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Discover Palm Spring’s Mid-Century Modern Architecture

Palm Springs is a mecca for modernism, especially mid-century architecture and design. In fact, you can’t avoid seeing and experiencing this special style while in town.

Stay at a mid-century resort.

Orbit In  is a retro resort with lots of mid-mod style, designed by Herbert Bruns. You can even see the Frey House from the outdoor shower of their Frey Room. Its sister property is The Hideaway, located in the historic tennis neighborhood.

L’Horizon Hotel is the former vacation retreat of television producer Jack Wrather, who produced shows like “The Lone Ranger” and “Lassie.” It was designed by architect William F. Cody.

Del Marcos Hotel  was architect Bill Cody’s first Palm Springs commission, setting the tone for post-war modern motels.

Movie Colony Hotel was designed by Albert Frey. The exteriors still show his style, but the interiors are more 21st-century modern than mid-20th-century.

The Desert Star  looks like a classic 1950s motel, but each one-bedroom unit is individually owned. Some owners put their units up for rent when they’re not using them.

Hollywood came to Palm Springs to play and getaway from the cameras and fans. They came here to be themselves and spend time with their high-profile friends: stars, aristocrats, business elite, and artists, among others. At first, they stayed at the popular El Mirador Hotel and then at the famous Racquet Club. Later, they built winter homes and invited the era’s most visionary architects to build their homes, offering them full artistic reign. Their creations were suited to the desert landscape, with lots of glass and clean lines, using innovative materials to create indoor/outdoor living spaces.

Vista Las Palmas Neighborhood

The Vista Las Palmas neighborhood came together in the late 50s when The Alexander Construction Co. hired William Krisel and Charles Dubois (responsible for all the fab Swiss Miss A-Frames) to design over 300 homes that would sit at the base of Mt. San Jacinto. Some of these backyards are literally giant, rocky mountains (which is hard to see in these photos because it was so rainy and foggy the day I drove through). Famous residents over the years include Dean Martin, Peter Lawford, Dinah Shore, Kirk Douglas, Debbie Reynolds, and Marilyn Monroe. Now that’s some serious star power. This neighborhood is bordered by Mt. San Jacinto to the West North, Via Monte Vista to the East, Vista Chino to the North, and West Crescent Drive to the South. This is one of the most exclusive neighborhoods in Palm Springs.

Here are just a few homes to see:

The Alexander/May House – 424 West Vista Chino: Edward Fickett designed this home in 1951 for his friend and colleague George Alexander of The Alexander Construction Co., who sold it to Tom May of the May Department Stores.

The Marilyn Monroe House – 1326 Rose: this ultra-chic bungalow has all the style and glam of Marilyn herself. It is said to be where Marilyn lived several months before her death. She did not own this home.

The Dinah Shore Estate – 432 Hermosa: You may not be able to see much of this estate from the street, but you can see a modernist’s dream house made of glass and stone. This low-profile masterpiece was designed by Donald Wexler in 1964 and sits on 1.3 acres. This is what I call timeless mid-century modern. After Dinah Shore, Broadway composer and lyricist Jerry Herman lived here. Hello, Dolly indeed! Leonardo DiCaprio owns the home and rents it out when he’s not using it.

Anne Miller House—457 Hermosa: Just across the street is a classic, Spanish terra cotta-roofed house that once belonged to actress and singer Ann Miller, best remembered for her work in the musicals of the 1940s and 1950s. You can’t see much from your street view,  but admire it quickly and move on!

The Wexler Steel Homes

290 E Simms Road

Donald Wexler and Ric Harrison designed this stylish-looking house with the accordion-pleated roof. Combining prefab and on-site construction, they created homes that looked custom-built but took only a few days to assemble on-site. Seven of the so-called Steel Houses were built in this neighborhood. House Number 2 (3125 North Sunny View Drive) is on the National Register of Historic Places. The Wexler Steel Houses are also the only Case Study houses in Palm Springs. These are private homes and not open to the public.

House of Tomorrow

1350 Ladera Circle

The Alexander Estate was built for a local real estate developer and called the House of Tomorrow. The design is based on four circles on three levels. It’s known as the Elvis Honeymoon Hideaway, where Elvis and Priscilla Presley honeymooned in 1967.

Palm Springs Art Museum Architecture and Design Center

300 S Palm Canyon Drive

Palm Springs Art Museum’s Architecture and Design Center is in a 1961 Santa Fe Savings & Loan building crafted by pioneering desert architect E. Stewart Williams. The old vault is now part of the gift shop. The museum is in the middle of a midcentury business district that’s worth walking around. Walking about two blocks south of the museum, you’ll pass several other midcentury buildings.

Twin Palms Neighborhood

South of Ocotillo Lodge on East Palm Canyon

Twin Palms Estates was developed beginning in 1957. It was designed by William “Bill” Krisel of Palmer and Krisel and was built by Alexander Construction Company. Most of the houses had private swimming pools, and they all had precisely two palms for landscaping. Tract homes were a big hit in Palm Springs; about 90 were built in Twin Palms. With a price tag of about $30,000 in 1957, they were within reach for vacation homeowners.

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California Case Study Houses

In January 1945 John Entenza, the editor and publisher of Arts & Architecture magazine, announced the Case Study Houses Program (CSHP), which was envisioned as a creative response to the impending building boom expected to follow the housing shortages of the Great Depression and World War II. 

Case Study House #22 Los Angeles by Pierre Koenig | Photo © Julius Shulman

Entenza encouraged participating architects to use donated materials from industry and manufacturers to create low-cost, modern housing prototypes that might foster a dialogue between architectural professionals and laymen. The Case Study Houses were built between 1945-1966 mostly in LA by Richard Neutra , Raphael Soriano, Craig Ellwood , Charles and Ray Eames , Pierre Koenig and Eero Saarinen . 

