Mill Creek Summit Maintenance Yard

Mill Creek Summit Maintenance Yard

Nestled within the Angles National Forest above Los Angeles are the three structures that comprise the Mill Creek Summit Maintenance Yard, a road equipment and labor camp. Workers at the camp had access to dormitories, a kitchen, a dining room, and garages large enough to house snowplows, spaces Richard Neutra was commissioned to design in 1947 by the Forest Service. Integrating the designs with the site, Neutra used more rustic materials including redwood and gravel for exteriors and Douglas fir and redwood for interiors. His plans for redwood exteriors met the approval of the Forest Service, which recognized redwood’s durability. Dormitories are oriented to look out toward the mountains. Neutra engineered to buildings to sustain winter snows loads of up to six feet.

Adapted from Neutra – Complete Works by Barbara Lamprecht (Taschen, 2000), p. 215.