Neutra Colony development, where the architect made it a point to work with any client who wanted to build a house. Project architect Sergei Koschin, a White Russian aristocrat who had served as Le Corbusier's Moscow liaison for the Centrosoyuz project in the 1930s, brought direct connections to European modernism's most radical experiments.
The two-story board-and-batten structure rises from a Palos Verdes ashlar stone base, detailed with silver trim that extends to an exceptional interior application on one complete wall. Floor-to-ceiling glass opens the reservoir-facing side to expansive views, while an open stairway features wood treads suspended on thin steel rods for visual transparency. Neutra mixed the interior paint colors himself while standing before the silver wall, creating a bold counterpoint with an intense deep red family room wall and matching red linoleum stair treads. Thin vertical aluminum pipes flank the stepped windows outside, complemented by characteristic spider-leg outriggers.