Case Study House #8 at the Pacific Palisades in LA. | Photo via Wikipedia

The Eames House is a landmark of mid-20th century modern Architecture and was constructed in 1949 by Charles & Ray Eames to serve as their home and studio.

The Eames House consists of two glass and steel rectangular boxes: one is a residence; one a working studio. | Photo © Herman Miller

The design was first sketched out by Charles Eames with Eero Saarinen in 1945 as a raised steel and glass box projecting out of the slope and spanning the entrance drive before cantilevering dramatically over the front yard. 

The house emphasise connection to the desert landscape while offering shelter from harsh climatic conditions. | Photo via Blenheim Gang

The Kaufmann Desert House in Palm Springs was designed by Richard Neutra in 1946. It is one of the most important examples of International Style architecture in the United States

With a simple rectangular design, the house is divided into two separate sections. | Photo via Urbipedia

The Case Study House #18b was the more successful in the series of Craig Ellwood. One of the most significant improvements was the preconstruction factory structure and combining this with other pre-built elements such as walls, floors. Another standard feature was the sliding doors in the living spaces of the house that overlooked the terrace and a pool for entertaining guests or family.

The design emphasizes harmony of materials and balance between interior and exterior through the use of terraces, water and skylights. | Photo via The City Project

In the Case Study House #21 , an early-career exploration, Pierre Koenig used a constrained set of industrial materials—primarily steel and glass—to execute a pure expression of his design approach. His philosophy of functionality and honesty in aesthetics manifests in a structure that appears simple but contains complexity in plan and organization.

Case Study House #22 in the Hollywood Hills was designed by Pierre Koenig. The house is considered an iconic representation of modern architecture in Los Angeles during the 20th century. 

The house was made famous by a photo of Julius Shulman showing two women leisurely sitting at a corner of the house with a panoramic view of the city through the floor-to-ceiling glass walls at night. | Photo © Julius Shulman

The highly publicized program ran from 1945 to 1964, spanning thirty-six individual designs, many of which were never constructed. The initial program announcement stated that “each house must be capable of duplication and in no sense be an individual performance” and that “the overall program will be general enough to be of practical assistance to the average American in search of a home in which he can afford to live.”

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Richard Neutra’s Kaufmann House in Palm Springs

• December 10, 2020

Kaufmann House, a Faithfully Restored Icon of Modernism, Showcases Richard Neutra’s Enduring Vision Under the Sunny Skies of Palm Springs

In 1953, Richard Neutra ’s “Survival Through Design” was published. The book was the architect’s treatise on how design could be a potent catalyst for a heightened human experience—particularly in the realm of our connection with nature. The book had been written by Richard Neutra throughout the 1940s, and many of his ideas no doubt crystallized during work on one of his most important commissions—Kaufmann House.  

The origins of the Palm Springs house date to 1946, the year it was built by Richard Neutra after having been commissioned by Pittsburgh department store businessman Edgar J. Kaufmann Sr. It was to be a winter retreat from his primary residence in Pennsylvania; Kaufmann’s weekend house in Pennsylvania happened to be the splendid Fallingwater , designed by none other than Frank Lloyd Wright .

Significant is that for this commission Kaufmann had selected Richard Neutra, not Frank Lloyd Wright—preferring the former’s open, airy structures that helped inhabitants live in sync with their natural environment. When completed, Kaufmann House stood as a testament to the designer’s architectural premises: a roughly 3,200 square feet dwelling, cleanly articulated in stone, metal, and glass—and planted neatly in the midst of a striking desert landscape. 

Arguably the most exclusive residential listing in the U.S. at the moment, Kaufmann House is represented by Gerard Bisignano of Vista Sotheby’s International Realty , architectural specialist, and South Bay real estate agent.

Gerard Bisignano’s forte is California Modernism, having represented another Richard Neutra—Kilbury House in Palos Verdes Estates —along with homes by Ray Kappe , Thom Mayne , Pierre Koenig and others. “The Kaufmann house really set the pace,” Bisignano points out. “This was just post-World War II and for the time it was ground-breaking.”

Five bedrooms are spread throughout the floor plan, which is assembled in a cross-like shape from which distinct wings span: there are two bedrooms in the guest wing, and another two bedrooms in the service wing. The core of the home holds the dining and living room, both neatly adjacent to the master bedroom—a sunlit retreat that’s fairly enclosed in floor-to-ceiling glass.

Remarkably, given the home’s 1946 vintage, is the absence of a corner post in the master bedroom, a feature that enables two glass doors to meet at a point, as if balanced in space. Slide the glass open, and one’s treated to an instant dose of fresh air, green grass and striking blue of the pool, a few steps away. Throughout Kaufmann House, outdoor living figures largely into the overall design, with fresh-air spaces incorporated side-by-side with interior ones.

The rectangular pool, for instance, is steps from the main living area. It balances the shape of the home, while injecting a refreshing element—water—into the desert palette of rocks and cacti. Head upstairs to the second floor, an open-air space Richard Neutra called the “gloriette.” 

From here one is treated to sweeping desert views, including the grand silhouette of the nearby San Jacinto mountain range. “The gloriette draws you,” says Gerard Bisignano. “It brings the house into an amazing harmony.” 

Working closely with Edgar J. Kaufmann Sr., Neutra created a place wholly dedicated to his clients’ relaxation and leisure. Kaufmann House still serves this purpose, its original sophistication freshly intact by virtue of conscientious ownership. Visiting the home notes Gerard Bisignano, is akin to entering a time machine: “It’s like walking into 1946.”

The history of the home has seen it pass from Kaufmann family ownership to others, including Barry Manilow. Changes were made along the way, disjointing Richard Neutra’s original design and intent. In 1993 Brent Harris and Beth Edwards Harris purchased the home, enlisting Los Angeles restoration architecture firm Marmol Radziner and Associates to undertake a painstakingly accurate restoration of the legacy property. The project, says Gerard Bisignano “ignited the whole Modernism restoration in Southern California, and Palm Springs in particular.” 

