It is one of architect Richard Neutra’s best-known homes, a 1946 Modernist glass, steel and stone house on the edge of Palm Springs, Calif. The low-slung house was immortalized by several important photographers including Slim Aarons, whose popular 1970 photograph “Poolside Gossip” features two fashionable women lounging by the pool in midriff-baring outfits, the house and the silhouette of the desert mountains providing the backdrop. The image can now be seen printed on tote bags, lunchboxes and vintage posters.
Known as the Kaufmann Desert House, the property, which is named for its original owner, American department store entrepreneur and architecture enthusiast Edgar J. Kaufmann, Sr., is coming on the market for $25 million, according to listing agent Gerard Bisignano of Vista Sotheby’s International Realty.
The story of the home provides an insight into the architecture rivalries and shifting tastes of the day. Mr. Kaufmann, who was looking to build a winter getaway, originally considered architect Frank Lloyd Wright, who had designed his home in Mill Run, Penn. Designed in 1935, that home, known as Fallingwater, is an organic Modern that sits directly above a waterfall and has cantilevered terraces of local sandstone. It is one of Mr. Wright’s best-known works.
The house was immortalized by a popular 1970 photograph taken by Slim Aarons named ‘Poolside Gossip.’
PHOTO: SLIM AARONS/GETTY IMAGES
Eventually though, Mr. Kaufmann decided on Mr. Neutra, a younger architect known for his more Modernist approach. Mr. Neutra had worked under Mr. Wright before starting his own practice in 1930.
“Kaufmann’s son Edgar, Jr., an architect, historian and fond disciple of Wright’s, wanted his father to engage Wright again to design the new Palm Springs winter house, but the senior Kaufmann, while a warm admirer of Wright, wanted for the desert house a greater feeling of lightness and openness than Wright had imparted” to Fallingwater, writes Thomas S. Hines in the book, “Richard Neutra and the Search for Modern Architecture.”
The price tag matches the pedigree: The most expensive property ever sold in Palm Springs was a home owned by the late entertainer Bob Hope, which traded for about $13 million in 2016 to investor Ron Burkle, records show.
A Modern Icon in the Palm Springs Desert
Richard Neutra’s Kaufmann Desert House was built from glass, steel and stone.
A property designed by the architect Richard Neutra is coming on the market for $25 million.
DAN SOLOMAN
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Built in 1946, Kaufmann House is 3,200 square feet and is cruciform in shape, anchored in the center by the living and dining room.
Separate wings branch out from the center, each with their own separate function, according to Mr. Bisignano. One is home to the guest quarters, another is home to the service wing and one comprises the main bedroom suite.
The five-bedroom house is largely on one level aside from an open-air covered patio on the second level which Mr. Neutra named “the Gloriette,” from the 12th-Century French word “gloire” meaning “little room.” Mr. Neutra was also a fan of the pool. It was completed before the house, and Mr. Neutra “enjoyed critiquing the rest of the construction while splashing and floating in the water,” according to Mr. Hines’s book. The more than 2-acre property also includes a pool pavilion built by the current owner.
The property is a throwback to the early postwar boom of the late 1940s and to the rise of Modernism on the West Coast.
The home was carefully restored in the 1990s.
PHOTO: DAN SOLOMON
“Though many clients still preferred traditional styles, their architects, committed to Modern ideas, championed its cause,” according to a report by the Palm Springs City Council on the postwar period. In one case, singer Frank Sinatra requested a Georgian Revival-style house for a lot he had purchased in the area. His architect E. Stewart Williams instead designed a low-slung Modern house built from stone, stucco and redwood siding, the council report said.
Palm Springs soon became a haven for Modernist architects like Mr. Neutra, John Lautner and Albert Frey, thanks to its bright, dry climate, which is well suited for Modernist design, with its flat roofs, shaded verandas and sliding glass. The Kaufmann home has been captured on camera by several notable photographers, including Julius Shulman, who shot a well-known picture of the home at twilight in 1947. The shot, a time lapse photo, shows a glow behind the desert mountains.
