The Brown House: A Neutra Icon Where Architecture and Living Align

Tucked behind a long private drive at the top of Chalon Road, the Brown House is one of Richard Neutra’s most architecturally exacting and experientially rich residential works. Designed in 1955 for the Sidney family and now restored with extraordinary fidelity by Marmol Radziner, the home embodies Neutra’s core modernist principles—clarity of form, continuity with nature, and a disciplined approach to space and material.

A rare example of Neutra granting a double-wide living room, the home defies the spatial constraints typical of midcentury design. The result is a subtle shift in scale—room to breathe, to move, to experience light as it transitions across terrazzo floors and into precisely proportioned volumes. Original built-ins, designed as part of the architecture, remain intact. Walls of glass vanish into pockets, allowing the house to dissolve seamlessly into its hillside site.

The architecture speaks in a quiet register—nothing superfluous, nothing unresolved. A pool pavilion, cantilevered on polished steel spider legs, projects into the landscape, while a roofline-integrated water feature offers a nod to Neutra’s belief in multi-sensory design. These aren’t gestures for the sake of drama—they’re deliberate, functional, and poetic.

Recent design contributions by Trevor Cheney and landscape architect Scott Shrader add material and atmospheric richness. Cheney’s interiors layer natural plaster, walnut, steel, mohair, and collected European pieces to bring warmth and tactility to the home’s architectural rigor. Shrader’s landscaping mirrors the home’s geometry with native plantings and considered topography—landscape not as ornament, but as structural dialogue.

The result is a masterwork not frozen in time, but neither reimagined beyond recognition. The Brown House remains a living study in modernist ideals—form, light, and nature in quiet conversation—and a rare opportunity to inhabit a piece of architectural history with its soul intact.

10801 Chalon Road is offered at $28,500,000.

Represented by Paul Lester, Aileen Comora, and Daniel Stevenson of The Agency and Chris Cortazzo of Compass.

Paul Lester: 310-488-5962
Aileen Comora: 310-569-7950
Daniel Stevenson: 646-884-2928
Chris Cortazzo: 310-597-5887