Herb Ritts, Richard Gere – Poolside, 1982, C-type print, Courtesy of the Herb Ritts Foundation, Los Angeles © Herb Ritts Foundation

Backyard Oasis: The Swimming Pool in Southern California Photography, 1945-1982

opens January 21 in the Palm Springs Art Museum’s Annenberg Wing.

www.psmuseum.org

Beyond some of the obvious glamorous shots of Marilyn Monroe, Ann Miller, Rock Hudson, Liberace, and other stars, the exhibit explores more deeply how photography emerged during as an important medium of fine art, according to Palm Springs Life editor Steven Biller in his art feature this month, breaking the surface.

One pivotal moment came in 1982 when fine art photographer David Hockney’s composite Polaroid shots of a nude bather “challenged paintings as the dominant mode in all fine art,” said Daniell Cornell, the museums deputy director of art  who curated the exhibition.

Hockney’s composite of many Polaroids as one artwork, first exhibited at the L.A. Louvre gallery, will be one of 140 works in the show.

“Backyard Oasis… organizes the photographs in themes explored in the museum’s preparatory symposium: the backyard pool in celebrity, Cold War California, architecture and design and beefcake and ‘skate cake’ views of masculinity,” writes Biller.

Biller notes that “the swimming pool also provided a platform to show the changing depiction of gay and straight masculinity.”

Photographer Bob Mizer’s nine homoerotic images once “held a pretense that the buff, one-cloth-from naked men were posed to promote fitness.”

Architectural photographers such as Julius Shulman’s iconic views of Richard Neutra’s Kaufmann House and Albert Frey’s Raymond Loewy House seem to “elevate midcentury modern houses to celebrity status.”

www.palmspringslife.com

As part of the Getty Foundation’s Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A., 1945-1980 regional initiative, Backyard Oasis traces the iconography of California’s  swimming pool, an integral part of the region’s identity, and suggests “the hopes and disillusionments of the country’s post World War II ethos.”

Bill Anderson, Raymond Loewy Family, Palm Springs, California, 1957, gelatin silver print, Collection Palm Springs Art Museum, gift of Dorothy Anderson © Palm Springs Art Museum

In addition to more than 100 framed archival photos, Backyard Oasis includes selected celebrity home film clips from Steve McQueen and Ginger Rogers shown on flat-screen monitors.

Among well known artists’ work will be Diane Arbus, Bill Anderson, Michael Childers, Anthony Friedkin, Robert Cumming, Shulman, and Maynard Parker.  The exhibition’s catalog contains the photos and an overview of California swimming pools’ aesthetic and culture.

The show continues through May 27, 2012.

Renowned Modernist architect E. Stewart Williams designed the Palm Springs Art Museum in 1974 and  the Steve Chase Art Wing and Education Center which opened in 1996.  The 124,435 square foot museum complex houses various galleries, sculpture atriums, a museum store, cafe, and the 437-seat Annenberg Theater for the performing arts.

It’s located in the heart of downtown Palm Springs at 101 Museum Way, Call (760) 322-4800 or go online at www.psmuseum.org

Backyard Oasis exhibit is open Tuesday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Thursday, noon to 8 p.m., closed Monday and holidays.  Free admission every Thursday, 4 – 8 p.m. during downtown Villagefest and the second Sunday of every month.  Admission is $12.50 adults, $10.50 seniors, $5 students, free for youths under 12, active military and their families.

After viewing the Backyard Oasis exhibit, explore Palm Springs’ vast collection of modernism homes and public buildings.  Pick up a map at the Palm Springs Visitor Center for a self tour.

www.visitpalmsprings.com

When you’re ready to “dive in” to your own desert modern home and pool, contact Team Haverkate for a personal tour of homes and estates for sale.  Email agent@teamhaverkate.com or visit online at

www.HaverkateRealEstate.com.

– Pamela Bieri

The Palm Springs International Film Festival  opens this week with hundreds of filmgoers, movie makers, directors, actors and celebrities expected to attend the annual gala on Saturday, Jan. 7 and more than 100 films during the 11 day festival.

The Palm Springs International Film Festival takes place Jan 5-16.  Visit www.psfilmfest.org for tickets, information or to search for movies and screening times.

Besides the incredible array of films, galas and parties, one of the non-film highlights is an exhibition of Marilyn Monroe photographs that will be on display in stores and restaurants throughout Palm Springs Uptown Design District all during the festival.

The show is based on a new book about the actress, Marilyn: Intimate Exposures, and chock full of  photos by Bruno Bernard, her friend and confidante, the famous Bernard of Hollywood who is credited with “discovering” Marilyn.

“The art exhibit is something I’ve wanted to do for quite a while,” said Darryl MacDonald, festival director in a Palm Springs Life Desert Guide story by Scott Brassart this month.

www.PalmSpringsLife.com

Bernard has been called the “Rembrandt of photography” and the “king of glamour” who made his name taking portraits of female stars and starlets of the 1950s such as Anita Ekberg, Jayne Mansfield, Brigitte Bardot, and Monroe.  He also photographed many male luminaries such as John Wayne, Gregory Peck, and Elvis Presley.

Bernard fled Nazi Germany in the 1930s, eventually migrated to California where he studied film and photography.  He established himself in Hollywood becoming one of the most sought-after celebrity photographers.  Countless hopeful stars visited his Sunset Boulevard studio to have their portraits taken.

While she was still called Norma Jeane, the young model first met Bernard in 1946. One story says they  met passing one another while Bernard was leaving a dentist appointment apparently near his studio.

As did many Hollywood hopefuls, Norma Jeane stared up at the “Bernard of Hollywood” sign and asked if he thought she could be a model.