Mrs. Kaufmann helped with the set up by lying down in the garden to block the pool light, and a strange shadowy figure on the grass is the family dog, which sneaked into shot, according to Leo Marmol, managing partner at the architectural restoration firm Marmol Radziner, which worked on a restoration of the home in the 1990s. He calls the shot “one of the seminal definitions of Modern architecture in California,” noting that “it captured the Modern fantasy.”
The pool pavilion.
PHOTO: DAN SOLOMON
In 1970, Mr. Aarons snapped “Poolside Gossip,” which became one of his best-known pictures, according to the book “Slim Aarons: Women.” “Was it the big hair and bare midriffs, the mod 1970s outfits, the dramatic view, or its ‘martini Modern’ aesthetic?,” posited the book.
Palm Springs socialite Nelda Linsk owned the home at the time and is in the photo. She recalled that years later, Mr. Aarons once asked her why she thought the photograph was so famous. She joked, “Slim, it’s because I’m in it.”
“Those were the good days,” added Ms. Linsk, who lived at the property in the 1970s before selling it to Eugene Klein, the late onetime owner of the San Diego Chargers. “Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe, they were all here in Palm Springs. They came out to the desert because no one would bother them here.”
The home has since cycled through multiple owners over the decades, including singer Barry Manilow, Mr. Bisignano said. The current owner is Brent R. Harris, managing director at Newport Beach, Calif.-based Pacific Investment Management Co. Mr. Harris purchased the property with his then-wife in the early-1990s. The research and restoration took about five years, according to the agent.
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Starting in 1993, Marmol Radziner conducted what the agent described as an “architectural dig” to determine the original materials, finishes and colors that the home had been built with. The house had undergone years of alterations, and the architects peeled back the layers to reveal the original materials. They then replaced sections of the home using original manufacturers and craftsmen. They also used archival research in the Neutra archives at the University of California, Los Angeles and Mr. Shulman’s photographs to verify their work.
The team used petrographic analysis—an investigation of the chemical and physical features of a rock sample—to determine the source of the stone used for the house, then persuaded a quarry in Utah to reopen an old section used in the 1940s to secure the original sandstone in the same sunset-pinkish hue to replace sections that had been damaged. Crimped metal trim was produced in Kansas on a machine that had previously been out of work for about 50 years.
The home is a throwback to the early postwar boom of the late 1940s and to the rise of Modernism on the West Coast.
PHOTO: DAN SOLOMON
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“I think there were many people who thought we’d lost our minds,” said Mr. Marmol. “We were re-creating light fixtures from the 1940s.”
After completing the restoration, Mr. Harris coaxed Mr. Shulman out of retirement to take another set of shots of the house in the 1990s, this time in color, according to the agent.
Mr. Bisignano said his client is selling the property because “he feels like it’s time to pass it on.” The property has since undergone yet another restoration, costing an additional $2.5 million, Mr. Bisignano said.
The property is the “crown jewel,” of the Palm Spring market, said local agent Jeff Kohl of real-estate brokerage The Agency, who is not involved in the listing. He said it is incredibly rare to find a property with such compelling architectural pedigree in such good condition in the area. “It’s insane,” he said.
Mr. Bisignano noted that the property taxes on the house are about $8,000 a year, thanks to a historical designation the property was granted under the Mills Act, which provides tax breaks to California owners who actively participate in the restoration and maintenance of their historic properties.
‘This is not just a home. This is a home that changed how we see architecture today,’ said Leo Marmol, whose firm worked on a restoration of the home.
PHOTO: DAN SOLOMON
“This is not just a home. This is a home that changed how we see architecture today,” Mr. Marmol said.
Mr. Kohl noted that the Palm Springs market has been extremely active over the past few months as buyers from Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego, tired of being holed up in denser areas as a result of the coronavirus, fled to the desert to escape the city and play golf and tennis. Before that, the market had been just “plugging along,” he said.
Palm Springs sales data points to a remarkable turnaround in the market this year. Sales in the third quarter skyrocketed by 70% compared with the same quarter one year ago, combined with a median price increase of 14% over the same period, according to data from The Agency. The rapid pace of sales has reduced the number of active properties on the market by 39%.
“The market has exploded,” Mr. Kohl said. “Traditionally the summer months are deader than a doornail. We’ve seen more deals in the last three months than in the last two years combined. Everything has sold—unless it’s really significantly overpriced or needs a lot of work.”
