Web blog 9/1/10

The Landmark Kaufmann House Still Makes News

This month’s Palm Springs Life’s home feature, “The Road to Fame and Fortune,” by Greg Archer (www.palmspringslife.com) opens with one of the area’s most famous homes, the Kaufmann House, a 1946 glass, steel and stone landmark designed by architect Richard Neutra.

The home 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 (www.nytimes.com/2007/10/31/arts/design).

This house continues to make news as an important landmark.

One of the best-known icons by Viennese émigré Neutra, who moved to the United States in the 1920s, this unusual pin-wheel plan house was designed for Pittsburgh department store magnate Edgar J. Kaufmann.  It was 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 Schulman that shows Mrs. Kaufmann reclining by the pool, the house glowing in the sunset.  The photo also became one of the most reproduced architectural photographs ever (www.eichlernetwork.com/desert_chron7.html).

Its striking silhouette, mix of airy lightness and sandstone weight, combined with the delicacy and precision of its detail, the house is considered one of the most important examples of International Style architecture in the United States and is the only one still in private hands (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaufmann_Desert_House).

The work represents a special moment in the Neutra canon when the architect was able to blur the distinction between inside and outside to an unusual degree, according to architectural historian Barbara Lamprecht (www.palmspringslife.com/Palm-Springs-Life/May-2009)/revisiting-The-Kaufmann-House).

“It’s not so much a house with an indoors and outdoors.  Rather it is a setting with transitions in which Neutra honed both nature and the functional aspects of living so that Eros, sensuality, the senses are subtly and/or overtly available to the whole arc of day and night and the whole spectrum of being,” she wrote in an essay commissioned by Crosby Doe, who was then marketing the home.

“The Kaufmann House … moved in the direction of the pavilion, which is Neutra’s last development in domestic architecture.  Horizontal planes resting on horizontal planes hover over transparent walls.  The material loses its importance — magnificent as the dry-joint stone wall are in themselves — the gist of the house is weightless space enclosed.  The victory over the front door is almost complete; it is reached by slow stages, like the Mexican house whose entrance on the street leads through a garden to an unemphasized door,” writes Esther McCoy in her book on Richard Neutra, page 16-17 (www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/Kaufmann_Desert_House, html.).

The five bedroom, five bathroom home emphasizes connection to the desert landscape.  A combined living and dining space lies at the center of the house.  On an east-west axis, four wings extend in each cardinal direction from the living room, like a pinwheel.  Large sliding glass walls open the living spaces and master bedroom to adjacent patios.  Larger rooms at the end of each wing defines adjacent outdoor rooms, circulating both indoors and out.

After Kaufmann died in 1955, the house stood vacant for several years, then had a series of owners including singer Barry Manilow and San Diego Chargers owner Eugene V. Klein.  Several renovations seriously altered the house, enclosing some of the open areas, and damaging Neutra’s original blond cabinetry, wall surfaces, and the Douglas fir ceilings.

It had been on the market another few years in 1992 when a couple, Brent Harris, an investment manager, and his wife Beth, an architectural historian, bought it for $1.5 million with the intention to restore the house to its original design.  At the time, the house was not a candidate for restoration — Neutra’s Modernism “wasn’t the prevailing style” — and was almost razed.

“No one wanted it.  And so it was a gorgeous house, an important house, and it was crying out for restoration,” said Harris in the New York Times interview. (www.nytimes.com/2007/10/31/arts/deisgn)

The couple hired Los Angeles architects Lee Marmol and Ron Radziner and Associates.  As Neutra’s original plans were lost, the team searched for clues through extensive Neutra archives at UCLA, Columbia University, and also with photographer Schulman who allowed them access to unpublished photos of the home’s interior and exterior.

They sought out original providers of paint and fixtures, and purchased a metal crimping machine to reproduce the sheet-metal fascia that lined the roof.  The team even and had a long-closed section of a Utah quarry re-opened to mine matching stone to replace what had been removed or damaged.

