There are sixty of us at Marmol Radziner + Associates, all busily trying to partition our lives into more fascinating increments than the Calendar Section of Martha Stewart Living. We remain committed to acting as both architect and contractor for many of our residential projects. Whereas most design / build firms are dominated by contractors, Marmol Radziner + Associates is unique in that we are architects first. We have become contractors in order to build our projects with the same rigor with which they were designed.

After a five-year archeological dig through the strata of Richard Neutra's Kaufmann House in Palm Springs, the restoration of "wild, unrefined" nature and the "machine" in the desert are complete. Perhaps the most redeeming moment of 1998 was when the esteemed photographer Julius Shulman proclaimed that the Kaufmann House looks better now than when it was originally constructed in 1946.

Several years ago, we took the late Palm Springs architect Albert Frey out to lunch to discuss our restoration of the Loewy House, originally designed in 1947. Since Mr. Frey's entire order consisted of a slice of apple pie and chocolate ice cream, we now eat only apple pie and chocolate ice cream on the job site in hopes of some day achieving Mr. Frey's grace in creating a sympathetic relationship between nature and architecture.