Just got my tickets today!! I’ve been wanting to see this house since I was a kid, visiting Palm Springs. Here’s a great opportunity to check it out, and to join the Palm Springs Museum and the Arts and Design Council.
The Arts and Design Council is holding its anual ADC Fundraiser – (6:00 PM – 8:00 PM – Saturday, March 20)
This is a rare opportunity to enjoy the spectacular Hope House at a cocktail reception with fellow ADC members. The enormous roof, which echoes the surrounding hills of Southridge, hovers over an expansive patio and garden area where Lautner’s dramatic architecture can be experienced. Invitations will be mailed to ADC members.
Fundraiser
ADC Fundraiser at the Bob & Dolores Hope House, designed by John Lautner
$200 per person (ADC members only)
To make reservations, please call Brooke Devenney at 760.322.4818 or email bdevenney@psmuseum.org
Interesting article about Palm Springs life, in 1959….Posted in TheMercuryNews.com
By Christopher Reynolds
Los Angeles Times Posted: 02/23/2010 05:23:05 PM PST Updated: 02/23/2010 05:23:07 PM PST
PALM SPRINGS — President Dwight D. Eisenhower, on holiday from the White House, whips a golf club beneath a blue October sky. Frank Sinatra, driven indoors by a December rainstorm, schmoozes with Peter Lawford and sings with Ella Fitzgerald.
Meanwhile, other rich and famous folk are partying at the Chi Chi Club or pulling up their Cadillac coupes in front of the Riviera, a new modern hotel. All over the Coachella Valley, architects and builders are seducing tourists with butterfly roof lines, space-age appliances, minimalist graphics and backlighted starbursts.
Yes, 1959 was a swinging year in Palm Springs. And it’s not over yet.
Thanks to preservationists, entrepreneurs, publishers and design-driven travelers, the cult of Desert Modernism gets bigger and bigger, drawing retro pilgrims to Palm Springs. Inspired by books about Palm Springs and the 1950s, I spent three October days in the desert, all dedicated to 1959.
I consulted Peter Moruzzi’s “Palm Springs Holiday,” a volume of vintage postcards, menus, brochures, matchbooks and old photos. For further kicks, I consulted “1959: The Year Everything Changed,” in which author Fred Kaplan proposes that year as an unheralded pivot point in history.
Kaplan asserts that 1959 “was the year when the shock waves of the new ripped the seams of daily life … when categories were crossed and taboos were trampled, when everything was changing and everyone knew it — when the world as we now know it began to take form.”
Racquet Club Estates is the neighborhood where Alexander Construction Co. and architect William Krisel put up their first vacation-house subdivision in 1959. Picture a ‘hood of soaring roofs, clerestory windows, carports, screens of concrete blocks, pebbles and palms in the yard, and living rooms begging for Dean Martin on the hi-fi. New, these houses sold for $19,000. Now, with classic features bathed in avocado green, bold orange and powder blue, vacation rentals run $200 to $300 a night.
“Nineteen-fifty-nine was a good year for architecture here,” said Jade Nelson, 33, the manager of Orbit In hotel. The city “has made this resurgence because of its architectural legacy,” Nelson said. “But it lost the glamour that era brought with it. All the celebrities. There were hundreds of them.”
Palm Springs, which has about 48,000 year-round residents now, had about 13,000 then. The main drag, then as now, was Palm Canyon Drive.
For a view of the future, drive to the tall, ultramodern City National Bank building, which horrified some and transfixed others when completed in 1959.
The building, designed by Rudy Baumfeld of Victor Gruen Associates, was an homage to a tall, ultramodern chapel that modernist pioneer Le Corbusier had designed in Ronchamp, France. Now it’s a Bank of America. But it’s also a reminder that builders and architects then were thinking outside the box.
So was architect Albert Frey. In addition to a number of startling private homes and a compound now known as the Movie Colony Hotel, Frey collaborated on the low-slung City Hall and Fire Station No. 1 in the mid-’50s. By 1959, he was working on the city’s aerial tram, which would be completed in 1963.