Bernard’s now famous photos captured the transformation of Norma Jeane, then a 19-year-old girl-next-door, into the glamorous movie star, Marilyn Monroe.

Bernard wrote,  “While nature has been generous to her figure, her face is just that of any pretty girl her age, very much like the girl next door, with the exception of her translucent skin, her waiflike innocence, the helplessness underneath.”

No one was so much at ease in front of the camera as Norma Jeane:  “Concentration, projection and synchronization are second nature to her,” he wrote in his journal.

www.immortalmarilyn.com

With additional studios in Palm Springs, Laguna Beach and Las Vegas, Bernard immortalized some of the century’s greatest stars and mastered the art of pin-up photography.

An icon of the 1950s and 60s, Monroe was often in Palm Springs between films and owned a home in the Las Palmas area from 1960-61. The Monroe photo exhibition in Palm Springs Design District shops and restaurants is a perfect place to connect with Mid-Century Modern design and decor.

After attending the Palm Springs International Film Festival and the retro photo exhibition, satisfy your passion for Modernism and take a tour of Mid Century Modern homes and estates for sale in the Palm Springs area.  Many are located in historic districts and significant neighborhoods near Marilyn Monroe’s former Las Palmas home.

Contact Team Haverkate at:   agent@teamhaverkate.com or visit www.HaverkateRealEstate.com

— Pamela Bieri

Blast from the Past: 60s and 70s Geometric Abstraction, now on exhibit in the Annenberg Wing at the Palm Springs Art Museum through December 23, is a vivid, powerful collection of geometric abstract paintings, sculpture and prints from the 1960s and 70s, a period known for its purity of style.

www.psmuseum.org

Some 100 artworks represent a variety of ideas in optical art (Op Art), kinetic art, minimalism, hard-edge and color field. Many of the works have rarely been or are on view for the first time in this impressive exhibit.

Purely abstract forms – square, rectangle, triangle, circle and geometric volumes such as the cube and cone — suggest architecture and geometry, while the artists’ use of primary colors, lines and compositional devices present a sensual experience, illustrating alternative ideas about art and principles of reality.

Op Art, a trend that uses optical illusions to simulate motion and other perceptual shifts, is seen in the experiments of Victor Vasarely, Carlos Cruz-Diez and Yascov Agam.  Bright primary colors finely interspersed with complementary hues, creates visual interactions between the colors that seem to give off light and vibrations.

In Jesus Rafael Soto’s classic work, the sensation of constant flux transforms color, space, line into a new perceptual experience.

Other artists from the southern California Abstract Classical movement such as John McLaughlin, Karl Benjamin, Lorser Feitelson and Helen Lundeberg, often infuse gentle blues, whites, yellows, and olive greens to their hard edge works that are “keenly reflective of the unique qualities of light and space” — characteristics of the southern California coastline.

Starting January 21, 2012 through May 27 in the Annenberg Wing will be Backyard Oasis: The Swimming Pool in Southern California Photography, 1945-1982.

As part of the Getty Foundation’s Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A., 1945-1980 regional initiative, this exhibit examines the swimming pool in photographs as visual analogs of the ideals and expectations associated with southern California.

The images of manmade pools in arid landscapes traces the iconography of California’s  swimming pool, an integral part of the region’s identity, and suggests “the hopes and disillusionments of the country’s post World War II ethos.”

Backyard Oasis will include some 135 framed works of archival photography, prints and selected film clips shown on flat-screen monitors.

Among featured artists’ work will be Diane Arbus, Bill Anderson, Michael Childers, Robert Cumming, Julius Shulman, and Maynard Parker.

During the January exhibition will be lectures and educational programs for K-12 grade students, college and university audiences and the general public. The exhibition’s catalog contains photos and an overview of the development of the swimming pool, its aesthetic and culture.

Palm Springs Art Museum was designed in the Modernist style by renowned local architect E. Stewart Williams in 1974.  The Steve Chase Art Wing and Education Center, also designed by Williams, opened in 1996.  Today, the 124,435 square foot museum complex houses various galleries, sculpture atriums, a museum store, cafe, and the 437-seat Annenberg Theater for the performing arts.

It is located at 101 Museum Way, downtown Palm Springs.  Call (760) 322-4800.

The museum is open Tuesday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Thursday, noon to 8 p.m., closed Monday and holidays.  Free admission every Thursday, 4 – 8 p.m. during downtown Villagefest and the second Sunday of every month.  Admission is $12.50 adults, $10.50 seniors, $5 students, free for youths under 12, active military and their families.

After visiting these Mid-Century Modern inspired exhibits at the Palm Springs Art Museum, take a tour of Palm Springs’ wonderful collection of modernism homes and public buildings.  Pick up a map at the Palm Springs Visitor Center for a self tour.

www.visitpalmsprings.com

Once you’ve whet your appetite to own of these inspired desert modern home — and the artwork to go in them — Ralph Haverkate at  agent@teamhaverkate.com or visit www.TeamHaverkate.com for a personal tour of homes and estates for sale.

– Pamela Bieri

A Swinging’ Affair on December 11, a benefit for the Alzheimer’s Association, celebrates Frank Sinatra’s birthday and promises gala-goers a taste of Sinatra’s swingin’ lifestyle at two of his favorite Mid-Century  hangouts.

From a cocktail party at Sinatra’s former Twin Palms estate to a grand gala at the Riviera Resort and Spa and late-night after party in the Riviera’s Starlite Lounge, guests experience the Rat Pack lifestyle for an evening .

