Palm Springs Architecture

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Palm Springs! Sun, desert, golf courses - and lots of modern architecture. I recently headed out to the Dwell on Design-Palm Springs Conference, a three-day conference on modern architecture in Palm Springs that featured homes by architects like Donald Wexler (the pool from a 1962-designed house designed by Wexler is pictured above.)

How did Palm Springs, a city in the middle of the California desert, become such a mecca for modernist architects? Hollywood money and a climate perfectly suited to indoor/outdoor living, for starters.

Over the course of the weekend, the panelists--a mix of architects, professors, and historians--talked about the rise in modernism in Palm Springs. Building the Oasis Hotel in 1923, Lloyd Wright was the first pioneer to enter the city, while in 1934 Swiss architect Albert Frey built the Kocher-Sampson office building. In 1937, Austrian architect Richard Neutra's Grace Miller house was first modernist residential home to go up in Palm Springs.

Following WWII, there was a big explosion in modernism, according to Peter Moruzzi, founding president of the Palm Springs Modern Committee, fueled in part by the elite industrialists and Hollywood movie stars who came to the desert to build second homes.

"They were more willing to have a less cluttered, more contemporary design compared to their main homes, which were more traditional," said Moruzzi. "And they were coming to the desert and wanted to enjoy the weather, so they wanted an indoor/outdoor design."

Notable post-war architects included William F. Cody, Donald Wexler, E. Stewart Williams, and John Lautner, while the Alexander Construction Company built thousands of modern-style homes--known as Alexanders--in Palm Springs. An example of an Alexander home is below.



And here is a shot of the guest house from the same home:

Two of the more famous homes that we learned about over the weekend: Richard Neutra's 1946 Kaufman home and John Lautner's 1968 space age-looking house for decorator Arthur Elrod. The Elrod house was famously featured in the James Bond movie Diamonds Are Forever and currently is available for rent (three nights for $10,000).

And while we didn't see it, another famous Palm Springs residence is Frank Sinatra's E. Stewart Williams estate. Dubbed Twin Palms, the four-bedroom home has a piano-shaped pool.

Unfortunately, many modernist commercial buildings in Palm Springs, like Fred Monhoff's Biltmore Hotel, and the Chi Chi Club (which was designed by various architects), have been demolished. When Palm Springs went into an economic decline in the 80s, many commercial buildings were torn down, but since people either didn't have the incentive, or the money, to tear down residential homes, many of these modern-style residences were left intact.

Today, there's been a resurgence of interest in the Palm Springs architecture, while architecture firms like Modern Homes and Marmol Radziner are building pre-fab homes in the area.

Here are some shots of these new homes.



More photos after the jump: An interior shot of new home by Modern Homes


And another interior:



Pool at contemporary home:

Exterior of 1962 Wexler home