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Summary: The mid-century modern architecture of the desert oasis.
Review: When I started visiting Palm Springs five years ago I was first captivated by its physical beauty--snow-capped Mount San Jacinto, always guaranteed to block out the clouds and smog drifting over from Los Angeles; the masses of date palms, bougainvillea and oleander swaying against crystal blue skies; the pinks and reds of the raw desert juxtaposed against immaculate golf courses. It was Shangri-La refound and and easy two-hour escape from L.A.Since I was an editor at Architectural Digest at the time, I heard about several major restorations of 1940s and 50s houses that were going on around town--Richard Neutra's house for Edgar J. Kaufmann, the Pittsburgh tycoon who had commissioned Fallingwater from Frank Lloyd Wright; Albert Frey's house for industrialist designer Raymond Loewy; Frank Sinatra's first house; John Lautner's hovering spaceship that had been seen in "Diamonds Are Forever." The range of styles intrigued me--the postwar architects were working for the most part with limited budgets on vacation houses, but they had access to a whole new world of materials and technologies. But apart from a few fashion layouts in magazines and a book on influential modernist architect Albert Frey, nothing had been documented about the town's architectural heritage, which ranges from superb Spanish Colonial estates built in the 1920s and 30s to the modernist masterpieces of the 1940s and 50s to the kitschy over-the-top disco palaces of the 1960s and 70s. I was submerged in the pool at my favorite hotel, Korakia Pensione, when the proverbial lightbulb went off. Why not do a book that showcased the best of the sophisticated mid-century modern design and architecture, which had survived surprisingly intact? The timing was auspicious. Frey and Stewart Williams were the last surviving members of the first generation of architects who had settled in the desert in the 1930s and 40s and they were now in their 80s and 90s. Others, such as John Porter Clark and Bill Cody, were unknown outside the Coachella Valley, but their work in defining the town's modern style for its municipal buildings, schools, libraries, golf resorts and private residence deserved greater recognition. Over the past five years the resurgence of Palm Springs has been the subject of numerous articles in major magazines. I hope my book is just the first of many to examine the extraordinary impact of this desert oasis, which on the surface seems merely the playground for Hollywood stars, the wealthy and golfers. Palm Springs was defined by Frank Sinatra, Bob Hope and Dinah Shore. Now a new generation of design enthusiasts has become intrigued by its style. As for me, I have seen my future, and it involves a white Cadillac.
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