PORTRAIT of a HOUSE

THE ICONIC HOUSES OF LOS ANGELES ARE MORE PRECIOUS THAN EVER. IN LOS FELIZ, TWO COLLECTORS MAINTAIN THEIR RICHARD NEUTRA HOME WITH REVERENCE FOR ITS PAST, WHILE FILLING IT WITH CONTEMPORARY ART THAT SPEAKS TO ITS FUTURE.

- ALEXANDRA LANGE

Home improvement books often. start with a caveat: "Don't make big changes until you've lived in the house." When the home is a midcentury gem by the legendary modernist Richard Neutra, that advice comes with teeth. "We have to be very careful," says Alberto Chehebar of his residence, the 1949 Wirin House in Los Feliz, California.

The carport of the Wirin House, a 1949 design by Richard Neutra in Los Feliz restored by Mark Haddawy.

The car is a Porsche 911 Carrera. OPPOSITE: Homeowners Alberto Chehebar and Jocelyne Katz, in Dior, in the downstairs sitting room.

Sofa, original to house; artwork by Alejandro Cardenas; walls painted in Dune White by Benjamin Moore.

His wife Jocelyne Katz puts it more bluntly: "The house owns us." This sense of stewardship has been deepened by the recent fires in Los Angeles; many of the city's other houses, threatened or lost, were built on similar hillside sites.