Nestled into a hillside in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Mount Washington, this 1961 post-and-beam home is a classic, simple, midcentury fusion of wood and glass. But as architect Sonya Lee began renovating it, the bittersweet story of the home’s original designer, Kazuo Umemoto, came into focus. The house is special not only for its design but because it is a singular work in its noteworthy creator’s career.
Umemoto was born in 1925 in L.A. to Japanese immigrants, and while he was a teen during World Warat the end of World War II and later during the Korean War.
