MCM Desert Icon Hits Market

The saviors of an impeccably restored Richard Neutra house have listed it at this year's 'Bob Hope house price' in Palm Springs, but it's a much happier fate than some Neutra creations have faced in recent years.

"The value is in the significance of the house and the legacy," explains realtor Gerard Bisignano, who listed the 2.18-acre property at 470 West Vista Chino recently for Sotheby's Realty International at, ahem, $25 million.

The Palos Verdes-based agent added confidently, "I think the major draw is the architectural legacy and provenance. It could be called second to none."

If they get that price it would indeed be second to none in Palm Springs history, as the former Bob Hope home, designed by John Lautner, currently holds that record. Of course, the sellers started the Hope House offering at $50 million before eventually selling at $13M in 2016 after three years on the market.

"The case is easy to make that a pedigreed house that already has been restored is worth $25 million," Bisignano said of the five-bed, six-bath home designed by Neutra in 1946 for Pittsburg department store owner Edgar Kaufmann. The realtor said the restoration project took more than four years and cost eight figures in 1990s dollars.

Part of the house's unique pedigree is that it was built as a winter home for Kaufmann and his wife just 11 years after Frank Lloyd Wright had built them his most famous creation, the Fallingwater house in Pennsylvania. On top of that, the Kaufmann House was made famous in photo shoots by Julius Shulman, and Slim Aarons, who produced the iconic 1970 image titled 'Poolside Gossip.'

The house sat vacant for several years after Kaufmann died in 1955, then was radically altered over the years by three subsequent owners, including singer Barry Manilow and San Diego Chargers football team owner Eugene Klein. Changes nearly doubled the interior square footage, including pushing walls out and enclosing a patio, plus adding an air conditioning unit on the flat roof.