Later came Frey’s pointy-roofed Tramway gas station, near the northern entrance to town. It now houses Palm Springs Visitor Center. A $5 map offers 75 local modernist landmarks, including many designed by Frey, William F. Cody and E. Stewart Williams.
Overnight visitors in 1959 had plenty of options: El Mirador (opened in the 1920s, closed in the ’70s) with its red tile roof; the brand-new Spa Hotel, or the Riviera, which opened in 1959 with guest buildings radiating out from the central pool like spokes from the hub of a wheel.
As the 50th anniversary approached, the owners spent $70 million on a renovation that has added Hollywood Regency promiscuity to the old minimalism with red chandeliers, portraits made of Guatemalan coins, colorized posters of bathing beauties.
In the Riviera’s new incarnation, the main pool’s edges curve gently, flanked by fire pits and cabanas. The 406 guest rooms are a riot of brown and orange and white, (like the Vegas Strip, but no casino.
Not everybody wants to stay in a big hotel, and by 1959 Palm Springs was full of tiny ones. In the Tennis Club district, a short stroll from downtown, was the Town & Desert (built in 1947, designed by Herb Burns). The Village Manor (1957, Burns again) was a few doors away.
After restoration and relaunches in the early 2000s, the Town & Desert is now the Hideaway (10 rooms) and the Village Manor is the Orbit In (nine rooms). With their prime locations, period furnishings, prices beginning at less than $150 and playful retro interiors, the two are stars in the modernist tourism revival.
“That chair came from a dumpster. It had pink upholstery,” said Nelson, pausing at a reclaimed retro armchair at the Hideaway.
The refurbished Chase Hotel (26 rooms), which went up in the late 1940s, used to be the Holiday House. A few blocks over are the stacked boulders and off-kilter angles of William F. Cody’s Del Marcos Hotel (16 rooms), a brilliantly designed but somewhat bedraggled 1947 spot with some renovation.
On the bending stretch of East Palm Canyon Drive that used to be called Indio Road is another sleek Herb Burns design from 1951: the Desert Riviera (11 rooms), a stark, U-shaped outpost with a pool in the middle.
Across the street is the bohemian Ace Hotel (which opened as a Howard Johnson’s hotel in 1965, with a Denny’s next door) and the quiet Alexander Inn, which was probably apartments in 1959.
With the recession knocking down rates, these small hoteliers would rather see adult couples than kids. Families are more welcome at the bigger resorts.
The former 1959 Holiday Inn sits at the south end of town on East Palm Canyon Drive. Since 1959, multiple owners have nudged the property upscale, including Gene Autry and Merv Griffin. Since 2004, it’s been known as the Parker Palm Springs. The midcentury bones of the 13-acre, three-pool, 144-room compound are amended with designer Jonathan Adler’s eclectic whimsy — knights in armor, butterfly chairs. Mister Parker’s is the hotel’s upscale eatery. The extremely low light (a flashlight comes with menu) and the groovy 1960s and ’70s art, are reflected by mirrored ceilings.
The reborn Parker’s, Moruzzi writes, is proof “that Palm Springs truly is the face-lift capital of the desert.”
Of course, plenty of ’50s Palm Springs landmarks have been lost, including the Desert Air (a fly-in hotel) and the Chi Chi Club (closed in the ’60s).
And up and down the valley, scores of new hotels and restaurants and golf courses and condos and water parks and such have arisen. But in a territory that’s so mutable, it’s a great comfort to lie in the shade of the rediscovered buildings that endure.
In February, Texas Instruments seeks a patent for the integrated circuit, aka “the microchip.”
Alaska and Hawaii gain statehood. The U.S. and Russia rush their space programs forward. G.D. Searle seeks approval for Enovid as a contraceptive “” “the pill.” The first Barbie doll is unveiled at a New York toy show. “The Sound of Music” opens on Broadway.
New film releases “Ben-Hur,” “Some Like It Hot” and “North by Northwest” do boffo box office. Francis Truffaut releases “The 400 Blows.”
