Guest Bird #4 – Sylvia
Palm Springs is in the Coachella Valley (in the desert) about 100 miles east of Los Angeles. It’s hot — it was in the 80′s or 90′s every day in October, and it rarely rains! It does get up to 115 degrees in the summer, so most people do not live here year-round.
Palm Springs was sparsely populated until the arrival of air conditioning in the 1940′s! Then it became a hotspot where Hollywood came to play. The town really kicked into cocktail hour in the late 1940′s and 1950′s when Frank Sinatra, Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, Lucille Ball (our friend Susie owns Lucille Ball’s former home in Thunderbird Country Club), Cary Grant, Clark Gable, Jack Benny, the Gabor sisters, Red Skelton, Dinah Shore, Liberace, and Kirk Douglas moved in. Some of these entertainers would “break in” their routines at clubs here, before headlining the showrooms of Las Vegas. Palm Springs was the ideal escape — at the time it was a dusty 4-hour drive from Los Angeles and inaccessible enough that there were few paparazzi… In the 1950′s golf took over, and many people lived inside “country clubs”, which turns out to be a great idea NOWADAYS (good security, private, quiet, safe, etc.)
Bob Hope’s house, see amazing aerial photo below
These affluent vacationers wanted their second homes to be beautiful and different. Wood disintegrates in the desert, so the architects who came here started designing homes with glass, stone, steel, and concrete. They wanted differing rooflines: curvy, butterfly, zig-zag, pointy. And, they wanted transparency between being “indoors” and “outdoors”, lots of skylights, and interior spaces more “open” and minimal. Thus the architectural style known as “Palm Springs Modern” was born, also referred to as Mid-Century Modern. Palm Springs Modernism reflects Hollywood, tourism, the desert, and wealth. Similar forces existed in Los Angeles, but in Palm Springs they were concentrated in a small, isolated area. The architects who subsequently became famous for this innovative, daring, unique style are: Richard Neutra, A. Quincy Jones, Paul R. Williams, Albert Frey, E. Stewart Williams, William Cody, Donald Wexler, Palmer and Krisel, and John Lautner.
Palm Springs has recently developed a dedicated group of modern preservationists, as many of the mid-century homes were to be knocked down. In 2002, the 1963 Maslon House at Tamarisk Country Club, one of only three homes in the area designed by Neutra, was demolished and this ignited American Modern preservation in Palm Springs. My in-laws (members of Tamarisk Country Club) were very close friends of the Maslons, and spent a LOT of time at this house. In 1960, Samuel and Luella Maslon started working very closely with Richard Neutra to design a house to hold their extensive contemporary art collection. The property was two acres (the Maslon’s purchased THREE lots), it was on the fairway, and it had a very desirable mountain view. After Sam and Luella died, their heirs put the house up for sale. It was purchased in 2002 by Richard Rotenberg for $2.45 million. About 30 days later, my mother-in-law was playing golf at Tamarisk. When she got to the 12th hole, she saw to her complete horror — the Maslon house was being torn down. She immediately stopped playing golf, ran home, and called the Maslon’s daughter (an attorney in Boston) to inform her of what she had just seen. The daughter said, “The buyer PROMISED to keep the house intact.” My mother-in-law said, “Did you get that in writing?” The response was, “No, it was on a hand-shake.” I can’t remember what my mother-in-law said next, but the Maslon’s daughter hasn’t spoken to her since!
For some fascinating reading about presidents and celebrities and their homes in Palm Springs, read excerpts here from: Palm Springs Legends: Creation of a Desert Oasis (start with Chapter 29 and keep reading!)
When viewing the photos below, please hover your mouse over the word “Notes” on the lower right side, so that you’ll be able to see the descriptions!
Great books I recommend:
Palm Springs Modern links:
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Sylvia grew up in central
California, spent 20+ years working in Manhattan, and is currently trying to sell her New York house–located in Hamptons. You can connect with Sylvia, a Diva at Networking, via http://twitter.com/SylviaEnder and http://www.linkedin.com/in/SylviaEnder.
This is Sylvia’s second For the Birds Landing. You can find her first post here.
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