The Guide: Palm Springs

Paul Zemanek

05/01/2007

Palm Springs experienced a confluence of architecture and celebrity for four decades beginning in the 1930s that made the hot desert east of Los Angeles the coolest place to be. One by one, modernists such as Albert Frey, William F. Cody, E. Stewart Williams and Donald Wexler came to the Coachella Valley to play with a form of architecture that would be charac-terized by sleek lines, lots of glass and a seemingly contradictory ability to keep the sunlight in and the heat out. Celebrities like Frank Sinatra and Bob Hope hired these revolutionary architects to design weekend getaways that made the pages of Life magazine. The idea of a warm, relaxing Palm Springs weekend seemed the perfect antidote to the hustle and bustle of smoggy, insincere Hollywood, or cold climates farther afield.

That resort tradition continues today, although Palm Springs is now one of many destinations in the Coachella Valley, which comprises nine cities, including Palm Springs, Cathedral City, Coachella, Desert Hot Springs, Rancho Mirage, Palm Desert, Indian Wells, Indio and La Quinta. It is the fastest-growing area in one of the fastest-growing counties (Riverside) in the country. It is also as dominated by golf as ever. With more than 121 courses established and being built, the valley has the world’s highest number of courses per capita.

Top: A Rancho Mirage listing from Bruce Blomgren for $4.45 million. Photograph by Lance Gerber. Bottom: A revamped 1955 Rancho Mirage home listed for $7.5 million. Photograph by George Gutenberg. (Click images to enlarge)

Realtors
The midcentury building boom that began in Palm Springs has moved east (or "down valley") toward cities like Rancho Mirage, Palm Desert and La Quinta. Modern houses have been popular of late, but so have the properties located in exclusive full-service golf clubs like Vintage, Bighorn and the Reserve, where sought-after parcels along the golf course are limited in size—an acre or so—relative to the expanses of land found in places like Aspen or Montecito. "Our market tops out at $5 million," says Realtor Bruce Blomgren, who notes that many buyers are often purchasing second, third or fourth homes. "Once you get above $5 or $6 million, our inventory gets fairly thin."

Debbie Toohey (760.778.2600, www.debbietoohey.com). "I represent buyers and sellers from all over the world," says Toohey, who has a listing for a 5,100-square-foot home with a putting green in the Southridge area of Palm Springs priced at $10 million.

Nelda Linsk (760.325.4500, www.californiamoves.com). Nelda Linsk has moved a number of high-profile homes, including the Sinatra house and Richard Neutra’s Kaufman house, which she has sold four different times (she also lived in it for 10 years). "I’ve been here since 1965, so I know a lot of people," she says. Her hottest listing is a 17,000-square-foot Indian Wells home with six bedrooms and seven baths, priced at $12.5 million.

Bruce Blomgren (760.779.1653, www.bruceblomgren.com). "I’m a luxury-home specialist," says Blomgren, who focuses on high-end developments. He has sold homes all over the valley, from Rancho Mirage to La Quinta. The one area Blomgren does not cover is Palm Springs. He has a 7,000-square-foot house in Bighorn Golf Club listed at $5.9 million.

Janine Stevens (760.776.2289, www.janinestevens.comcom). Stevens grew up in the Coachella Valley and has been a Realtor for 17 years, specializing in the country clubs of La Quinta. "Most of my business is golfers playing golf," she says. She holds a listing for a $4.7 million home in Tradition Golf Club that has a walk-in wine cellar and a detached guesthouse.Architects/Designers/Builders
Desert modernism flowered from the ’30s through the ’60s but was largely overlooked in the ’70s and ’80s. Now it’s back. For the past decade or more, people have been snapping up modern gems and restoring them to their original glass-walled luster. Many of the contemporary houses populating country clubs down valley continue modernism’s inside/outside sensibility. A number of experimental architects, while paying heed to the masters, continue to push the boundaries of desert design. "We certainly think the midcentury is an important part of our history," says architect James Cioffi, "but it’s not the current history, so we’re carrying that to the next level."

