Kaufmann Desert House | |
---|---|
General information | |
Status | Completed |
Architectural style | International Style |
Location | 470 West Vista Chino Palm Springs, California United States |
Coordinates | 33°50′42″N116°33′10″W / 33.8451°N 116.5529°W |
Completed | 1946 |
Design and construction | |
Architect(s) | Richard J. Neutra |
The Kaufmann Desert House, or simply the Kaufmann House, is a house in Palm Springs, California, that was designed by architect Richard Neutra in 1946. It was commissioned by Edgar J. Kaufmann, Sr., a businessman who also commissioned Fallingwater by Frank Lloyd Wright. [1]
The house has been described as "an architectural marvel that helped define the modernist aesthetic of the resort city of Palm Springs". [1] [2]
It is designated a Class 1 Historic Site by Palm Springs City Council. [2]
The house was commissioned by Edgar J. Kaufmann, Sr., the owner of Kaufmann's Department Store in Pittsburgh, as a desert retreat from harsh winters. It was made famous by photographs taken by Julius Shulman in 1947 and the 1970 photograph "Poolside Gossip" by Slim Aarons. [1] [3] In 1935, Kaufmann had commissioned Frank Lloyd Wright to design Fallingwater in Pennsylvania. [4]
After Kaufmann died in 1955, the house stood vacant for several years. It then had a series of owners, including singer Barry Manilow and San Diego Chargers owner Eugene V. Klein, [5] and had several renovations. These renovations enclosed a patio, added floral wallpaper to the bedrooms and removed a wall for the addition of a media room. The roof lines were also altered with the addition of air-conditioning units. After being listed for sale for 3½ years, the home was purchased in 1992 by Brent Harris, an investment manager, and his wife Beth Edwards Harris, an architectural historian, for $1.5 million. [3]
Seeking to restore the home to its original design, the Harrises contacted Marmol Radziner + Associates to undertake the five-year project, which began in 1993. [2] For references, the Harrises looked through the extensive Neutra archives at UCLA, found additional documents through Columbia University, and were able to work with Shulman to access some of his unpublished photos of the home's interior. They were able to obtain pieces from the original suppliers of paint and fixtures, and purchased a metal-crimping machine to reproduce the sheet-metal fascia that originally lined the roof. [3]
The Harrises were also able to have a long-closed section of a Utah quarry reopened to mine matching stone to replace what had been removed or damaged. [2] To help restore the desert buffer Neutra had envisioned for the house, the Harrises also bought several adjoining plots to more than double the land around the 3,200-square-foot (300 m2) house.[ citation needed ] They rebuilt a pool house that served as a viewing pavilion for the main house, and kept a tennis court that was built on a parcel added to the original Kaufmann property. [3]
After the Harrises divorced, the home was sold on May 13, 2008, for US$15 million at auction by Christie's as a part of a high-profile sale of contemporary art. [5] It had a presale estimate of US$15 million to US$25 million. [3] The sale later fell through, as the bidder breached terms of the purchase agreement. [6]
In October 2008, the house was listed for sale at US$12.95 million, but it was not sold. [7] It was again listed for sale in October 2020 at US$25 million. [8]
The Kaufmann house was included in a list of all-time top 10 houses in Los Angeles, despite its location in Palm Springs, in a Los Angeles Times survey of experts in December 2008. [9]
The house was a filming location for the 2022 film Don't Worry Darling . [10]
Richard Joseph Neutra was an Austrian-American architect. Living and building for most of his career in Southern California, he came to be considered a prominent and important modernist architect. His most notable works include the Kaufmann Desert House, in Palm Springs, California.
Fallingwater is a house museum in Stewart Township in the Laurel Highlands of southwestern Pennsylvania, United States. Designed by the architect Frank Lloyd Wright, it is built partly over a waterfall on the Bear Run stream. The house was developed as a weekend retreat for Liliane and Edgar J. Kaufmann Sr., the owner of Kaufmann's Department Store in Pittsburgh. Wright was hired in 1934 to design the house, which was completed in 1937; a guest wing was finished in 1939. The Kaufmanns' son, Edgar Kaufmann Jr., deeded the house in 1963 to the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy (WPC), which turned it into a museum. The house was renovated in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Organic architecture is a philosophy of architecture which promotes harmony between human habitation and the natural world. This is achieved through design approaches that aim to be sympathetic and well-integrated with a site, so buildings, furnishings, and surroundings become part of a unified, interrelated composition.
