Los Angeles in the 1950s

Lamport, Cofer, Salzman was a young Los Angeles building firm which specialized in constructing the best contemporary architecture. The three principals had come together while serving in Africa, Italy and France during the war, and there had agreed to set up as contractors once the war was over. ¹ Craig Ellwood was in his mid-twenties when he went to work for them. “We bid and built work for Raphael Soriano, for Richard Neutra, Frank Lloyd Wright, John Lloyd Wright, John Lautner, Quincy Jones. And we bid and built the Charles Eames House. I was cost estimator on the Eames House and the John Entenza House designed by Eames and Saarinen. I think we were the only bidders. And this is where I first met John Entenza. This was 1947.” ²