Top: A residence by architect Narendra Patel. Photograph by Arthur Coleman. Bottom: A James Cioffi bedroom. (Click images to enlarge)

Ana Escalante (Escalante Architects, 760.323.1925, www.escalantearchitects.com). Escalante focuses on an ecology- and technology-driven aesthetic that employs energy-saving glass and photovoltaic panels, as well as sustainable materials such as steel ("because it’s recyclable"), bamboo, wood scraps and terrazzo made with recycled glass. For the Greenbaum house she designed in the gated hillside community of Mirada Estates, Escalante returned the graded land back to its original condition.

Top: A hallway by Jeffrey Jurasky. Bottom: A bedroom by Jeffrey Jurasky. Photograph by Jeffrey Jurasky & Associates. (Click images to enlarge)

Jeffrey Jurasky (Jeffrey Jurasky & Associates, Inc., 760.325.1090, www.jjandadesign.com). "I’d like to think we don’t have a look," says Jurasky, whose interior design is informed by his architectural background. He works all over the valley, but the majority of his design projects are for homes between 7,000 and 14,000 square feet.

Narendra Patel (Patel Architecture, 760.776.5031,Rancho Mirage, www.patelarchitect.net). Some of Patel’s designs utilize solar panels, energy-efficient glass and a light-weight concrete block "made of recyclable materials" that doesn’t require drywall, plaster or insulation. "You can have a super-luxury home that is ecologically friendly," says Patel, a former protégé of architect Donald Wexler. His projects include the master-designed ALTA community in Palm Springs, and a 16,000-square-foot residence in Bighorn.

Top: A Jeffrey Jurasky–designed residence at the Bighorn Golf Club in Palm Desert. Photograph by Jeffrey Jurasky & Associates. Bottom: A home by Juan Carlos Ochoa. (Click images to enlarge)

Guy Dreier (Guy Dreier Designs, Palm Desert, 760.568.3670, www.guydreierdesigns.com). Many of the contemporary residences Dreier designs and builds are located in country clubs. "Everybody has different needs and wants for a club," he says. "We direct clients to clubs based on their lifestyle." Dreier oversees every detail, from the selection of the lot and landscaping right down to the bed, coffee table and rugs.

Wallace Associates (Wallace Associates, Palm Springs, 760.416.9909, www.wallacedevelopment.com). This general contracting firm specializes in custom home construction as well as restorations and remodels of classic modern homes.

Phillip K. Smith III (The Art Office, Indio, 760.342.4111, www.theartoffice.com). "We’re an office that does a little bit of everything," says Smith, a designer who opened the Art Studio in 2000. Smith designs residential and commercial buildings, but has focused more on sculpture and furniture lately, using materials such as wood, steel, bronze and plastic.James Cioffi (Cioffi Architects, Palm Springs, 760.325.1557, www.jamescioffiarchitect.com). Cioffi focuses his modern style on Palm Springs proper and provides a wide range of services, including custom home design, remodels and restorations (most notably, Albert Frey’s Villa Hermosa apartments).

Juan Carlos Ochoa (Ochoa Design, Palm Desert, 760.773.6605, www.ochoadesign.com). Ochoa has designed contemporary homes, but lately he has been involved in more traditional styles, from Early California to Mediterranean to Italianate. For these, Ochoa turns to-ward true traditional materials, such as natural stone, exposed wood ceilings, old-world plaster finishes, and wood and stone floors.

Top: A fire pit by Roger Hopkins for a Bighorn residence, Middle & Bottom: Two views of Marcello Villano’s landscaping in Palm Springs. Middle & Bottom photographs by David Glomb. (Click images to enlarge)

Landscape Designers/Craftspeople
Coachella Valley landscapers place a big emphasis on using indigenous flora, such as paloverde, cactus and desert willow, and limiting the need for irrigation. Form follows the function of having to respect a harsh climate. To that end, putting in a pool is also a must. "It’s odd if you don’t," says landscape architect Michael Buccino. "In Palm Springs, the oasis is the heart of where life is."

Marcello Villano (Rancho Mirage, 760.401.0452). "I persuade my clients who want pretty green lawns to go with desert plants," says Villano, who has been employing a "less is more" style to his desert landscapes throughout the Coachella Valley since opening his firm in 1992.