Bobby Darin is on the pop-music charts with “Mack the Knife” and “Dream Lover,” as is Frank Sinatra with “High Hopes.” Chubby Checker introduces “The Twist.” Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson die in a plane crash. Miles Davis records “Kind of Blue.” John Coltrane records “Giant Steps.” Dave Brubeck records “Take Five.”
Norman Mailer publishes “Advertisements for Myself.” D.H. Lawrence”s “Lady Chatterley”s Lover,” written more than 30 years earlier but blocked over alleged obscenity, debuts in the U.S. and becomes a best-seller.
In October, the Los Angeles Dodgers, only two seasons removed from Brooklyn, defeat the Chicago White Sox to win the World Series. Meanwhile, on a seven-day vacation in greater Palm Springs, President Dwight D. Eisenhower plays golf six times at El Dorado Country Club.
In December, Frank Sinatra tapes a TV special in Palm Springs with guests Ella Fitzgerald, Juliet Prowse and Peter Lawford “” but a surprise rainstorm forces filming indoors.
Over 10,000 architecture aficionados will be flocking to Palm Springs for the annual Modernism Week to discover the largest collection of mid-century modern architecture in the country. The 10-day event is scheduled for February 12-21, 2010, featuring more than 40 events including architectural tours, films, book signings, and film screenings, as well as chic galas and tours of mid-century modern homes. A vintage car and Airstream trailer show are new events this year. www.VisitPalmSprings.com and www.ModernismWeek.com
STOP BY MY BOOTH AT THE MODERNISM SHOW ON FEB 13 and 14th and pick up a free Palm Springs Mid-Century Neighborhoods Map.
Here’s the schedule of events for the week:
Please check back periodically for updates on the
Modernism Week Schedule of Events
*Join KCET for a Pre-Modernism Week event featuring a very special screening of Julius Shulman: Desert Modern, at the legendary Frank Sinatra Twin Palms Estate, 5:30 – 7:30 PM
*The Architecture and Design Film Series in Partnership with Design Onscreen:Ray Kappe: California Modern Master Forty Years of Modular
Evolution & Philip Johnson, Diary of an Eccentric Architect, 10 AM
*Lecture by Bill Butler on Albert Frey, 2 PM
Wednesday 2/17:click here for details…*Slide Lecture: Lost, Saved and Endangered: Modernist Architecture
in Palm Springs, 8:30 AM – 10 AM
*House tour of Frank Sinatra’s Twin Palms Estate, 10:30 AM – 2 PM
*An Evening with Chef Johny Vee and Victoria Price, 6 PM
*Michael H. Lord Gallery artist reception: Architectural Photographer
Leland Y. Lee, 7- 9 pm (Exhibit runs 2/12 – 3/13)
Friday 2/19:click here for details…*The Architecture and Design Film Series in Partnership with Design Onscreen:Rem Koolhaas: A Kind of Architect, 10 AM
*Vintage Airstream and Trailer Show, exterior viewing begins 4 PM
Retro t-shirts by Vintage Roadside available
*Lecture by Frank Escher at the Palm Springs Art Museum, 5:30 PM (Museum members only)
*Opening of the Lautner Exhibition at the PS Art Museum, 5:30 PM (Museum members only)
*PS Preservation Foundation Retro Martini Party, 5 PM – 8 PM
The Palm Springs Preservation Foundation (PSPF) is proud to announce
Wexler Weekend, a three-day event in Palm Springs that will honor renowned modernist architect Donald A. Wexler. The weekend will kick-off on Friday, January 22nd with Design OnScreen’s film Journeyman Architect: The Life and Work of Donald Wexler. Saturday the 23rd (which is also Don Wexler’s 84th birthday) will include a five-hour house tour and an evening fundraiser at the Wexler-designed Leff/Florsheim House (1957).
Wexler Weekend will continue on Sunday the 24th with an event at the Wexler Steel Development Houses in the Racquet Club Estates neighborhood.
A 40-page tribute journal chronicling Wexler’s career will be released in conjunction with Wexler Weekend. The journal will be authored by Patrick McGrew, an architect who has written extensively about California’s historic architecture. McGrew will draw upon extensive personal interviews with Wexler and will have full access to the architect’s archives and photos. PSPF has engaged Wexler’s son, graphic artist Gary Wexler, to do the layout and design of the journal.
