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Edgar Kaufmann, Sr., (1885-1955) owned the Kaufmann's Department Store chain in Pittsburgh, PA, and through his architect son, Edgar, Jr., (1910–1989), enlisted the aid of Frank Lloyd Wright ('Fallingwater,' Bear Run, PA, 1936) and Richard Neutra to design homes for him; Neutra designed and completed this famous desert residence in 1946; interior space: 3,200 sq. feet, 297 sq. m.; the house abuts Edward H. Fickett's George Alexander House, built in 1952 on West Vista Chino; the Kaufmann family owned the house until c. 1964, although it had stood vacant since Edgar, Sr.'s death in 1955; Nelda Lintz owned the building from 1964 into the 1980s; the singer Barry Manilow owned it until 1993. In 1993, Brent and Beth Harris purchased the house from Manilow for $1.5 million and commissioned the firm of Marmol Radziner Associates to renovate it. The painstaking renovation generated a lot of attention for the Marmol firm. In 05/2008, Christie's Postwar and Contemporary Art Auction sold the house for $19 million, but the deal fell through. As of 11/2008, the house was being offered for the firesale price of $12.9 million.

In 2008, the house contained 3,162 square feet and resided on a lot of 2.5 acres, significant territory in this section of Palm Springs. According to Richard Neutra's son, Dion, the Kaufmann House: "...started with a budget of $40K and ratcheted upwards progressively to over $300K, which was a fortune 50-odd years ago!" (See Dion Neutra, "The View from Inside: An Overview of the Neutra Practice, Monday, October 16, 2000," Richard and Dion Neutra Architecture, http://www.neutra.org/mn.html, Accessed 06/16/2009.) Photographer Julius Shulman's poolside photo of the Kaufmann House proved to be one of the most influential portraits of the indoor/outdoor Southern California way of life published in the Post-War era. The Kaufmann House was listed as a National Historic Landmark, a register of the country's most important buildings, structures and sites.

Nelda Lintz and Barry Manilow made some alterations to the house that were reversed during a thorough restoration by Marmol Radziner Associates Architecture + Construction; Christopher Shanley, project manager; Tim Day, Andrew Kraetzer, Spike Wolff, project architects; interior design: Marmol Radziner Architects; landscape design: Eric Lamers, William Kopelk; general contractor: Marmol Radziner Construction; planning for the restoration and expansion occurred 1993-1994; construction happened between 1994-1998; the original house contained 297 square meters, but was enlarged to 474 sqaure meters at this time; later additions were removed by Marmol Radziner, and a cultivated garden on the property was xeriscaped; a new heating, ventilation and air conditioning system was added; a new pool house, known as the Harris Pool House, was also added by Marmol Radziner; before starting on the renovation project members of the firm studied the Neutra Archives at the University of California, Los Angeles.

PCAD id: 285