Table Of Content
- Richard Neutra – Palm Springs-California USA, 1946
- The Hidden History of the Kaufmann House
- Homeless encampments are on the ballot in Arizona. Could California, other states follow?
- Kaufmann House; Richard Neutra's Iconic Palm Springs Desert Modern Design
- Richard Neutra's Kaufmann House epitomises desert modernism in Palm Springs
- In California’s Carmel Valley, a Picturesque Retreat Lists for $11 Million
- Who is Richard Neutra?

Daily updates on the latest design and architecture vacancies advertised on Dezeen Jobs. He made an attempt to sell it following a divorce in 2008, but the sale was never completed. To make it happen, Kaufmann turned to Richard Neutra to design him a home in Palm Springs. Neutra was very active throughout California, and had become one of the region’s best-known MCM architects. The Kaufmann house was included in a list of all time top 10 houses in Los Angeles, despite its being in Palm Springs, in a Los Angeles Times survey of experts in December 2008.

Richard Neutra – Palm Springs-California USA, 1946
The house is structured as a series of horizontal planes that seem to float against the rugged backdrop of the San Jacinto Mountains. The floor plan is expansive and open, typical of Neutra’s work, promoting a seamless flow between the interior and exterior spaces. Today this landmark home covers 3,200 square-feet and features five bedrooms and six bathrooms, a tennis court on an adjoining lot and a poolhouse with opening walls of glass with views of that iconic swimming pool. The Fredrick Robie House, located in the Chicago neighborhood of Hyde Park, is one of the most iconic examples of modernist architecture. Designed by renowned architect Frank Lloyd Wright in 1909, the house has been called "the most important building of the twentieth century" and "the greatest work of architecture America has produced." Nestled in the foothills of Palm Desert, California, the Annenberg Estate is a stunning example of mid-century modern architecture.
Richard Neutra's Kaufmann Desert House Is for Sale for $25 Million - House Beautiful
Richard Neutra's Kaufmann Desert House Is for Sale for $25 Million.
Posted: Tue, 20 Oct 2020 07:00:00 GMT [source]
The Hidden History of the Kaufmann House
This fluid architectural style is what Richard Neutra used to create the Kaufmann House. Since the 1920s, the city, situated at the foot of Mount San Jacinto, offered refuge to the stars of Hollywood. Albert Frey, patron of Le Corbusier, had built his house here in 1940 and in 1937 completed the tiny House of Millar Neutra. The Kaufmann House is one of the best-known designs by Neutra, a Viennese-born architect who moved to the United States in the 1920s and designed homes for the next few decades for many wealthy West Coast clients.
Homeless encampments are on the ballot in Arizona. Could California, other states follow?
Until they commissioned the Desert House, the Kaufmanns had been loyal patrons of Frank Lloyd Wright, who had designed an office for E. Kaufmann inside the department store (now at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London) and Fallingwater near Mill Run, Pennsylvania, both completed in 1937. Neutra died in 1970 and the original plans were not available, so the couple brought in Los Angeles architects Leo Marmol and Ron Radziner to restore the design. They were able to obtain pieces from the original suppliers of paint and fixtures; and they purchased a metal-crimping machine to reproduce the sheet-metal fascia that lined the roof.
Kaufmann House; Richard Neutra's Iconic Palm Springs Desert Modern Design
As in his own home, Neutra skillfully dodged the ban on building a second height, eliminating the walls of the roundabout, except for the chimney and the vertical sheets of aluminum. From an aesthetic point of view, they defined a clear plan, from a purely functional, serving as a shield against the wind. In 1992 Beth Harris, an architectural tourist of a sort, scaled a fence one afternoon to peek at the famous house while her husband discovered a for-sale sign in an overgrown hedge. In 2003 Sotheby’s sold the 1951 Farnsworth House southwest of Chicago, designed by Mies van der Rohe, at auction for $7.5 million. In June Jean Prouvé’s 1951 Maison Tropicale, a prototype for prefabricated homes for French colonial officials stationed in Africa, sold at Christie’s for $4.97 million.