Albert Frey was a Swiss-born architect who established a style of modernist architecture centered on Palm Springs, California, United States, that came to be known as "desert modernism".
Kaufmann's was a department store that originated in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Emerson Stewart Williams, FAIA was a prolific Palm Springs, California-based architect whose distinctive modernist buildings, in the Mid-century modern style, significantly shaped the Coachella Valley's architectural landscape and legacy.
Mid-century modern (MCM) is a movement in interior design, product design, graphic design, architecture and urban development that was present in all the world, but more popular in North America, Brazil and Europe from roughly 1945 to 1970 during the United States's post-World War II period.
Edgar Jonas Kaufmann was an American businessman and philanthropist who owned and directed Kaufmann's Department Store, in Pittsburgh. He is also known for commissioning two modern architectural masterpieces, Fallingwater, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, and the Kaufmann Desert House in Palm Springs, designed by Richard Neutra.
Slim Aarons was an American photographer noted for his images of socialites, jet-setters and celebrities. His work principally appeared in Life, Town & Country, and Holiday magazines.
Julius Shulman was an American architectural photographer best known for his photograph "Case Study House #22, Los Angeles, 1960. Pierre Koenig, Architect." The house is also known as the Stahl House. Shulman's photography spread the aesthetic of California's Mid-century modern architecture around the world. Through his many books, exhibits and personal appearances his work ushered in a new appreciation for the movement beginning in the 1990s.
Edgar Kaufmann Jr. was an American architect, lecturer, author, and an adjunct professor of architecture and art history at Columbia University.
Kaufmann House may refer to either of two houses commissioned by Edgar J. Kaufmann:
Kaufman House may refer to:
Massaro House is an architecturally significant residence on privately owned Petre Island in Lake Mahopac, New York, roughly 50 miles north of New York city. Inspired by architect Frank Lloyd Wright, the home's design and construction have had a complex and controversial history. Wright's plan was initially known as the "Chahroudi House", for the client who commissioned it back in 1949, and for whom Wright designed and built a much smaller cottage on the island when his proposal for the main home proved prohibitively expensive for the local engineer.
Neutra VDL Studio and Residences, the home of architect Richard Neutra, is located in Los Angeles, California. It is also known as the Neutra Research House, the Van der Leeuw House, the Richard and Dion Neutra VDL Research House II, or the Richard and Dion Neutra VDL Research Houses and Studio. It was designed by Richard Neutra and his son Dion Neutra. The house is currently owned by California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, and is maintained by its College of Environmental Design. The property was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2009, and was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 2016.
Juergen Nogai is a German architecture, art and documentary photographer.
The Elrod House is a residence in Palm Springs, California designed by American architect John Lautner and constructed in 1968. It is located on the edge of a hill at 2175 Southridge Drive in Palm Springs, California. The construction of the house was ordered by Arthur Elrod, the interior designer.
The Maslon House was a mid-century modern house designed by the architect Richard Neutra in 1962 for the art collectors Samuel and Luella Maslon in Rancho Mirage, California. It was demolished in 2002. The house was situated within the Tamarisk Country Club golf course.
Modernism Week is a 501(c)(3) organization based in Palm Springs, California that provides public education programming fostering knowledge and appreciation of modern architecture, the mid-century modern architecture and design movement, the Palm Springs School of Architecture, as well as contemporary considerations surrounding historic preservation, cultural heritage, adaptive reuse, and sustainable architecture. Modernism Week provides annual scholarships to local students pursuing college educations in the fields of architecture and design and supports local and state organizations' efforts to preserve and promote the region's modern architecture. The organization is centered in the Coachella Valley, which is home to a significant collection of extant residential and commercial buildings designed in the mid-century modern vernacular.
The Villa Hermosa is a mid-century modern private complex in the Old Las Palmas neighborhood of Palm Springs, California, United States. Located at 155 W Hermosa Place, near North Palm Canyon Drive and West El Alameda, it was originally commissioned as a residential hotel for winter visitors by C.K. Fulton in 1946. The property was featured in photos by Julius Shulman in 1947, and subsequently recognized locally as historically significant.