PSPF’s mission is to educate and promote public awareness of the importance of preserving the historic resources and architecture of Palm Springs and the Coachella Valley area.
The city of Palm Springs was ranked No. 2 in CNNMoney.com and Money Magazine’s list released Tuesday of the top 25 best places to retire in the U.S.
The article reports “It’s easy to see the appeal of living in the desert town beloved by Frank Sinatra’s Rat Pack. Residents get 332 days of annual sunshine, 360-degree views of the mountains, and as much culture and design as they can pack in.”
Those of us that live here, retired or not, most likely agree!
Here are the others on the list:
Top 10 retirement destinations
From CNNMoney.com and Money Magazine’s top 25 list:
Her new book, “Palm Springs-Style Gardening,” Maureen Gilmer brings as much insight into gardening in dry places as she brings to her myriad projects.
“Palm Springs-Style Gardening” is obviously about gardening in dry places, yet so much more. It also touches on a style of gardening appropriate to the architectures of water scarce regions. There is a great chapter on “Desert Cottage Gardening.”
Located at 128 La Plaza, Palm Springs (Across from Tyler’s) is
IMAGEVILLE
Ths is a great gallery filled with wonderful photography by Gary Dorothy, highlighting architecture, landscape, and numerous other unique images found here in the desert.
And right now, they’re having a sale through the end of August!
Thank you for supporting your local Palm Springs merchants!
During the next several months, Palm Springs will host several signature events including a film festival, a motorcycle event, a classic car show, Pride Weekend and the annual Festival of Lights Parade.
Cinema Diverse
Date: September 24-27, 2009
Location: Camelot Theatres, 2300 E. Baristo Road in Palm Springs
Fee Range: $11 for screenings; Passes $45-$160; Special Events additional
Description: Annual event begins at 3:30 p.m. pays tribute to all those who have served our country in the Armed Forces. Immediately following the parade is a post-parade concert and fireworks display at the intersection of Amado and Palm Canyon.
McCormick’s Classic Car Show and Auction #47
Dates: November 20-22, 2009
Location: Spa Resort Casino, 401 E. Amado Road, Palm Springs
Times: Begins at 4 p.m. on 11/20; Gates open at 8 a.m. on 11/21 & 11/22
Fee Range: Free on 11/20; 11/21 & 11/22: General admission is $10 per day or $15 for both days
Description: 500 classic, sports, antique and special interest autos are sold across the Auction block during the 3 days. Also a free car show of another 200 cars is held on Saturday.
Description: A walking tour of the historic, boutique and small inns in downtown Palm Springs. Maps can be picked up at the Palm Springs Art Museum or any of the participating properties.
Meanwhile, other rich and famous folk are partying at the Chi Chi Club or pulling up their Cadillac coupes in front of the Riviera, a new modern hotel. All over the Coachella Valley, architects and builders are seducing tourists with butterfly roof lines, space-age appliances, minimalist graphics and backlighted starbursts.
Racquet Club Estates is the neighborhood where Alexander Construction Co. and architect William Krisel put up their first vacation-house subdivision in 1959. Picture a ‘hood of soaring roofs, clerestory windows, carports, screens of concrete blocks, pebbles and palms in the yard, and living rooms begging for Dean Martin on the hi-fi. New, these houses sold for $19,000. Now, with classic features bathed in avocado green, bold orange and powder blue, vacation rentals run $200 to $300 a night.
Later came Frey’s pointy-roofed Tramway gas station, near the northern entrance to town. It now houses Palm Springs Visitor Center. A $5 map offers 75 local modernist landmarks, including many designed by Frey, William F. Cody and E. Stewart Williams.
The refurbished Chase Hotel (26 rooms), which went up in the late 1940s, used to be the Holiday House. A few blocks over are the stacked boulders and off-kilter angles of William F. Cody’s Del Marcos Hotel (16 rooms), a brilliantly designed but somewhat bedraggled 1947 spot with some renovation.