Taking five years, the restoration of Kaufmann House was faithful to Richard Neutra, all the way down to the toilets and floors. The aluminum louvers—a distinctive feature of the home the architect initially developed as protection against the wind, which were later adopted as a mainstay of the building industry—remain intact. As do many of the home’s original built-in features, like cabinets designed personally by the architect.

“They even had a mine in Utah re-open, so they could get the original stone that Neutra used back in 1946, as part of the renovation,” says Gerard Bisignano. Notably new to Kaufmann House are updated mechanical aspects (air conditioning, plumbing and the like) and the addition of a pool pavilion—mellow, spacious and ideal for entertaining. 

Sitting on 2-plus acres, Kaufmann House stands out with its clean-cut geometry, while natural materials, notably the Utah stone, keep it connected to the earth. As a foundational piece of American architecture, the home endures as an early and exceptional prototype of Desert Modernism—where the International Style of architecture was transposed to warm settings. Rather than shrink from nature, Desert Modernism embraced it: Inhabitants were freed from indoor-only living, their lives invigorated by sunlit skies and warm days. “For those who appreciate architecture,” Gerard Bisignano says of the house, “it’s like walking into a storybook.” 

In 1947, famed architectural photographer Julius Shulman shot a twilight image of the new home—one of several notable images that memorialized Kaufmann House in the minds of the public. (Rivaling Shulman’s is the colorful 1970 photo by Slim Aarons, Poolside Gossip.) Decades later, in the late 90s, Mr. Harris convinced a then-retired Shulman to come to Palm Springs and re-photograph the newly restored home, this time in color.

Harris shared the images with Gerard Bisignano, who had worked with the couple on two architectural homes in the South Bay. Poring over the images, Bisignano marveled at the fine artistry of the home, and at that moment, his passion for architecture was struck. “I hope to represent many more homes,” he remarks, “but there will never be anything like Kaufmann House.”

Gerard Bisignano | 310.990.4727 | DRE 01116110 Vista Sotheby’s International Realty

List Price: $25,000,000

Color photographs by Daniel Solomon, 2020. Black & White Photographs by Julius Shulman, 1947, 1949. © J. Paul Getty Trust. Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles (2004.r.10).

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• Barry Manilow • Beth Edwards Harris • Brent Harris • Frank Lloyd Wright • Gerard Bisignano • Julius Shulman • Kaufmann House • Marmol Radziner • Palm Springs • Richard Neutra • Vista Sotheby's

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• Location: Palm Springs California Regional Essays: California Riverside County Architect: Richard Neutra Marmol and Radziner Types: houses swimming pools Styles: Modernist Mid-Century Modernist Materials: concrete glass (material) metal steel (alloy) sandstone wood (plant material) plywood cork (bark)

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Volker M. Welter, " Kaufmann House ", [ Palm Springs , California ], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/CA-01-065-0001 . Last accessed: August 4, 2024.

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Richard Neutra’s Kaufmann House in Palm Springs was designed and built in 1946–1947, although some sources claim that the preparatory contact between client and architect occurred in 1945. The house exemplifies Neutra’s approach to designing a house and its surroundings as a single, continuous environment, a concept he had begun to work with in the early 1940s. Other examples are Neutra’s Nesbitt House (1942, Los Angeles) and the Tremaine House (1945–1948, Montecito). The Kaufmann House is an early example, and one of the clearest, of a post–World War II southern Californian modernism that closely integrates the building with its environment. For Neutra, however, the house also symbolized a universal type of dwelling for difficult-to-settle environments.

Edgar J. Kaufmann Sr. (1885–1955) and Liliane Kaufmann (1889–1952), Neutra’s clients, had been patrons of modern art and architecture for many years, mainly in the Midwest, where they owned a department store in Pittsburgh. Until they commissioned the Desert House, the Kaufmanns had been loyal patrons of Frank Lloyd Wright, who had designed an office for E. Kaufmann inside the department store (now at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London) and Fallingwater near Mill Run, Pennsylvania, both completed in 1937.

The Desert House stands in the northern part of Palm Springs, where the lower slopes of Mount Jacinto meet the plain of the Coachella Valley. Neutra responded to the flat site with a pinwheel floor plan whose four wings follow the cardinal directions. The house is entered through the southern wing, which is oriented perpendicular to the street. The spaces of the entrance passage hint at recurring design themes of the house. Visitors first follow a short, irregular pathway that traverses a small, landscaped area with boulders and desert plants. They then enter a straight walkway leading to the full-height glass entrance door. On its left side, the walkway is delineated by a wall faced with dry-set Utah sandstone; a cantilevered roof offers shade. To the right, the view goes across a lawn with interspersed boulders toward an outdoor swimming pool. Behind the sandstone-faced wall Neutra placed a car garage and a secondary entrance into the western wing of the house, which contained the service spaces and servant quarters furthest west.

The central hub of the pinwheel plan is the living area to the right of the entrance hallway. Floor-to-ceiling sliding glass panes along the right side and the far end fill the room with abundant light, unless the curtains are pulled, and, depending on the weather, open it to the outdoor swimming pool. Forming the center of the room is a fireplace set into a wall, as well as an adjacent sofa. Behind the fireplace a passageway leads along another full-height glass wall to the eastern wing, which accommodates a master bedroom with bathroom, a dressing area, and a small study or den. A covered, outdoor walkway leads from the enclosed living area along a low water channel, or lily pond, to two guest bedrooms in the northern wing. Except for a series of vertical, pivoting aluminum louvers that are mounted above the water feature and offer, when turned into the closed position, some protection from the winds blowing down the mountain on the western side, the passageway is open to the elements. Along its eastern side, the walkway widens into an outdoor terrace between the living area and the guest rooms. Neutra created another outdoor seating area by placing a lookout pavilion above the living area of the otherwise one-story building. The pavilion’s western and northern sides are lined with the same aluminum louvers as used below, while the other two sides are left open. Neutra named this elevated room a “gloriette,” a northern European Baroque term that denotes an elevated pavilion offering views of a garden or a landscape.

