One of the greatest crimes against 20th-century architecture, the reckless demolition of the 1963 Maslon House — designed by Richard Neutra for art collectors Samuel and Luella Maslon — remains etched in the memories of preservationists with every historic nomination they write. Sited between two fairways on the golf course at Tamarisk Country Club in Rancho Mirage, the home was a modernist masterpiece, with a generous overhang and glass walls that seemed to vanish, making the roof — a flat, level plane — appear to hover.
A short-sighted new owner and his permit-granting accomplices at Rancho Mirage City Hall ignored its significance in the modernism canon as one of only three Neutra residences in the desert. An international outcry put their negligence in the spotlight. A documentary about the house by Scott Goldstein, a filmmaker and vice president of Preservation Mirage, will premiere Feb. 19 during Modernism Week.
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