Frank Sinatra's former Twin Palms estate, designed by E. Stewart Williams, is now a popular venue for many Modernism events

At the Riviera, glitzy talent includes Frank Sinatra, Jr. with his 20 piece orchestra, singer Lainie Kazan with Matt Dusk and Daniel Joseph Baker from America’s Got Talent.  Actress Pamela Anderson is host of the Grand Gala.

The evening offers a rare opportunity to hang out and enjoy cocktails at listen to the live music of Buddy Greco Jr. Trio with Matt Dusk crooning at Sinatra’s former home, a modernism landmark  by noted architect E. Stewart Williams.

Sinatra’s Twin Palms estate was William’s first custom home commission.  Apparently one afternoon in May, 1947, Sinatra sauntered into Williams’ architectural firm slurping an ice cream.  His movie career at a zenith, Sinatra wanted Williams to design and build a big Georgian style home by Christmas.

www.psmodcom.org

www.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._Stewart_Williams

Williams presented Sinatra with two sets of drawings, one for the Georgian-style home and another for a long, low four-bedroom house in which every room has a view of a large swimming pool shaped like a piano.  Fortunately, Sinatra chose the innovative modernist house, which put Williams’ design firm on the map.

Sinatra vacationed there with his first wife Nancy Barbato and three children, and later with his second wife, actress Ava Gardner.  Twin Palms became a popular destination for Sinatra’s famous friends — such as  JFK, his brother in law Peter Lawford and Sinatra’s neighbor Marilyn Monroe.  Sinatra’s landmark estate and the lifestyle he lived there helped fuel the wave of modernism which today defines Palm Springs.

www.sinatrahouse.com

Williams subsequently designed a number of custom Mid Century Modern homes as well public landmarks including the Oasis Office Building, Coachella Savings and Loan, Crafton Hills College (in Yucaipa), Santa Fe Savings Bank and the Upper Mountain Station of the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway.

www.pstramway.com

After a recent multi-million dollar renovation, The Riviera Resort and Spa reflect its glamorous Mid-Century Modern heritage.  The hotel was another famous hot spot Sinatra and his Rat Pack frequented in its circa 1959 heyday.

www.psriviera.com

At the Swingin’ Affair’s Grand Gala, guests will enjoy a three course gourmet dinner while reliving the era as Frank Sinatra Jr. pays tribute to his famous father in songs and anecdotes.  Lainie Kazan, Dusk and Baker share the spotlight with Sinatra.

After the gala, the party keeps on going into the wee hours with music and cocktails in the Riviera’s Starlite Lounge.

For tickets and more information, visit www.aswingingaffair.com

The revival of modernism has  generated great interest in both custom and tract Mid Century Modern homes in the Palm Springs area.  In fact, these homes continue to increase even as housing values decline in other markets.

For a personal tour of Mid Century Modern homes and estates for sale, many located in historic districts and significant neighborhoods, contact Ralph Haverkate at: Ralph@RHaverkate.com. or visit www.HaverkateRealEstate.com.

– Pamela Bieri

A monumental Mid-Century landmark, the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway continues to play an important part in the Coachella Valley’s tourism industry as major attraction and a visible beacon from the mountain signaling seasonal events to residents below.

The official Palm Springs Aerial Tramway’s Annual Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony will be on Sunday, December 4.

Actor and comedian Ronnie Schell will be the Celebrity Tree Lighter and  festivities begin at the Mountain Station at 5:30pm with the Palm Springs High School Choir singing a selection of holiday songs.

When the tree is lit, it can be seen throughout the Coachella Valley. Both the Valley Station and Mountain Station will be festively decorated.

For Tram admission tickets and more information, visit www.pstramway.com.

One of Palm Springs most famous attractions, Tramway is a compelling demonstration of form and function, proving Modernism’s relevance today.

Modernism is not only beautiful and dramatic, it is highly functional.  “Form follows function” is the  mantra underlying the Mid-Century aesthetic.

Both of the Tramway stations were built by two of Modernism’s most notable architects: Swiss-born Albert Frey designed the Tramway Valley station, constructed between 1949 and 1963; and E. Stewart Williams designed the Mountain Station, built in 1961.

www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Frey

www.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._Stewart_Williams

Frey also designed the iconic “flying wedge” canopy of the Tramway Gas Station at the foot of the entrance to the tramway, now locale of the Palm Springs Visitor Center.

www.psmodcom.org

Back in 1935, the idea of a cable car reaching from the hot desert floor to the cool pines some 8500 feet above was not only a daring vision, but visionary Francis Crocker, an electrical engineer, was deemed a bit foolish. His dream was dubbed “Crocker’s Folly” by the local newspaper.

It took three decades, two wars, surmounting funding problems and resistance from county and local government before “Crocker’s folly” became a reality.  Work on the tram began in 1949 and was formally dedicated in September,1963 with state, local dignitaries, and Crocker himself in attendance.

Frey’s Valley Station forms a bridge that allows water runoff from the mountain to pass underneath, and through large steel framed windows, offers close up views of the mountain and the steep cable that ascends from an elevation of 2,643 feet to the Mountain Station, 8,516-feet above at Mt San Jacinto State Park and Wilderness.

The Palm Springs Tram has the steepest vertical cable rise in the U.S. and the second steepest in the world.

From the 360-degree rotating cable cars, a thrilling vertical ascent gives you views of the Chino Canyon and the San Jacinto Mountains, slowly turning to show the vast Palm Springs area desert splayed out below. Passengers move from one ecological zone to another: The heated desert floor through mountain canyons and chimneys to an arctic-alpine forest with giant Ponderosa pines.