The variety of spaces, ranging from enclosed to semi-enclosed to open, transcends any traditional distinction between indoors and outdoors in favor of a continuous, human-made environment. The palette of materials, which include, for example, steel, glass, concrete, Utah sandstone, and aluminum, underlined the artificiality of the house; Neutra emphasized in his writings that this house, like any other, was inserted into its location rather than growing out of its site. Moreover, the new environment was designed so that its occupants could fine-tune its features for physical comfort, most notably the radiant heating and cooling systems for the concrete surfaces of the outside terraces. Lastly, within the hostile desert surroundings the new environment was to be a safe one as exemplified by the mirrors Neutra installed in unexpected places, which allowed the inhabitants to scan their immediate surroundings. Among the most prominent roots for the Kaufmann House’s design characteristics was Neutra’s interest in Wilhelm Wundt’s late-nineteenth-century physio-psychology but also his own prolonged experience of nature’s malevolence while serving in the Balkans during World War I.

The Kaufmanns used the house mainly as their winter residence, relocating to Palm Springs during the colder months. After 1964 two subsequent owners altered the house, increasing the square footage from approximately 3,200 square feet to just over 5,100 square feet, which compromised the original design. In 1993, the house’s current owner hired Los Angeles architectural firm Marmol and Radziner to return the house to its original state by relying on many painstakingly researched original materials and production processes. The architects also designed a pool house located to the west of the swimming pool.

The Kaufmann House is privately owned and cannot be visited. Only the entrance front is visible from the street.

Bossier, W. Richard Neutra Buildings and Projects . 1950. Reprint, Zurich: Edition Girsberger, 1955.

Christie’s Realty International , ed. Richard Neutra: the Kaufmann house: offered at auction by Christie’s Realty International, Inc.  New York: Christie’s Realty International, 2008.

“Desert House Richard Neutra architect.” Arts and Architecture  66, no. 6 (June 1949): 30-33.

Friedman, Alice T. American Glamour and the Evolution of American Modernism . New Haven: Yale University Press, 2010.

Futagawa, Yukio, ed. “Richard Neutra Kaufmann ‘Desert House,’ Palm Springs, California, 1946. Tremaine ‘House in Montecito,’ Santa Barbara, California, 1948.” GA Global Architecture  [1971]. Reprint, Tokyo: A.D.A. Edita, 1980.

Hines, Thomas. Richard Neutra and the Search for Modern Architecture . 1982. Reprint, New York: Rizzoli, 2005.

Hines, Thomas S. Architecture of the Sun: Los Angeles Modernism 1900-1970.  New York: Rizzoli, 2010.

Lamprecht, Barbara Mac. Richard Neutra: Complete Works . Edited by Peter Goessel. Cologne: Taschen, 2000.

Lavin, Sylvia. Form Follows Libido.  Cambridge: MIT Press, 2005.

Neutra, Richard. Mystery and Realities of the Site . Scarsdale, NY: Morgan and Morgan, 1951.

Welter, Volker M. “From the Landscape of War to the Open Order of the Kaufmann House: Richard Neutra and the Experience of the Great War.” In The Good Gardener: Nature, Humanity and the Garden , edited by Annette Giesecke and Naomi Jacobs, 216-233. London: Artifice Books on Architecture, 2015.

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• Location: Palm Springs, California Regional Overviews: Riverside County Architect: Marmol and Radziner Types: houses swimming pools Styles: Modernist Mid-Century Modernist Materials: concrete glass (material) metal steel (alloy) sandstone wood (plant material) plywood cork (bark)

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John Lautner's concrete domed Elrod House overlooks Coachella Valley

We're continuing our series on modernist buildings in Palm Springs with American architect John Lautner 's Arthur Elrod House, which has a dome-shaped concrete roof and a half-moon swimming pool that featured in the James Bond film Diamonds Are Forever.

The residence sits on an elevated site in Palm Springs ' Araby Cove neighbourhood, facing north to overlook the city and Coachella Valley beyond. Lautner completed the house in 1968 for American designer Arthur Elrod, who created the interiors for the home himself.

The layout is centred around a circular living room that measures 60 feet (18 metres) in diameter with an indoor-outdoor pool.

The space is covered by a huge wheel-shaped ceiling, formed by a set of alternating glass and concrete segments, and wrapped with a metal band around its outer edge. Light enters overhead through angled metal fins that form frames for the glazing.

Curved, sliding glass walls surround the front portion of the living area, opening to a terrace and the swimming pool that both face the view.

Inside, two large benches coloured light creme are also shaped to follow the geometry of the space. A matching rug mirrors the round ceiling overhead, with a fireplace along one wall.

Completing the main living room are a pair of dark upholstered chairs with high backs, a small dining table with metal chairs, and a set of rounded side and coffee tables.

A herringbone pattern features on the floors, while dark timber forms cabinetry and accent walls, and other surfaces display the board marks created when the concrete was poured.

Structural support is provided by square-shaped concrete pillars around the perimeter. Floating concrete steps lead from the pool down to a rocky path.

The natural rock of the San Jacinto mountains features prominently in the interiors, and exposed boulders are seen in the main living room and stairwell.

Elrod House is considered an example of organic architecture – a branch of modernism that is typified by more natural shapes than the style's usual rectangular planes, and elements of the landscape incorporated into the buildings.

Organic architecture was championed by Frank Lloyd Wright , for whom Lautner worked as an apprentice in the mid-1930s. Soon after, he opened his own firm and built many residential projects in California.

Lautner came from a creative family, and was the son of Austrian and Irish immigrants who were interested in the worlds of interior design, painting and philosophy. Born in Michigan in 1911, his childhood home was built by American architect Joy Wheeler Dow, and his  summer lake house  was designed and built by his parents themselves.