The Harrises bought additional land around the 3,200 square foot home to help restore the desert landscape buffer Neutra had envisioned.  They rebuilt the pool that serves as a viewing pavilion for the main house, and kept a tennis court that was built on one of the parcels added to the original Kaufmann property.

The house was subsequently sold in May, 2008 for $15 million at auction by Christie’s as a part of a high-profile sale of contemporary art.  However the sale fell through, and was later listed at $13 million in October that same year.  The restored house had a pre-sale estimate of $15 to $25 million.

The Harrises “were visionaries in their own way,” said Joshua Holdeman, a senior vice president at Christie’s.  With the renovation, “they created a whole new public awareness of mid-century modern architecture.” (www.nytimes.com/2007/10/31/arts/design))

The Marmol Radziner + Associates restoration was critically acclaimed.  The team’s sourcing of original products, fixtures, and building materials helped launch the revival of the Modernist movement, creating a new niche and demand for Mid-century homes, fixtures and furnishings.

Today, many critics place the Kaufmann House among the most important houses of the 20th century with the likes of Fallingwater, Robie House, Gropius House and the Gamble House (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaufmann_Desert_House).

Palm Springs Preservationists say the Kaufmann House inspired other owners of Mid-century modern houses to restore them, and credit this among several other important restorations for spurring renewed interest in Palm Springs’ Mid-Century Modern heritage. (www.eichlernetwork.com)

To see more quality Mid-Century Modern homes available for sale in the Palm Springs area, contact Ralph Haverkate at www.HaverkateRealEstate.com.

– Pamela Bieri

Plans are underway for the 10th Anniversary of the “Great Alexander Weekend” in Palm Springs, March 26-27, 2011. The Palm Springs Preservation Foundation (www.pspreservationfoundation.org ) is planning a full weekend of home tours, seminars, cocktail receptions and special tributes to one of Palm Springs’ most influential and innovative home builders.

The Great Alexander Weekends and PSPF’s tribute book, When Mod Went Mass, have garnered significant awareness of the Alexander-built tract homes by architect William Krisel, and helped leverage even more importance to the genre of Mid-Century Modern homes, commercial and public buildings which are prevalent throughout Palm Springs and the Coachella Valley.

From as early as the 1920s and through the 1970s, an impressive roster of talented architects have been captivated by Palm Springs:  R.M. Schindler, Richard Neutra, and Lloyd Wright (Frank Lloyd Wright’s son); young Swiss architect Albert Frey whose work profoundly influenced desert architecture; and regional modernists William F. Cody, Donald Wexler, E. Stewart Williams and Krisel.

Each made their mark with “striking custom homes, impressive commercial complexes, hotels and motels, commanding civic and educational campuses … and created an architectural treasury of great consequence and innovation in and around Palm Springs,” writes Robert Imber  in his story on The Alexander Homes (www.eichlernetwork.com/desert_chron1.html. )

Imber noted that Palm Springs remained a sleepy seasonal village until postwar American affluence and growing families began to emerge with a demand for mass market housing.  Coupled with the fact that Palm Springs already was a discrete playground for Hollywood’s elite, a bevy of builders and architects grew to fill the increasing demand for year round residential and well as seasonal vacation homes.

The Alexander Company, founded by George Alexander and his son Robert, was a Palm Springs based residential development company that built more than 2,200 homes in the desert between 1947 and 1965 (www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Construction_Company ).  The “Alexanders,” as these homes are now  known, doubled Palm Springs residential population, giving the city a whole new shape and direction.

Key to the Alexanders’ success was the talented young architect Krisel, partner in the Los Angeles firm Palmer and Krisel, Inc. (www.psmodcom.com/Architects%20Pages/PalmerKrisel ).  A close friend of Bob Alexander, Krisel came to Palm Springs at his request.

The Alexanders’ foray into desert tract homes began with Twin Palms Estates, named for two palm trees included in the front landscaping of each home.  Hallmarks were a single story, open floor plan with an indoor-outdoor feeling enhanced by skylights, sliding glass doors, and an interior atrium.

