MODERN HOMES IN PALM SPRINGS

From Los Angeles, we enter the city of Palm Springs from the west, first passing the Palm Springs Visitor Center.

1. Architects Donald Wexler and Ric Harrison, alongside the Alexander Construction Company, planned a community of 38 low-maintenance, middle-class residences in 1960. The homes’ cores were prefabricated off-site, and the perimeter walls were bolted and welded in their final resting places in the arid desert. Construction began in 1961 and a rapid increase in the cost of steel followed, leaving the Wexler Alexander Steel House project canceled and short 31 houses. The seven homes that were realized in 1962 have since been remarkably restored. 3125 North Sunny View Drive

Then, let’s swoop down to the pockets of Chino Canyon, Little Tuscany, and Vistas Las Palmas.

2. The Grace Lewis Miller House was Austrian architect Richard Neutra’s first commission in a desert environment, dated 1937—fifteen years after he arrived in Los Angeles. Neutra’s pragmatic approach to architecture was needs-based, and Ms. Miller’s needs were simple: a $5,000 winter escape in which she could also practice holistic posture exercises with her clients. The Miller House has been restored lovingly by its current owner. It has a pretty decent wall around it now, but if your toes allow you to stand tall enough, you can catch a glimpse of it! Try to imagine this home originally being surrounded by barren desert. 2311 North Indian Canyon Drive

3. Singer and actor Dean Martin owned this 1954 treasure. He and his wife Jeanne hosted friends and fellow Hollywood stars on Sunday afternoons. Dean played songs for his guests on his white baby grand piano. These occasions became frequent enough to deem the house the “Tea Dance House.” Dean Martin is long gone, but the house and its piano remain. 447 West Mariscal Road

4. This is, in my opinion, the most exciting house on this tour. A real car stopper! Each Palm Springs visit absolutely requires a peek at the Richard Neutra-designed Edgar Kaufmann Desert House, even if its most famous vantage point is savored solely by the owners. The house, built in 1946, served as the winter home for the same family who commissioned Frank Lloyd Wright to build the outrageously iconic Fallingwater. Learn more about this house while sitting outside its gate. 470 West Vista Chino

5. The Edris House’s commissioners, couple William and Marjorie Edris, gained much of their wealth investing in tomato farms and movie theaters. Thankfully, the residence resembles the latter more than the former. This Douglas fir, desert stone, and steel home was designed by E. Stewart Williams in 1954. 1030 West Cielo Drive

6. This white and turquoise residence was built by—you guessed it—the Alexander Construction Company, and designed by William Krisel in 1957. This home’s exterior has the appeal of the atomic age, but without the unnecessary layer of kitsch that has been applied (in more recent years) to many Palm Springs homes of its kind. 1387 North Via Monte Vista

7. A butterfly-roofed beauty, also designed in 1957, has some rumors surrounding its provenance. The home is said to have hosted JFK, Marilyn Monroe, and Frank Sinatra. I didn’t think I cared about celebrities until writing this guide…I suppose that it’s tough to escape the allure of Old Hollywood while in Palm Springs! 1295 North Via Monte Vista

8. The Alexander Estate was called the “House of Tomorrow” in magazines and it has another charming identity, nicknamed after its most famous residents: the Elvis Honeymoon Hideaway. Remember the Alexander Construction Company that built the Wexler Steel Houses at the begining of this tour? The same builders created this home—and during the same year! Elvis and Priscilla Presley stayed in this blush-colored house just after their wedding in 1967 (they also lived here for one year, renting it for a total of $21,000). This home was a tourable house museum filled with Elvis memorabilia until it was sold a few months ago. We’re lucky its peak protrudes prominently over the construction fence. 1350 Ladera Circle

Let’s move a tiny bit east to The Movie Colony. Hopefully you got a cue from Elvis’s house and upgraded your sunglasses to a more Hollywood-esque style.