Lautner became a key figure of California modernism, thanks to projects like the LA residence he designed for art collector James Goldstein. The house famously appeared in the 1998 movie The Big Lebowski, and was donated to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art  in 2016.

The Elrod House also made it onto the silver screen. A scene from the 1971 film Diamonds are Forever, from the James Bond series, saw actor Sean Connery thrown into its pool by a bikini-clad bodyguard.

The home has changed owners several times since its completion, with its most recent rumoured to be fashion designer Jeremy Scott.

It is located close to the Araby Trail, a hiking path that also passes by Lautner's nearby house for comedian and performer Bob Hope .

These houses are among a generous collection of modernist buildings in the city, which are celebrated each year during Palm Springs Modernism Week .

This year's edition runs from 15 to 25 February 2018, and we're marking the occasion by spotlighting some of the most important examples of architecture in the area.

They include the  Twin Palms estate by E Stewart Williams , Richard Neutra's Kaufmann House , and the Tramway Gas Station that is now used as the city's visitor centre.

Photography is courtesy of Nelson-Moe Properties/Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage.

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• Palm Springs Modernism Week
• Residential architecture and interiors
• American houses
• John Lautner
• Californian houses
• Palm Springs
• Residential

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The new midcentury modern

To meet demand, developers are bringing back the ‘midcentury’ home

The most iconic image of midcentury American architecture is arguably Julius Shulman’s photo of the glass-walled Case Study No. 22 house in Los Angeles, which appears to float weightlessly, almost magically above the city. The appeal of the image—which Time m agazine called “the most successful real estate image ever taken” (and which was in fact staged with models in cocktail attire)—lies in the way that the silhouetted inhabitants appear to live in another plane, absent any extraneous furnishings or walls, yet safely enclosed and bathed in the home’s light. The luxury the house evokes is neither gaudy nor accessible; it is desirable because of what and who isn’t there—walls, clutter, crowds, or street. Shulman’s photo and the architecture it depicts have in years since helped stoke a mimetic desire for a weightless, minimalist, perfectly curated life, a desire that now drives an entire industry of midcentury real estate, furniture, and associated lifestyle goods.

But midcentury modern homes are increasingly rare and can require expensive repairs, while suburban upper-middle-class homes built after the midcentury period, with their thick walls and frequently Southwest or Mediterranean features, tend to be the formal opposite of the Stahl house. With actual midcentury homes out of reach for most, developers and architects are now attempting to satisfy—and of course sell to—this desire with midcentury-inspired construction. But the new midcentury-inspired home does not look quite like the Case Study house in Shulman’s photo. Comparing Case Study House No. 22 and its ilk to new midcentury-inspired homes tells us not just what was so appealing about midcentury architecture, but also what architecture has lost since that period.

Midcentury modern architecture has been less popular with practicing architects than with homebuyers, since architects are incentivized by their trade and its publications to architect forward, not backward. Several architects I spoke to said that even as the midcentury fervor has grown, many refuse to rebuild the old styles, favoring new work in organic and futuristic forms over repetitions of old designs. According to architect Ray Kappe, who is known for his glassy, transparent midcentury home designs, “most graduates of schools of architecture since the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s have wanted to move architectural ideas forward. They are interested in having their work published in the magazines and books, [and] most publications are presenting other work.”

“We would rather design for this era than a 70-year-old era,” says Palm Springs architect James Cioffi, who worked in the ’70s with iconic midcentury architects like Hugh Kaptur and says he is often called a midcentury architect but doesn’t consider himself one. Cioffi, with other contemporary architects, like Lance O’Donnell, is building new homes in an area of Palm Springs called Desert Palisades . These homes are intended to be truly modern, rather than what Cioffi calls “throwbacks.”

But even when architects are amenable to reproducing them, certain classic features associated with midcentury modernism are no longer allowed by construction codes. “As we [got] further along in time the thinness of structural elements tended to change,” Cioffi says. “A lot of that was code-driven. We can no longer use 2-inch square columns to hold up overhangs.” That’s only one reason why the seemingly sky-high glass-to-column ratio of the Stahl house cannot be replicated. In California, where many of the most famous midcentury American homes were built, new homes must use tempered glass for windows fewer than 60 inches from the floor, meaning that the midcentury’s untreated, single-pane floor-length windows have been left behind. California codes also require ever-increasing measures for energy efficiency to reduce the amount of solar heat that can penetrate the window. According to Kappe, “In the midcentury there were no energy codes or limits on glazing sizes so the detailing of glass could be simpler and, in my opinion, better.”

So what happens when the market demands architecture from a 70-year-old era? The resort town of Palm Springs was the site of many iconic midcentury developments and is now at the center of a wave of what developers are calling “midcentury modern” homes, though they are being designed and built today. Looking at these replica midcentury homes from the street can be a bit hallucinatory at times: They look like something out of a photograph from the 1960s, except that everything is smoother, thicker, and brighter, with perfectly sculpted desert landscaping and hardscaping out front in place of the midcentury’s well-watered green lawns.

The degree to which new midcentury developments attempt to remain faithful to midcentury models varies. “It’s a choice between whether you want 70 percent midcentury with a contemporary inspiration, or 70 percent contemporary with a midcentury inspiration,” said Tyson Hawley, an agent with KUD Properties, which is developing a collection of houses in Palm Springs called the Desert Eichlers.

Unlike most of the midcentury replicas that are on the market, the Eichlers are based on original midcentury plans—for developer Joseph Eichler’s Bay Area tract homes—and the final product adheres fairly closely to the original Eichler look, with a living plan surrounding a glass atrium that provides views between several living spaces. Even the thin roofs of the original Eichlers appear to be replicated, although according to developer Troy Kudlac, that appearance is more a matter of proportion than fact. “The original Eichlers were tongue-and-groove with a rolled roof right on top; ours have several layers consisting of foil, plywood, insulation, and foam,” he says. “But they look thin compared to the other [midcentury replicas] around that are thicker.”

