For a Cool $25 Million, You Can Buy Richard Neutra’s Most Famous Palm Springs Home
The Kaufmann Desert House was meticulously restored by Marmol Radziner in the 1990s—and now it’s up for grabs.
The Kaufmann Desert House was meticulously restored by Marmol Radziner in the 1990s—and now it’s up for grabs.
Much of the midcentury modern architecture one gawks at in Palm Springs sprouted in the ’50s and ’60s—like the Swiss Miss A-frames by Charles Dubois in the Vista Las Palmas neighborhood and Robert Alexander’s House of Tomorrow, where Elvis and Priscilla Presley holed up for their honeymoon.
That’s why the Desert House, built in 1946 by Austrian-born architect Richard Neutra for retail tycoon Edgar J. Kaufmann, stands out all the more. Fusing glass, steel, and stone, "it is an architectural marvel that helped define the modernist aesthetic," says Gerard Bisignano, partner at Vista Sotheby’s International Realty, who is handling the sale of the 3,162-square-foot home.
The entryway to Richard Neutra’s Kaufmann Desert House.
Photo by Dan Solomon
The gloriette, a serene outdoor room above the house, was Richard Neutra’s creative way of bypassing zoning codes that forbade two-story structures.
Photo: Dan Solomon
If this pioneering example of International Style architecture is snagged for the listed $25 million, it will become the most expensive real estate transaction in Palm Springs history—a title currently held by the futuristic John Lautner–designed Bob and Dolores Hope Estate, which sold to billionaire Ron Burkle in 2016 for $13 million.
Neutra’s International Style architecture is heightened by the San Jacinto Mountains above.
Photo: Dan Solomon
See the full story on Dwell.com: For a Cool $25 Million, You Can Buy Richard Neutra’s Most Famous Palm Springs Home
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