Kaufmann Desert House - Palm Springs CA
Posted by: 
PeterNoG
N 33° 50.688 W 116° 33.183
11S E 541349 N 3745037
This great building, a California Modern designed by Richard Neutra, was built in 1946.
Waymark Code: WM5W78
Location: California, United States
Date Posted: 02/19/2009
Views: 18
It's at 470 W. Vista Chino in Palm Springs CA.
Neutra combines glass, stucco, natural rock and silver-gray trim in a crisply elegant work as a contrast to Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater.
Pittsburgh, PA, department store owner Edgar Kaufmann’s son lobbied hard for Frank Lloyd Wright to be hired for the desert house too, but Kaufmann Sr. had not been impressed by Taliesin West and wanted someone he thought could better capture the Palm Springs lifestyle.
Sited on a 200 by 300 ft. lot with spectacular views of the mountains and desert, the 3,800 sq. ft house forms a cross of two intersecting axes. Kaufmann flew in stone masons who had worked on Fallingwater to erect the walls and chimney and like Fallingwater cork re-appears as an interior finish material for the kitchen countertop and floors and inside the showers. Water played an important role in softening the design and providing a connection to nature . Space is modulated by minor changes in ceiling heights and sliding glass walls and removal of vertical support from its obvious location to a position outside the implied space. The house was immortalized in a moody photograph by architectural photographer Julius Shulman.
The Kaufmanns enjoyed the house from 1947 to 1949 before Liliane Kaufmann passed away in 1950. After her death Kaufmann Sr. spent more time at this house and died there in April 1955.
~ The above is from
Richard Neutra - Kaufmann House ; a waymark in 'Master Architects - International Style' ~
Also check out this link for some interior pictures.