A Palm Springs home designed by seminal modernist architect Richard Neutra surfaced on the open market this fall—priced at $25 million.
The Kaufmann Desert House was designed in the International Style and built in the late 1940s. Interestingly, Edgar Kaufmann, the businessman for whom the home was constructed also hired another famous architect—Frank Lloyd Wright—and the result was another important residential architectural statement of the 20th century: Fallingwater.
The Kaufmann Desert House entered a period of relative obscurity after its first owner died, although the list of those who called it home in the years to follow includes soft-rock hitmaker Barry Manilow.
Renovations occurred here and there, but a thorough and sensitive overhaul was not carried out until the early 1990s, when the firm of Marmol Radziner was commissioned to restore it. The work was completed with an eye to historical accuracy in light the home’s relevance as an architectural landmark. In 2008, it sold at auction for $15 million.
Apart from being a primary reason why Palm Springs became such fertile ground for the Midcentury Style, the home was the subject of two iconic photographs from the era by artists Julius Shulman and Slim Aarons.