At the Mountain Station, you step from the tram car into the large, three-story facility which has a cocktail lounge, dining facilities, gift shop and dramatic observation decks. E. Stewart Williams’ glass, steel and concrete building is anchored to the mountain on one side while its north edge juts over the steep canyon precipice below.

The Tramway project seems to summarize the philosophy and daring of the Modernism movement: That technology (and optimism) can overcome any challenge.

The Tramway was one of the first projects in the world to use helicopters in construction. It was labeled the “eighth wonder of the world” because of their ingenious use in erecting four of the five supporting towers.

Helicopters flew some 23,000 missions during the 26 months of construction, hauling men and materials to erect the towers and the 35,000 sq. ft. Mountain Station.  The first tower at the Valley Station is the only one that can be reached by road.

The Tramway was designated an historical civil engineering landmark.

After your Palm Springs Aerial Tramway adventure, satisfy your passion for Modernism and take a tour of Mid Century Modern homes and estates for sale in the Palm Springs area.  Many are located in historic districts and significant neighborhoods, some even in the foothills of the majestic San Jacinto Mountain.

Contact Ralph Haverkate at: Ralph@RHaverkate.com. or visit www.HaverkateRealEstate.com.

– Pamela Bieri

Whether in a large metropolis, small city or country village, neighborhoods define a quality of life, a community, and offer a sense of belonging, of pride and place.

By some historic benchmarks, Palm Springs, incorporated in 1938, is relatively young.  But its explosive growth in the Mid-Century  — particularly innovative modern tract and custom homes — set in motion communities born from a sense of new frontiers, prosperity, and optimism that characterized the American spirit post World War II.

Desert Modernism became a style all its own as renowned architects adapted the International Style to the desert’s warm climate and arid terrain, creating an elegant yet informal quality.  Desert Modern residences tend to have post-and-beam construction, open floor-plans, glass walls that connect indoors to outdoors, and are designed on a more human scale, often integrating organic shapes, bold colors, and playful designs.

During the 1950s and 60s, new neighborhoods sprang up throughout the Palm Springs area, developments that attracted vacationers, second home buyers, families, and retirees.   Today, Palm Springs arguably has the largest concentration of Mid-Century Modern architecture in the world

www.visitpalmsprings.com

A revival of appreciation for Desert Modernism has sparked forming historic districts in the City of Palm Springs and environs to preserve these distinctive neighborhoods and enclaves that are defined as much by their architectural significance as cultural reference.

Historic districts are “areas or neighborhoods in which historic buildings or residences, and their surrounding characteristics or settings, are identified by historical association or architectural quality as significant to the city’s heritage and cultural fabric,” according to the City of Palm Springs Historic District FAQ definition.

Historic districts not only preserve the inherent richness and personality in an area, but connects the past to the present and provides continuity into the future.  Property values increase and ensures that architectural standards are maintained or restored.

“Studies show that property values in protected historic districts tend to be higher than comparable neighborhoods without such standards,” according to the city’s Historic District FAQ.

“There are currently 28 defined neighborhoods in Palm Springs with more expected to be added by the end of the year,” writes Judith Salkin in her June 19, 2011 Desert Sun story, A closer look at seven historic Palm Springs neighborhoods.

www.mydesert.com/archives

A compilation of distinct Palm Springs neighborhoods — not all are historic districts — may be found online at www.palmspringsneighborhoods.com.

Pride and sense of place are now finding expression through the Palm Springs Neighborhood Initiative Committee which is encouraging homeowner association to place neighborhood name plates throughout the City.  Each individual neighborhood association designs, produces and installs their  own signs.  The first signs went up in the El Mirador and Movie Colony in 2008 as part of the pilot program.

Reflecting Palm Springs rich, layered history, most neighborhoods have a mix of architectural styles from California ranch style, Spanish revival, adobe and walled estates, to Mid Century modern, although many are predominantly Desert Modernism style.

Among them are Sunmor Estates, located on the western side of the Palm Springs International Airport, a project first started by Robert Higgins and later completed by the Alexander Construction Company when Higgins’ funding folded.  Most of the Sunmor homes were built in the 1950s and 1960s, designed by renowned modernist architects William Krisel, Donald Wexler and Charles DuBois.

www.sunmor-ps.com

The El Rancho Vista Estates, located on the east side of the airport, was a subdivision developed by Robert Fey with 70 homes designed by Wexler and Ric Harrison in the 1960s.  Most homes here still retain their original profiles.

www.elranchovistaestates.org

The Royal Hawaiian Estates, a five-acre Polynesian style complex,  also designed in the 1960s by Wexler and Harrison, became the city’s first residential historic district in 2009.  The 12 building, 40-unit complex features a “tiki apex,”  wooden tiki-style adornments affixed to unique “flying seven” buttresses or “outrigger beams,” which had been removed over the years for a variety of reasons.

www.royalhawaiianestates.org

In 2010, grants from the Palm Springs Preservation Foundation paid to replace the missing architectural elements.  Relying heavily on 1960s-era photographs and consulting Wexler on the project, o2 Architecture captured the scale and proportions of the apex to restore the original architectural design to the homes.

www.pspreservationfoundation.org/royal_hawaiian.html.