Michael Buccino (Michael Buccino Associates, Palm Desert, 760.772.7166, www.mbuccino.com). "I love making the contrast between the rugged desertscape and the oasis of the pool, which is fragrant, soft, enjoyable, relaxing and refreshing," says Buccino, who has designed a wide variety of projects but specializes in large-scale custom residential work.

Ron Gregory (RGA Landscape Architects, Palm Desert, 760.568.3624, www.rga-pd.com). Celebrating his 30th year in business, landscaper Ron Gregory focuses on larger projects, most notably, a 180-foot pool on a triple lot at Mirada Estates. His other endeavor, Pinnacle Design, handles golf course landscaping.

Wayne Williamson (Insight West, Palm Desert, 760.568.9089, www.insightwest.com) "I like a lot of unusual materials," says Williamson, an interior/exterior designer who has used everything from a shot-up piece of metal ("murdered art") to a petrified, seven-foot-tall tree trunk. To solve an exterior lighting problem in a Tamarisk Country Club residence, Williamson made a walkway of translucent selenite, lit from beneath with rope lights.Roger Hopkins (Stone Sculptor & Associates, North Palm Springs, 760.409.2210, www.rockartist.org). Rock sculptor Roger Hopkins creates "primitive modern" art and furniture out of stone. He recently built and installed a hot tub made from a boulder.

Shopping
Little gems are interspersed throughout the valley, but the buyer’s mecca is El Paseo, Palm Desert’s ultra-chic shopping district with more than 300 stores selling furnishings, clothing and art. For a more "found treasure" experience, the antiques stores and consignment shops along Palm Canyon Drive (or Highway 111) in Palm Springs offer everything from midcentury furnishings to high-end couture.

Modern art is thriving in Palm Springs at galleries such as Buschlen Mowatt, which shows works by artists like Helen Frankenthaler, Tom Wesselmann and Robert Motherwell. (Click image to enlarge)

Maison Felice (73-960 El Paseo, Palm Desert, 760.862.0021, www.maisonfelice.com). This 18,000-square-foot antiques store specializes in European furniture and accessories from the 18th and 19th centuries.

Imago Galleries (45-450 Hwy. 74, Palm Desert, 760.776.9890, www.imagogalleries.com). This gallery fo-cuses on contemporary sculpture, painting and photography, but is best known for glass works by such artists as William Morris and Dale Chihuly.

Modern Way (2755 North Palm Canyon Dr., Palm Springs, 760.320.5455, www.psmodernway.com). Open Thursday through Monday, this shop specializes in midcentury modern furnishings from around the world.

Estate Sale Company (4185 E. Palm Canyon Drive, Palm Springs, 760.321.7628). Owner Sharon Dean checks out some six houses a day to keep her 60,000-square-foot consignment store filled with everything from antiques and retro furniture to patio accoutrement and oddities, such as bronzed fountains and gold-leaf columns that were acquired from Elizabeth Taylor’s home.

Buschlen Mowatt Galleries (45-188 Portola Ave., Palm Desert, 760.837.9668, www.buschlenmowatt.com). In business since 1979, this 7,000-square-foot gallery showcases modern and contemporary artists, such as painter Helen Frankenthaler, sculptors Sorel Etrog and Lynn Chadwick and Pop artist Robert Indiana.

Vivant Interiors (73-710 El Paseo, Palm Desert, 760.779.1010). Vivant focuses on traditional interiors and sells damask, toile and tapestries.

Events
Predictably, most of Coachella Valley’s annual events take place in the cooler temps of winter. In mid-January, the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic (January 14–20, 760.346.8184, www.bhcc.com) attracts professional golfers and celebrities at courses throughout the valley. At the Palm Springs Modernism Show (February 15–17, 760.219.4599, www
.dolphinfairs.com/palmsprings) fine-arts dealers display and sell vintage 20th-century furniture and decorative arts. In March, the world’s best tennis players gather at the state-of-the-art Indian Wells Tennis Garden for the Pacific Life Open (March 3–16, 760.200.8000, www.pacificlifeopen.com), the "most-attended non–Grand Slam tennis tournament in the world." The Palm Springs Art Museum (760.325.7186, www.psmuseum.org) holds exhibitions and concerts year-round. Feeling philanthropic? Do your part to save iconic modernist structures by joining the Palm Springs Modern Committee (www.psmodcom.com).