Like other new “midcentury” developments, the Desert Eichlers have a kind of technicolor perfection that differs from the more muted, sunlight-tempered hues of original midcentury homes, utilizing brightly stained wooden ceilings and a new “Eichler” multicolor paint palette co-branded with Dunn-Edwards. The reinterpreted Alexander Construction Company homes that James Cioffi built in 2014 have a similar hyperreal look, like the Palm Springs originals but brighter and weightier: The architecture is nearly identical, but the roofs are higher and thicker to accommodate energy efficiency and a modern desire for higher ceilings. Cioffi’s Alexander homes, unlike the original Alexanders or the new Desert Eichlers, also produce their own solar energy.

The “midcentury modern-inspired” Skye development, also in Palm Springs, creates a less faithful, larger-than-midcentury look that incorporates elements of midcentury design into a contemporary format. In Skye, the ceilings are higher and the rooms are larger than in a midcentury home, but in midcentury fashion, the great room features a slanted roof, an articulated brick fireplace, and a wet bar with views onto the pool. Skye’s preponderance of white tile, white walls, and white beams is in contrast with the more mod, bright accent colors at the Desert Eichler and new Alexander developments, but remains brighter than the original, sun-faded midcentury homes, which seem sepia toned in contrast.

Kaptur Court is a complex of three homes designed by Hugh Kaptur, the architect of many of Palm Springs’ most iconic midcentury and late modernist buildings. Kaptur Court in Palm Springs makes faithful use of midcentury accent materials like rock-faced walls, square concrete brick, and clerestory windows; however, the heft of the walls and roofline are clearly of the contemporary era. This heft, in service of insulation and energy efficiency, is perhaps the biggest reason why new homes, however “midcentury modern” inspired, can never quite assume the elegance of the Case Study houses. And of course, while Skye, Kaptur Court, and the Desert Eichlers all deploy abundant glass panes to achieve Palm Springs’ requisite “indoor/outdoor” feeling, the use of glass remains limited to areas like patio sliders and windows, rather than entire lengths of the home.

New “midcentury modern” homes have developed their own dialect for midcentury modern design, raising the question of what the phrase “midcentury modern” means in a contemporary context. If it can’t mean the specific form of Case Study No. 22 and similar architecturally obsolete glass boxes, “midcentury modern” then must become a way of trying to capture the feeling the images from the period inspire. What the Shulman photo depicts beyond the architecture itself are two women in party dresses, appearing to be in animated conversation, surrounded by slim furniture as lightweight in appearance as the home itself. Beyond our insatiable desire to live in floating glass homes, what the Shulman photo engendered is a sense that midcentury modern means effervescent social life, perfectly dressed and curated and yet also apparently at ease, like the women in the photo.

To buy a new “midcentury modern” home, then, is to buy a vision of oneself in such composed yet carefree happiness; what one can’t achieve in full glass walls one can approximate with minimalist decor and large, open entertaining spaces. This is what the new “midcentury modern” developments are building and selling: not necessarily replicas, but homes focused around large, airy entertainment space, with clean angles and unadorned edges in place of what in recent decades were curvy, decorated facades. The new “midcentury modern” housing development, in addition to recreating the sparkling, effortless cocktail vibe associated with the period, is about creating a home that in its sleek, minimalist, sparsely decorated lines works hard to make the viewer imagine that the more ornate ’80s, ’90s, and 2000s never happened.

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Tour the Most Beautiful Homes from This Year’s Modernism Week In Palm Springs, California

In many ways, Palm Springs, California, is an architectural oasis. Located a mere two hours from Los Angeles, the desert city was developed as a midcentury haven for Hollywood’s biggest stars— Marilyn Monroe , Frank Sinatra , Ava Gardner , Liz Taylor , and Elvis Presley, to name a few, found themselves in Palm Springs at one time or another. A half-century later, and the homes they left behind are still adored by many. Every February since 2005, the best of midcentury-modern design, architecture, art, fashion, and culture are showcased during Palm Springs’ Modernism Week . The 11-day affair is rich with tours of iconic homes, architectural walks, and double-decker bus tours, as well as lecture and film series, among other design-focused events. This year’s show, which runs through February 21, is expected to draw more than 60,000 visitors from around the globe. Here, Architectural Digest takes a look at some of the most fascinating midcentury homes featured during the event.

Shown: Referred to by some as the Camp David of the West, Sunnylands has entertained politicians and celebrities alike. It was built in 1966 by architect A. Quincy Jones.

Desert Eichler House, designed by the renowned postwar developer Joseph Eichler.

M. W. Indian Wells was the former winter residence of President Eisenhower.

Steel House by Donald Wexler, an influential midcentury-modern architect.

Built in 1965 and designed by Albert Frey and Robson Chambers, the Tramway Gas Station was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2015.

Raymond Loewy House by Albert Frey, the architect responsible for establishing much of the style that came to be known as desert modernism.

Seva House was designed by modernist architect Hugh Kaptur, who went on to build more than 200 residences in the area (including houses for actors Steve McQueen and William Holden).

When Frank Sinatra moved to Palm Springs in the 1940s, he transformed the sleepy town into a hot spot for Hollywood stars. The Sinatra House is where the singer lived during some of his most publicly turbulent years.

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Julius Shulman

(American, 1910–2009)

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Build Your Own Neutra Home!

• Written by Nicky Rackard
• Published on April 26, 2013

The mid-century modern master, Richard Neutra was well known for his cutting edge modernism. Since Julius Shulman immortalized his houses in his iconic photographs, Neutra's bright, airy homes have widely been seen as the pinacle of modernism and desirability. One problem though, they're in high demand and it's not exactly like they're making any more Neutra buildings; in fact, quite the opposite is true and as a result they have become a pretty expensive commodity .