The PSPF also granted funds for a demonstration project at Park Imperial South to reconstruct part of a decorative concrete block wall.  The project was designed to motivate other homeowners to make similar investments in restoring the complex’s original look.  Park Imperial South on South Araby Drive was designed by architect Barry Berkus in 1960.

www.pspreservationfoundation.org/imperial_south.html

The historic Tennis Club Neighborhood, one of the city’s most historically significant neighborhoods, was part of land owned by John Guthrie McCallum, who initially sought to develop Palm Springs as an agricultural area.  Architecturally rich, the neighborhood contains Mediterranean style homes and estates from early settlers 1920s and 30s to the mid-century modern Palm Springs Tennis Club designed by A. Quincy Jones and Paul R. Williams.

www.htcno.org

The Indian Canyons Neighborhood, formerly known the Canyon Country Club area, was also originally built in the 1960s.  Most homes have been refurbished to reflect the modernistic roots with distinctive architecture by Stan Sackley, Wexler, Palmer and Krisel.  The area’s par-72 Indian Canyons South golf course, owned by the Agua Caliente tribe, boasts a Wexler-designed clubhouse that provides some unexpected grandeur.

www.psicno.com

Architectural tourism has become a huge draw for the Palm Springs area and historic districts are important for preserving the wealth of architecture the area has to offer.

One of these tours, The Palm Springs Modern Committee’s annual fall home tour, takes place on Saturday, October 29 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.  Tickets at $125 per person includes a self-driving tour followed by a cocktail reception at the last house.  Tour locations will be given with ticket purchase.  Funds benefit the Palm Springs Modern Heritage Fund, a non-profit political action committee.

www.psmodcom.org

For a personal tour of Mid Century Modern homes and estates for sale, many located in historic districts and significant neighborhoods, contact Ralph Haverkate at: Ralph@RHaverkate.com. or visit www.HaverkateRealEstate.com.

– Pamela Bieri

Welcome to Team Haverkate Real Estate, specializing in Mid Century Modern Homes.

California Modernism is alive and well, with numerous major exhibitions throughout Southern California starting in October that celebrate and explore architecture, design, furnishings, art and those who created California’s unique lifestyle.

The Pacific Standard Time initiative is a collaboration of more than 60 cultural institutions across Southern California coming together to tell the story of the birth of the L.A. art scene.  An initiative of The Getty Foundation, this comprehensive scope intends to highlight the work of Los Angeles artists during the dynamic period following World War II.  Concurrent Pacific Standard Time exhibitions will run from Fall 2011 to Spring 2012 throughout the Los Angeles area and from Santa Barbara to San Diego and Palm Springs.

www.getty.edu/news/press/center/pacific_standard_time_2010.html.

The first major study of California’s influence on Mid Century Modern design, California Design, 1930-1965: , debuts October 1 at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art with more than 300 objects – furniture, ceramics, metal work, fashions and textiles, and industrial and graphic design.

The exhibition examines California’s role in shaping the material culture just before and after World War II, and the roots of California Modernism.  Through its four thematic areas, the exhibition hopes to  elucidate that California design “is not a superimposed style, but an answer to present conditions…it has developed out of our own preferences for living in a modern way,” from a statement made back in 1951 by émigré designer Greta Magnusson Grossman.

www.lacma.org/art/exhibition/californiadesign

According to Collectors Weekly, the exhibition begins in the 1930s with the development of a distinctive California Modernism, primarily through the contributions of iconic architects Kern Weber, Paul Frankl, R.M. Schindler and Richard Neutra, all émigrés from Europe where the Bauhaus and International style movements began.

The exhibit also explores design innovations that arose from technology invented during World War III such as fiberglass, plywood and steel.  In particular, Charles and Ray Eames’ work for the US Navy that resulted in their famous molded fiberglass and plywood chairs after the war.

The largest section of the show focuses on the modern California home characterized by open floor plans and seamless indoor/outdoor living, inspired as much by California’s temperate climate and casual living as post war optimism and prosperity.

www.collectorsweekly.com/events

“The economic and demographic changes that followed World War II profoundly affected California,” wrote Eudora Moore, director of California Design. “The population expanded as people emigrated west lured by the promise of employment, warm climate, optimistic outlook and growing prosperity.

As the state emerged from the postwar years, its artistic community flourished.  Freed from the constraints of Europe and New York, California became the preeminent and influential center for design.”

www.ackermanmodern.com/modernism.html

Created for a casual lifestyle, new types of furnishing were often produced by designers whose work, still largely unknown, will be seen for the first time by museum audiences, according to the LACMA  website.

The exhibition’s last section demonstrates through other exhibitions, magazines, shops and film how “The California Look” was disseminated throughout America and the world.

One of the most influential vehicles for promotion of California Modernism was the series of California Design exhibitions held from 1954 through 1976.  Eudora Moore became executive director in 1962 expanding the size of the shows and instituted juried awards.  Most were held at the Pasadena Art Museum; The final show took place at the Pacific Design Center.

California Design 1930-1965: Living in a Modern Way will be in the Resnick Exhibition Pavilion at the Los Angeles County Museum, 5905 Wilshire Boulevard, October 1, 2011 – March 28, 2012.

www.lacma.org/art/exhibition/californiadesign

Another exhibit, Eames Design: The Guest Host Relationship, also debuting October 1 at the Architecture and Design Museum in Los Angeles,  focuses on the words and designs of Charles and Ray Eames.

“The role of the designer is that of a very good, thoughtful host, all of whose energy goes into trying to anticipate the needs of his guests,” said Charles Eames.

This theme will be explored through a display of Eames’ quotes shown typographically and on film alongside key related objects – from tumbleweed, to bread, to a keg of nails and vintage furniture.  It will examine the relationship between these objects and the ideas that flow from them, according to the A+D website.

A+D is located in the Bradbury Building, one of downtown Los Angeles’ premier landmark buildings located on LA’s Museum Row.

www.aplusd.org

San Diego’s Craft Revolution, October 16, 2011 – April 15, 2012, at the Mingei International Museum in San Diego is also part of the Pacific Standard Time initiative.