The architect championed the importance of "ready-for-anything" designs that have open, multi-use spaces, and coined the concept "The Changing House" for an article he wrote in 1947 for the Los Angeles Times newspaper. When Neutra designed the Kaufmann House, his goal was to create a building that would make the most of its surroundings. In this sense, the project was actually quite similar to what Wright was doing with Fallingwater—just with a wholly different setting. 10 years after the design of Fallingwater by Frank Lloyd Wright in Bear Run, Pennsylvania, the Kaufmann’s were looking for a residence that could be used to escape the cold winters of the northeast, which would primarily be used during January. One of the most important architects of the 20th Century, yet often overlooked, Richard Neutra has been on the forefront of modern residential architecture. After moving to the United States from Vienna, Austria in 1923, Neutra worked with Frank Lloyd Wright and Rudolf Schindler until 1930 when he started his own practice.
Richard Neutra's Kaufmann House epitomises desert modernism in Palm Springs
Mr. Bisignano says that after 28 years of ownership, his client feels it time to pass on the home to another lover of architecture. Credit goes to the Harrises for undertaking a massive, five-year, labor-of-love restoration of the house to bring it back to its original, authentic mid-century modern splendor. Once owned by the late Eugene Klein, former owner of the San Diego Chargers, and then “Mandy” crooner Barry Manilow, it’s currently home to Brent R. Harris, managing director at Newport Beach, California-based Pacific Investment Management.
In California’s Carmel Valley, a Picturesque Retreat Lists for $11 Million
What to See at Modernism Week 2023 %%page%% Greater Palm Springs - Palm Springs Life
What to See at Modernism Week 2023 %%page%% Greater Palm Springs.
Posted: Sun, 18 Dec 2022 08:00:00 GMT [source]
Moreover, the presence of patios and porches in the housing connects the interior and exterior, so that the desert seems to be taking part in the same building. Julius Shulman's photographs played an important role in establishing the Kaufmann residence as one of the nation's most iconic modernist houses. Upon completion of the Kaufmann house, Neutra gave Shulman explicit instructions about how he wished the building to be photographed, suggesting dusk and evening shots that looked back into the illuminated interior.
Who is Richard Neutra?
Large sliding glass doors open onto patios that are lined with vertical, moveable metal fins. These slats enable the rooms to be shaded and cooled during extreme heatwaves, and closed up during sandstorms. The Kaufmann House was built by Austrian-born architect Richard Neutra for Edgar J Kaufmann – an American department store entrepreneur – as a vacation residence away from his Pittsburgh home. The same retail baron commissioned Frank Lloyd Wright to build Fallingwater in Mill Run, Pennsylvania, a decade earlier.
One can only imagine the contrast in experiences Kaufmann had between working with both Wright and Neutra. Both Wright and Neutra were famous for their working styles with clients—but they were exact opposites. The next year, photographer Julius Shulman took some photos of the Kaufmann Desert House that helped to attract attention to the modernist abode. It’s hard to picture anyone needing a break from spending time in Fallingwater, but Kaufmann sometimes wanted to escape from Pennsylvania. Of course, when you are used to spending your time surrounded by the beauty of Fallingwater, you need your vacation home to be something equally magical.
It remains a private residence, but nonetheless features as a stop on architecture tours of the city, when it can be glimpsed from the street. In 1923 he moved to the US, where he worked with Frank Lloyd Wright and close friend Rudolf Schindler. Neutra started his own practice in 1930, where he designed many Californian homes based around simple geometry, clean lines and airy construction. As much attention and care were put into the landscaping around the house as the structure itself. The home also features a lawn, a tennis court, and a swimming pool that is arguably as celebrated as the house.
So exacting were the standards of the owners and architects that when, in the course of the restoration, a missing stone wall had to be reconstructed a defunct Utah sandstone quarry was re-opened to secure matching stone. The first batch of stone that arrived was not a perfect match, but a second quarry did the trick. To help restore the remote physical setting of the house, the Harrises acquired several adjoining parcels to more than double the land around the house. Now fully restored, the Kaufmann desert house has assumed a significant place among important American houses of the mid-century period.
Neutra responded to the flat site with a pinwheel floor plan whose four wings follow the cardinal directions. The house is entered through the southern wing, which is oriented perpendicular to the street. Visitors first follow a short, irregular pathway that traverses a small, landscaped area with boulders and desert plants. On its left side, the walkway is delineated by a wall faced with dry-set Utah sandstone; a cantilevered roof offers shade. To the right, the view goes across a lawn with interspersed boulders toward an outdoor swimming pool.
I spent months speaking to people in power, people doing what they think can help their unhoused neighbors and people who’ve forged a path into housing for themselves. After roughly 11 years living on the streets of San Diego, Rachel Hayes moved into an apartment last summer. For a while she’d wake up every few hours in the night, unfamiliar with the stillness, solitude and quiet of her own space. Everything from the special concrete–silica sand mixed floors to the Fresnel lenses on the ceiling lights has been meticulously reproduced to re-create those golden years. But one of the most memorable former owners is socialite and philanthropist Nelda Linsk, who was captured by Aarons chatting poolside with model Helen Dzo Dzo in 1970.
On my first visit, I was disappointed to discover that only a small part of the house is visible from the road. Arguably the most famous home in Palm Springs, in 1996 it was the twentieth1 building to be designated as a local landmark, or "Class 1 Site" as protected properties are known locally. In 2008, a small crowd of about thirty people gathered at the site for the dedication of a bronze marker denoting the designation. The crowd included a couple of friends of mine, the mayor, and owners Beth and Brent Harris who accomplished the exacting restoration. After the crowd dispersed, Beth (who is devoted to an informed public) spontaneously invited the few of us who lingered for a private tour. The tour was fascinating in its detail, but Beth's personal recollections left the most lasting impression.
The low, horizontal planes that make up the pinwheel design bring the house closer to the landscape around, making it appear as if it is hovering above the ground. The floating effect is emphasized through a series of sliding glass doors that open up to cover walkways or patios. The way in which Neutra designed the Kaufmann House was such that when the sliding glass doors were opened, the differentiation of interior and exterior was blurred as if it was a flowing space. After entering the house, to the right is the dining and main living spaces with views eastward out to the pool. Northeast of the living space is the primary suite, slightly offset from the central axis to provide privacy for the bedroom and open the view for the living space.
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