Read more about how to get your very own Neutra home after the break...

However, all that is about to change thanks to a new partnership between his son, Dion Neutra, the Neutra Office and California Architecture Conservancy, who have enabled regular Joe-sixpack license the right to build their very own Neutra-designed home. Dion Neutra and the Neutra Office will even supervise the construction to boot, while keeping it up to modern spec. They are promising a selection of plans to choose from, both built and unbuilt. Although prices are strictly upon request, The Agency - the California real estate outfit selling the plans - assure potential buyers that it will be "the price of what one would customarily pay for an architect to design and render supervising architectural services."

So if you're wondering what to get that Neutra fan in your life for Christmas, start saving your pennies and contact Billy Rose at The Agency for more information on how to proceed.

Options include the 1948 Kauffman House , the 1929 Lovell Health House , Case Study House No. 6 , Case Study House No. 13 , and more .

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Modernism Week: Grand opening date of The Aluminaire House announced during lecture

In 1987, New York Institute of Technology architects Michael Schwarting and Frances Campani saved the 1931 Aluminare House from demolition while it was at a private Huntington, Long Island estate.

The Aluminaire House, which was designed by Lawrence Kocher and Albert Frey, has since become an icon of modernist design, and was recently listed by Architectural Record as one of the most important buildings completed worldwide in the past 125 years.

During a Tuesday Modernism Week presentation at the Hyatt Palm Springs, Schwarting and Campani remembered going into the structure for the first time and seeing the disrepair, which included graffiti on the walls and missing features of its original design.

After securing a grant, the house was recorded, architecture students dismantled it layer by layer and it was moved into storage before it would be reconstructed at the NYIT's Central Islip campus.

"After it was announced (The Aluminaire House) was going to be demolished at Huntington, people were upset. Paul Goldberger wrote an article in the New York Times and he was upset, the American Institute of Architects in Long Island was upset and looking for someone to take care of it," Schwarting said. "I started teaching at the New York Institute of Technology and the dean asked, 'Are you interested in saving this house? People keep calling me about it.'"

When Kocher and Frey designed the Aluminaire House, the duo followed the five principles of Le Corbusier, a Swiss-French architect. The five principles are using reinforced concrete columns, the absence of supporting walls, a free design of the exterior, a horizontal window and a roof garden.

Frey moved to Palm Springs in 1934 and his work spans more than 300 properties in the desert. Some of his notable homes include Frey House I on E. Paseo El Mirador, Frey House II above the Palm Springs Art Museum, the Cree House on the border of Palm Springs and Cathedral City and the Guthrie House on Mel Avenue in Palm Springs. 

It was built as a case study home

The Aluminaire House was designed as a case study home made of donated materials and has a metal exterior to display an affordable construction and housing for the 1931 Allied Arts and Industry and Architectural League Exhibition in New York City. The home only took seven days to put together for its debut at the Grand Central Palace Exhibition Hall. While it was there, 100,000 visitors walked through the home.

The exhibit was widely reported on, especially in two notable articles by Douglas Haskell for the journal Parnassus and Catherine Bauer Wurster for The New Republic. Bauer Wurster described it as a " fine piece of work" while Haskell said it was "aesthetically crude" but supported the idea of it.

Harrison bought the home in 1931  and installed it on his property as a summer house and guest house.

According to Schwarting, Harrison grew tired of it, decided it wasn't big enough and started building his own home on the same property. A LIFE magazine article showed Harrison mowing his lawn with the home atop a hill in the background, but it was later relocated further down the hill.

"We found when we took it apart that it hadn't been disassembled, it had been pushed or something," Schwarting said.

The home was disassembled again in 2012

When the Central Islip campus decided to remove its architecture programs from its campus, the house was disassembled again in 2012 in fear of vandalism while the student population diminished. It was transferred to the Aluminaire House Foundation and put into storage.

Threatened by vandalism on the near-empty campus, in 2012 it was decided to dismantle the House and put it in storage until an appropriate site could be found.

"We hired a builder who we worked with a lot, he came with a very small crew and they took it apart in about a week or so. We put the whole thing in a 40-foot trailer and started looking at sites."

After a failed 2013 proposal to reassemble the home at Sunnyside Gardens in Queens and nine years of seeking a permanent home, the structure was donated to the Palm Springs Art Museum in 2017. Modernism Week board member Mark Davis, who is also a founding member of the Aluminaire House Foundation, and other desert-based architecture experts spearheaded a  lengthy fundraising drive  to raise more than $600,000 to bring it from New York to Palm Springs.

Early estimates to install the home at the Palm Springs Art Museum were not realistic

The Aluminaire House was supposed to be reconstructed by winter 2021-22 at the Palm Springs Art Museum, but the museum was closed for over a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Executive Director and CEO Adam Lerner told The Desert Sun in 2023 it would be completed in 2024 and early estimates of $400,000 for construction were not realistic.

At the Palm Springs Preservation Matters 2022 Symposium, Lerner said it would cost $2 million or more to install the outdoor exhibition at the end of the museum's south parking lot, but construction costs were updated to $2.6 million. The museum received $2 million from a capital campaign and needed to raise the remaining $600,000.

On Tuesday, the museum said in a statement it had raised the remaining amount and a $50,000 gift from Modernism Week brought the project over its initial goal set by the capital campaign under the direction of museum board member LJ Cella.

The grand opening is scheduled for March

The Aluminaire House will have its grand opening at 2 p.m. on March 23, seven years after it was announced. However, visitors won't be able to actually go inside. Lerner said in 2023 that upon further examination of previous issues raised by the city related to fire code, lack of air conditioning and insulation and making it ADA accessible to people with disabilities that “it’s not feasible to make it accessible.”