The exhibition will reveal the important contributions of San Diego Craftsmen to the post-war Southern California art scene as it progresses from sleek modernism to unconventional handmade objects of use such as furniture, doors, jewelry and ceramics.

The more than 50 artists include Toza and Ruth Radakovich, Rhoda Lopez, Jack Hopkins, Arline Fisch, Ellamarie and Jackson Wooley, Larry Hunter, Kay Whitecomb and James Hubbell.

Many of the these San Diego-based artists received national attention and participated in major Los Angeles exhibitions, including the California Design series held in Pasadena and Los Angeles.

www.mingei.org/exhibitions

Starting December 11, 20121 through April 1, 2012, the Palm Springs Art Museum participates in the Pacific Standard Time initiative with Backyard Oasis: The Swimming Pool in Southern California Photography, 1945-1980.

This exhibit “examines the Southern California swimming pool as depicted in photographs.  The backyard pool as a private setting, became a space to participate in various sub-cultural rituals and to enact clandestine desires.  As a medium, photography became the primary vehicle for the circulation of post- WWII imagery.  The exhibition will trace the integrated history of photography and the iconography of the swimming pool, bringing to light many aspects of this rich interaction,” according to the Getty Museum website.

www.getty.edu/news/press/center/pacific_standard_time_2010.html

Palm Springs is the heart of California’s Desert Modernism, creating a vernacular all its own.  From containing one of the largest collections of Mid Century Modern homes and architecture in the county to dozens of important design stores in its Uptown Design District, explore Palm Springs and environs  for an inspiring, in-depth education.

Now that you are ready to own your own Mid Century Modern home in the desert, contact Ralph Haverkate for a personal tour of notable Desert Modern homes currently for sale designed by some of the world’s most respected architects:  Ralph@RHaverkate.com. or visit www.HaverkateRealEstate.com

– Pamela Bieri

Welcome to Team Haverkate Real Estate Specializing in Mid Century Modern Desert Homes

During Modernism Week 2011, Park Imperial South on South Araby Drive in Palm Springs celebrated its 50th birthday and invited the public to tour its 31-unit condominium community.  Created in 1960 by one of the nation’s most noted residential architects, Barry Berkus, AIA, Park Imperial South’s remarkable Mid Century Modern design still thrives and remains virtually untouched.

www.parkimperialsouthps.com www.modernismweek.com

Berkus guided the tour and presented his take on modernism’s mark on architecture in Palm Springs and across America.  A video archive of the design tour and Berkus’ discussion is posted here at Team Haverkate Real Estate.

“Being acknowledged by those who live within the architect’s dream is the highest honor one can aspire to , and the fact that residents here have kept my dream in condition is a remarkable compliment,” Berkus said.

www.24-7pressrelease.com/press-release/barry-berkus-aia-to-address-modernism-week

Founder and president of B3 Architects and Berkus Design Studio in Santa Barbara, Berkus has remained on the forefront of residential design in this country and abroad for over 40 years.  His name is synonymous with innovation, and his firm has won hundreds of design and planning awards from regional, national and international competitions.

www.barryberkus.com www.b3architects.com

Berkus began college with a focus on economics, but he always loved to draw.  After attending Santa Barbara City College, he transferred to USC’s  architecture program, saying “It was exciting and I knew I’d found my place.”

He pursued housing, an industry that during the 1950′s and 60s most architects thought was “beneath them” and many were convinced they couldn’t make a living at it.

“When we started, housing was looked down upon,” he recalled. “I lead a design panel at the National Association of Home Builders, but couldn’t do one at the American Institute of Architecture.”

“I had a goal to change the way housing looked,” he said.  “I wanted to give it a sculpted feeling, an innovative component to nurture people.  I strived to use volume, light and shapes in my homes.”

Berkus’ ability to produce house plans quickly also turned the odds in his favor.

“Housing as a product has to move on and off the boards quickly because it didn’t pay very well,” he said.

www.noozhawk.com/article/120309_barry_berkus

Berkus began as an intern for noted Palm Springs architect William Cody before opening his own firm and designed Park Imperial South at the age of 25.

During his talk at the tour, Berkus recalled sitting at construction sites for John Lautner projects, inspiring him to develop his  own unique design vision.  Berkus said Park Imperial South was an experiment in design and construction.  The distinctive folded-plate roofs were constructed in Oakland before being transported to Palm Springs where they were lifted into place by crane.

www.itssosunny.com/2011/02/20/palm-springs-modernism-week-home-tour-feature

“I wanted to design a space for people who could not afford an architect,” said Berkus of the project.

As his company went public, Berkus began considering modular housing.  He researched data at UCLA on every modular created up to that point and concluded that mobile homes were the only successful factory-built house that made its manufacturer money and lasted for any length of time.

“Let’s change the way housing is built,” he said when he approached national builders with the first “smart house” and various homes on wheels.

“I’ve always gone the far edge of the planet in my thinking,” Berkus admits.  “I’ve always been interested in investigating.  I’m in my 70s now and I’ve failed a bunch, in part because security never interested me.”

“Architects, by nature, are optimists,” he said.  “I’ve grown by taking risks and assumed it would work out.  Even recently, with single family homes in Santa Barbara, I’ve had to build them and then people showed up to buy them.  I knew it was right.”

www.noozhawk.com/article/120309_barry_berkus

It seems Berkus was right about his long lasting design at Park Imperial South as well.

One objective of the Modernism Week tour was to demonstrate the complex’s design longevity both interior and exterior as well as the versatile floor plan.

Nine homes in varying stages of rehabilitation and remodel were open for guests to view.  Several units had been completely redone with new kitchens and appliances, upgraded bathrooms, redesigned patios and new flooring, while other units retained original design elements such as range hoods, cabinetry and intercom entertainment systems.