9. Here’s the name Donald Wexler again! Wexler built this fantastic home for himself and his wife Marilynn as they were expecting a child in 1955. This was Wexler’s first architecture project in Palm Springs, and the design fit the family’s needs successfully enough for them to occupy it for almost four decades. Wexler even helped with the home’s restoration in 2008, a few years before he passed away. This one is tough to see over the fence, but the surrounding neighborhood is worth driving around. 1272 East Verbena Drive

10. The Frank Sinatra House was initially commissioned to be a Georgian-style home with large, ornate exterior columns. Thankfully, architect E. Stewart Williams convinced the singer-actor to pivot to a modern style in 1947. You can’t see too much of it from the road because of the bricked exterior, however, it is rentable for private events and you can view images of its interior here. 1145 East Via Colusa

Next, we’re zipping through downtown and south to Twin Palms Estates.

11. At the time of its construction in 1964, the Frey House II was the highest-perched home in Palm Springs. Albert Frey, the architect of the Palm Springs Visitor Center that you drove by on your way into town, was recognized for his commercial designs throughout the desert city. This was the second house he built for himself in Palm Springs, and its 800 square feet boasts an usual occupant: a floor-to-ceiling, protruding boulder that acts as a room divider and a conduit for electricity (there’s a light dimming dial built into the rock itself). Tours are available through the Palm Springs Art Museum. If you can’t manage to book a tour, there’s a great view of it in the hillside from down below on the corner of Tahquitz Drive and Arenas Road. 686 Palisades Drive

12. You’ll pass many sloping and butterfly roofs and pristine, modernistic wonders on your way through the Twin Palms Estates neighborhood. The most important one to note is the Alexander House because it served as a design template for other homes in this late-1950s tract. The residence was designed as a collaboration between architects Palmer & Krisel and the father-and-son Alexanders, whose construction company (mentioned earlier) was responsible for over 2,000 homes in Palm Springs. Please take a little extra time exploring the other homes on these short streets—I promise that you won’t regret it! 1070 East Apache Road

13. This 1964 home is another one of my top-favorites on this tour, and I hope you’ll understand why as soon as you lay your eyes on it. What’s not to admire about its exterior crossbracing-turned decorative element, its blue and white color palette, and the manner in which it wraps itself around the corner of its expansive, well-groomed lot? 1608 South Sagebrush Road

14. The Leon J. and Thea Koerner House was designed in 1955 by E. Stuart Williams with landscaping by Garrett Eckbo, although now it sports some tall perimeter shrubbery. What’s important about this neighborhood, Deep Well Estates, was that its mix of ranch-style and mid-century homes was built for business professionals and retired industrialists in the immediately-post-war period. A few of this tract’s homes were designed by Williams, while others were made by Harrison by way of Donald Wexler’s construction company. 1275 South Calle de Maria

15. Here’s a well-survived example of a Wexler-built home in the Deep Well Estates: the William Boggess House. Its striking sloped roof, slatted courtyard overhang, tucked away carport, and all-white hue finds a perfect balance with the surrounding palms and desert landscaping. 1366 South Calle de Maria

The Frey House II, image courtesy of the Palm Springs Art Museum.

“I had a very careful survey made showing the contours and all the rock. Then I put up some strings to see how the design would work out. We then established the levels, and then I had to fit the glass to the rock. The slope of the roof follows the slope of the terrain, the contrast between the natural rock and the high tech materials is rather exciting.”

— Albert Frey, about the creation of the Frey House II

And finally, to the outskirts of Palm Springs—Rancho Mirage.

16. We aren’t finished with E. Stewart Williams. In 1951, he built a home for baseball player Ralph Kiner in Rancho Mirage. As you admire the home’s stonework and Palm Springs Orange front door, imagine what the surrounding landscape would have looked like after you learn that it was the second home to built in this entire development. 71279 Country Club Drive, Rancho Mirage

17. Sunnylands was the 200-acre winter estate for Walter and Leonore Annenberg, designed by A. Quincy Jones and Frederick E. Emmons in 1966. Since then, it has hosted US presidents and the Queen of England (Walter was appointed by Nixon to be the US Ambassador to the UK shortly after the estate was built), Frank Sinatra’s wedding, and now, you. Typically, with the exception of its summer hiatus, tours are available of the historic estate or one can visit the art center and gardens without a reservation. 37977 Bob Hope Drive, Rancho Mirage