There will be a day of programming dedicated to Frey and docents will lead special tours of the current "Albert Frey: Inventive Modernist" at the Palm Springs Museum Architecture and Design Center and the main museum will sceen Frey's 8mm home movies in its atrum.

Previous reporting by Desert Sun staff was included in this report

Desert Sun reporter Brian Blueskye covers arts and entertainment. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter at @bblueskye.

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Iconic Homes: Zsa Zsa Gabor’s Sold Palm Springs Residence & Case Study House 18 Hits the Market

The allure of architectural history and celebrity glamor intertwine as we explore two remarkable homes making waves in the real estate market. Zsa Zsa Gabor’s former Palm Springs retreat, once a playground for Hollywood royalty, has recently changed hands. Meanwhile, a piece of architectural heritage, Case Study House #18, is now up for grabs, offering a glimpse into the iconic mid-century modern movement.

Modernism’s Influence: A Brief History Modern-style architecture, characterized by its sleek lines, functional design, and integration with nature, emerged as a prominent movement in the 20th century. Inspired by the Bauhaus school’s emphasis on standardized construction and social equality, modernism gained traction in both Europe and the United States. Influential architects like Frank Lloyd Wright and Walter Gropius shaped the movement, with Wright’s ‘Usonian’ style and Gropius’s Bauhaus principles leaving a lasting mark on architectural design.

Case Study Houses: A Legacy of Innovation In post-World War II America, the demand for housing spurred a wave of experimentation in architecture. Arts and Architecture magazine commissioned renowned architects to design efficient, replicable homes for the masses. Among these, Case Study House #18 stands as a testament to ingenuity and forward-thinking design. Perched on a Pacific Palisades bluff, this Rodney Walker creation, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, embodies the essence of mid-century modernism. Now available for $8.9 million, it offers a rare opportunity to own a piece of architectural history.

Zsa Zsa Gabor: A Touch of Glamour Meanwhile, in Palm Springs, the legacy of Zsa Zsa Gabor lives on in the vibrant hues of her former residence. Once a hub of high society and lavish gatherings, this iconic property has captured the imagination of many. With Zsa Zsa’s flamboyant persona and her sisters Eva and Magda adding to the allure, the Gabor sisters epitomized Hollywood glamour. While the final sale price remains undisclosed, the allure of owning a slice of celebrity history in the desert oasis of Palm Springs is undeniable.

As Zsa Zsa Gabor’s former Palm Springs abode finds a new owner and Case Study House #18 beckons with its architectural splendor, we’re reminded of the enduring appeal of both celebrity and design. Whether seeking a piece of Hollywood history or a glimpse into the innovative spirit of mid-century modernism, these homes offer an opportunity to own a piece of the past while embracing the future of architectural excellence.

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Thorough restoration—not demolition—underway on Case Study House No. 21

One of the most important homes in Los Angeles was starting to slip downhill

Built between 1956 and 1958, Case Study House No. 21, also known as the Bailey House , features walls of glass, reflecting pools, and sliding doors. The boxy residence was designed by Stahl House architect Pierre Koenig and, seen from the street, the landmarked dwelling resembles a quintessential midcentury modern home.

But it was one of a just a handful of houses in the influential program orchestrated by Arts & Architecture magazine . So when neighbors and onlookers noticed drastic work underway on the site in Laurel Canyon , they feared for the future of the iconic home.

“Drove by the Bailey House and only found her bones,” one Instagram user who photographed the construction site posted on Monday.

Far from being harmed, the house is actually being rescued, says designer Mark Haddaway . He was hired by the new owner—a trust linked to Alison Sarofim, a film producer and daughter of billionaire Fayez Sarofim—who purchased the property in February for $3.26 million.

Case Study Houses were meant to be inexpensive, reproducible homes for the middle class—a solution to the postwar housing shortage. The Bailey House was built out of prefabricated steel and topped by a corrugated metal roof.

View this post on Instagram Bailey House - Case Study House #21 | Pierre Koenig, 1959 Drove by the Bailey House and only found her bones. So sad. I can't find anything about this online but since the steel frame remains, I hope that means it will be renovated as per the original. . . . . #casestudyhouse #casestudyhouse21 #pierrekoenig #california #californiamodern #midcenturymodern #baileyhouse #LAarchitecture #losangeles #modernarchitecture #architecturephotography #archilovers #steelframe A post shared by Vanessa Guillen (@vassilisag) on Jul 21, 2019 at 10:04am PDT

But as Haddaway told the the city’s cultural heritage commission in June, “because the budget for the project was small, the foundations for the house were minimal.”

Those foundations are now an issue.

Haddaway said that when contractors lifted up the concrete slab over the living room floor, they found an 18-inch gap between the ground and where the room’s floor had hovered. The soil had subsided, sliding out under the rest of the foundation.

In other words, it appeared Case Study House No. 21 was starting to slip downhill.

The solution Haddaway’s team has come up with involves inserting a grid of “helical anchors” under the living room with the goal of stabilizing the house and preventing any further slippage. In some places, Haddaway says, the house has moved two inches off its original elevation. The anchors wouldn’t undo that, but they would halt any new movement.

In a phone interview, Haddaway says the improvements are needed to ensure the home’s survival for decades to come.

In addition to the foundation work, Haddaway also plans to restore the original yellow kitchen (the one in the house now is from 1997), reform and waterproof the pools that make up the original water features, and replace the original white vinyl tile with white terrazzo—a switch that would leave the door open for a future owner to put the vinyl tiles back in if they wanted to, Haddaway told commissioners.

Speaking at the June meeting, Lambert Giessinger of the city’s office of historic resources, told the commissioners that the project had initially sparked concern in the community because work had begun on the removal of the 1990s-era kitchen—before the city had been given a chance to weigh in. Now, however, the two groups are working together, Giessinger said.

Haddaway has worked on the house before and was, for a time, its owner. He has restored a number of other midcentury homes and is also working now on John Lautner’s Elrod House in Palm Springs.

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