For the past 10 years, Park Imperial South homeowners association has been restoring the complex with new landscaping, entrance signage, lighting and wood paneling to each home’s entrance.  The Palm Springs Preservation Foundation has granted funds to continue restoration projects, and the sold-out tour during Modernism Week benefited the development’s renovation projects.

www.itssosunny.com/2011/02/20/palm-springs-modernism-week-home-tour-feature

For Berkus, thinking outside the grid comes naturally and so does the task of reinvention.

“Everything has to fall apart so you can come up for air,” he said.  “Residential architecture is about romance, learning, fulfillment of a journey.  It should never be below you to do housing.”

www.residentialarchitect.com

Palm Springs has a proud heritage of innovative Mid Century Modern architecture in public buildings as well as custom, tract and condominium homes.  For a personal tour of Mid Century Modern properties currently for sale, contact Ralph Haverkate at ralph@RalphHaverkate.com.

– Pamela Bieri

Welcome to Ralph Haverkate Real Estate Specializing in Mid Century Modern Homes in the California Desert

Dion Neutra, son of celebrated architect Richard Neutra and surviving partner in the storied architectural firm, invites Neutra fans to help celebrate the firm’s 85th anniversary next weekend in Los Angeles.

Dion plans a series of events that include a birthday party at the Eagle Recreation Center on Friday, April 8, which would be Richard Neutra’s  119th (b. April 8, 1892- d. April 16, 1970). On Saturday and Sunday are a symposium, reunion of Neutra owners, comprehensive walking tour of 10 Silver Lakes homes including the Lovell Health House, plus documentary films and VIP receptions at various Neutra designed sites in Los Angeles.  Ticket sales benefit the Van Der Leeuw Research house restoration and endowment, a 501 c 3 non-profit institute.

A ticket to all weekend events is $250 or separate tickets are available for each event.  To purchase  tickets and for specific information, go to

www.neutra.org/reserve-your-space.html.

The Austrian-born Richard Neutra, who emigrated to the United States in 1923, is best known for  combining Bauhaus modernism with Southern California building trends, creating a unique adaptation that became known as Desert Modernism.

At the Technical University of Vienna, Neutra studied under Adolf Loos , who was influential in European Modern Architecture. He was also influenced by Otto Wagner, a professor at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts, who radically opposed the prevailing architectural styles.  Neutra  worked for a time in Germany in the studio of Erich Mendelsohn who practiced “dynamic functionalism.”

After coming to the US, Neutra worked briefly for Frank Lloyd Wright before collaborating with his close friend and university companion Rudolf Schindler, living and working communally in Schindler’s Kings Road House in California.

www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Neutra

Neutra’s houses were dramatic, flat-surfaced industrialized looking building, constructed with glass, steel and reinforced concrete, and typically finished in stucco. His style was rigorously geometric but composed airy structures that created a modern regionalism for Southern California, a West Coast variation of the Mid-Century Modern residence.

Neutra was regarded for the careful attention he gave to defining the real needs of his clients, regardless of the size of the project.  He sometimes used detailed questionnaires to discover his client’s needs, much to their surprise. His domestic architecture was a blend of art, landscape and practical comfort.

The Lovell House (1927-1929) in Los Angeles created a sensation in architectural circles both in Europe and America, as stylistically similar to Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe.  A special tour of this house for the anniversary celebration takes place on Sunday, April 10 from noon to 5 p.m.

Later, Neutra designed a series of elegant pavilion-style homes composed of layered horizontal planes.  With extensive porches and patios, the homes appeared to merge with the surrounding landscape.  The Kaufman House (1946-47) in Palm Springs and the Tremaine House are examples of Neutra’s pavilion houses.

http://architecture.about.com/od/greaterarchitects/p/richardneurtra.html

The Kaufman House has twice been at the vanguard of new movements in architecture:  First by helping to shape postwar Modernism and later, as a result of a painstaking and expensive restoration in the late 1990s, spurred a revival of interest in mid-20th century homes, according to a New York Times review by Edward Wyatt.

This house is one of Neutra’s the best-known.  Its  unusual pin-wheel plan was designed for Pittsburgh department store magnate Edgar J. Kaufmann, became the last domestic project by the architect, and arguably his most famous.

The house became part of cultural history thanks to a 1947 photo by Julius Shulman that shows Mrs. Kaufmann reclining by the pool, the house glowing in the sunset.  The photo became one of the most reproduced architectural photographs ever.

www.eichlernetwork.com/desert_chron7.html

Neutra extended architectural space into carefully arranged landscapes.  The dramatic images of flat-surface, industrialized residential buildings contrasted against nature were popularized by Shulman’s  photography.

In his architectural firm, Neutra worked with several successful partners including his wife, Dione, from 1922; his protégé Robert Alexander, from 1949 to 1958 (the Alexander homes in Palm Springs); and his son Dion from 1965. In the early 1930s, Neutra’s Los Angeles practice trained several young architects who went on to independent success, including Gregory Ain, Harwell Hamilton Harris and Raphael Soriano.

Dion kept the Silver Lake offices designed and built by his father open as “Richard and Dion Neutra Architecture” in Los Angeles. The Neutra Office Building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

www.greatbuildings.com/architects/Richard_Neutra.html

An experienced and outspoken writer, Neutra adamantly believed that modern architecture must act as a social force in the betterment of mankind.

www.architectureweek.com/2002/0424/news_1-1.html

Neutra is one of many famous Mid Century Modern architects whose celebrated works abound in the California desert.  For a tour of significant Desert Modern homes and estates currently for sale, contact Ralph Haverkate Real Estate at Ralph@RHaverkate.com.

