Here is a before and after shot of the Neutra's Samuel and Luella Maslon House recently allowed to be destroyed by idiots in Rancho Mirage City Government.

A Destruction Site

By Brad Dunning (NYT) 1014 words
Late Edition - Final, Section 6, Page 67, Column 1
LEAD PARAGRAPH - In a move that has stunned, outraged and saddened admirers of modern architecture, the city of Rancho Mirage, Calif., recently approved the demolition of an important 13-room house designed by Richard Neutra in 1963. Neutra, who died in 1970, helped introduce the International style to America, redefining architecture in the 20th century with a series of remarkable residential pavilions. His houses are now cherished in the same way as Frank Lloyd Wright's -- as testaments to a uniquely original vision and a particularly pivotal moment in design history.

The residence of Samuel and Luella Maslon was situated between two fairways on the Tamarisk Country Club golf course. Tamarisk was founded after Jack Benny was refused membership at the nearby Thunderbird because he was a Jew. Frank Sinatra, Ben Hogan and the Marx Brothers all had a helping hand in creating the new club, which quickly became a legend as the Rat Pack's hedonist playground. Seldom was a home afforded such a perfect site. The Maslons' house was surrounded on all sides by the unworldly green expanse of round-the-clock irrigated turf, isolated like an architectural model and spared the indignity of rubbing elbows with lesser creations. Mrs. Maslon was so enamored of the house (one of only three Neutras in the modernist mecca in and around Palm Springs) and her famous art collection that she stubbornly refused to leave even in the face of failing health. She died last year at home, and the property, still in excellent condition, was put on the market by her heirs and sold through Sotheby's, which is having a sale in May of the couple's art.

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