– Pamela Bieri

Palevsky Residence, Palm Springs, CA 1968

Welcome to Ralph Haverkate Real Estate Specializing in Mid Century Modern Homes in the California Desert

Craig Ellwood is credited with designing some of the most elegant modern homes built in California in the 1950s and 1960s, but he was not educated as an architect.  Greatly influenced by Mies van der Rohe as well as Charles Eames and Richard Neutra, Ellwood’s designs were characterized by exposed lightweight steel or timber framing, and by floating wall planes separated by a shadow line or “flash gap” detail.  Ellwood homes were spare, modernist and elegant.

On Saturday, April 2, 10 a.m.,  the Palm Springs Museum focuses on Ellwood’s work as the final seasonal lecture on the history of modernism architecture in Palm Springs.  A tour of Ellwood’s most significant Coachella Valley work, the Max Palevsky residence in Palm Springs, follows the lecture.  The late billionaire Palevsky was a computer technology pioneer, venture capitalist and philanthropist. Cost for the event is $25.  www.psmuseum.com.

An influential Los Angeles-based modernist whose career spanned the early 1950s through the mid-1970s, Ellwood was recognized for fusing the formalism of Mies van der Rohe with the more casual  California modernism, adapting the style into an accessible and fashionable vernacular.

The controversial designer fashioned a “persona” and career through his innate talent for good design, ambition and self-promotion.  If ever there was a product of Hollywood, it was architect Craig Ellwood.  Even his name was an invention:  Born Jon Nelson Burke in Clarendon, Texas, in 1922 his family moved to Los Angeles in 1937 where he attended Belmont High School.

After discharge from the Army Air Corps in 1946, Burke returned to Los Angeles and set up a company with his brother Cleve and two friends from the war, the Marzicola brothers, one of whom had a contractor’s license.  The four men named their firm “Craig Ellwood” after a liquor store called Lords and Elwood located in front of their offices.  Burke later legally changed his name to Ellwood and established Craig Ellwood Design in 1951.   www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Craig_Ellwood

Ellwood entered LA’s percolating, post World War II design world as a construction supervisor, draftsman and a cost estimator.  He worked for a construction company in Los Angeles while taking night classes at the University of California Los Angeles Extension Division.  One year before completing his studies, he and his partners established Craig Ellwood Associates in Los Angeles.

Ellwood learned hands-on about building in steel and plastic sheet before he studied architectural theory which gave him an understanding of steel construction and a practical application that eluded many contemporaries from architectural school.  His designs incorporated steel with thoughtful detailing and craftsmanship;  his trademark structural devise incorporated an exposed warren truss that used small member to span big distances.   www.greatbuildings.com/architects/Craig_Ellwood.html.

As a cost estimator for a firm of modern house builders — Lamport, Cofer, Salzman —  Jack Cofer asked Ellwood to design his first house for Milton Lappin in 1948.  Although an awkward  derivative of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Sturges House in Brentwood, the house was published in the Los Angeles Times Home Magazine in 1950, bringing Ellwood recognition, further commissions, and encouraged him to set up, illegally, as Craig Ellwood, Architect.

Soon after he began co-designing homes, Ellwood met John Entenza, founder of the important Case Study House Program which commissioned and promoted modern, economical housing designs.  As editor of Arts & Architecture magazine, Entenza promoted the creative and cost-effective prefabricated, modular housing by publishing these demonstration houses, designed by such luminaries as Charles Eames, Eero Saarien, Richard Neutra, John Lautner, and Edward Killinsworth.  Ellwood eventually designed three Case Study houses all built with exposed steel frames and columns.

His first commission outside of Los Angeles, in 1955 for Charles and Gerry Bobertz in San Diego, Ellwood designed an early example of what later came to be called Ellwood’s “wall houses,” named because of an unrelenting street facade and the defining, perpendicular rhythms and materials of interior and exterior walls.

Behind the stark street facade, however, logically arranged living area unfold, flooded with natural light from windows and skylights.  Eight-foot tall floor to ceiling glass doors open the house to the back yard and a children’s courtyard.  Inside, partition walls, capped with bands of glass that meet the wood ceilings, seem to float.   www.legacy.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/2006/09/03/news_mzlhs03moder.html

The enigmatic exterior wall theme continued when Ellwood designed the Palevsky home on West Cielo Drive in 1968 on what was then described as “the best site in Palm Springs.”  Based on Casablanca desert  style homes that were white-walled compounds with structures set within rectangular walls, the minimalist Palevsky home is integrated into its boulder-strewn site.

www.palmspringsarchitectureblogspot.com/2010/05/max-palevsky-residence.html

Often formal in arrangement, sometimes symmetrical in plan and frequently launching into the landscape, Ellwood houses populated the more exclusive Los Angeles suburb including Beverly Hills, Pacific Palisades, Brentwood and Pasadena.

Although Ellwood’s style translated less well in large commercial projects, the Scientific Data Systems site in El Segundo, (1968) where the administration and manufacturing buildings are pavilions in an open landscape, achieved a successful expression.  Ellwood’s last building, the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, was conceived as a huge truss spanning a canyon, a final, successful realization of a theme often repeated in his earlier buildings.

Although Ellwood’s work is limited in Palm Springs, the California desert is a treasure trove of remarkable, architecturally significant homes and estates by some of the world’s most prominent Mid Century Modern architects.  For a personal tour of significant homes for sale in the area, contact Ralph Haverkate at Ralph@RHaverkate.com.

–Pamela Bieri