Actual Homes For Sale in Twin Palms

Three quarter walls divided the main room to provide abundant light, eliminating the need for full framed walls, molding and trim, so created a clean contemporary look.  Exposed tongue-and-groove planks and beamed ceilings also enhanced the room’s soaring architectural lines.  The same floor plan repeated within the housing development saved construction and materials costs.

Krisel was involved with every facet of design, planning, engineering and construction.  From site and landscape choices to interior colors and trim, each house was oriented and embellished differently , making the Alexanders look like a collection of individualized custom homes.

Other Palmer & Krisel projects included the Ocotillo Lodge, Las Palmas Estates (Vista Las Palmas) Racquet Club Estates, Sandpiper condominiums in Palm Desert, and the famous House of Tomorrow otherwise known as the “Honeymoon Hideaway” of Elvis and Priscilla Presley.  Robert Alexander and his wife lived in this house for a time, and were featured here in Look Magazine in September, 1962.

Actual Homes For Sale in Vista Las Palmas

Another well-known Alexander house in Las Palmas is the Lawford/Kennedy house, originally built for Peter Lawford, married to JFK’s sister Patricia Kennedy.  This house, in close proximity to Marilyn Monroe’s, is supposedly where JFK and Monroe rendezvoused.

The affordable Racquet Club Road Estates (www.racquetclubestates.com )  were built by the Alexander Construction Company between 1959 and 1962.  The 1,225 square foot homes were designed as weekend and vacation getaways on a concrete slab with single pane glass and without insulation.  Here, too, the post and beam construction allowed the soaring roofline, open floor plan, and indoor/outdoor relationship to generous quarter-acre lots.

“Space age” utilitarian kitchens were separated from the entry way with a five-foot high wall which held an oven, gas cook top and refrigerator.  Wall mounted cabinets with sliding pegboard doors above a  sink in a long Formica-topped counter balanced on iron hairpin legs.  A double deck island separated the kitchen from dining with a “floating” upper cabinet.

At the end of a hallway, large master bedrooms featured sliding glass doors to the outside.  Private master bathrooms had sunken shower/tubs and outside doors for swimmers’ use.  Off the hall were two bedrooms and another bathroom.  In each bedroom an entire wall of closets was enclosed by sliding doors, leaving open space above to the ceiling.

The Alexanders had five distinctive rooflines:  The classic butterfly;  a flat roof with side or front entry; narrow gabled roof with front or side entry; wide gable roof; and side gabled roof with clerestory windows.

While each house has the same floor plan, some bedrooms line up along the street front, while others are aligned along the side from front to back. The ceiling heights and use of clerestories and window arrangements change their appearance.

When new, the homes cost $19,000 plus additional options.  A fireplace could be added in three of the five roofline designs and an optional swimming pool complemented the circular concrete backyard pads for only $950. The total cost of house and pool was below $20,000, quite affordable for middle income families and celebrities.

Citywide, the collection of Alexanders range from 1,225 square feet in the Racquet Club Road Estates at the north end to over 2,500 square feet in the Vista Las Palmas, Golden Vista,  Mountain View, and Green Fairway Estates nearer to the center of town.  These were originally priced from $16,950 to $50,000.  Today, the Alexanders are highly sought after and refurbished sells from $400,000 to well over one million dollars.

While the majority of Alexander homes were designed by Palmer and Krisel, those with an A-frame facade, known  as “Swiss Misses” (www.jetsetmodern.com/issue5/swissmiss.htm )  in the Green Fairway Estates (www.desertmodernism.com/greenfairway.html ) tract in south Palm Springs, were designed by architect Donald Wexler, who designed the Palm Springs International Airport.

Alexander built Swiss Miss homes are an A-frame construction with lava rock facades, Aztec motifs and Asian or South Pacific styles that were influenced by experiences in the Pacific Theater brought home by World War II soldiers.  There were nine master floor plans that were repeated two or three times in the tract.

Only a limited number of Alexander homes were constructed at the Green Fairway Estates prior to 1965: tragically that year the Alexanders were killed in a private plane crash in the Little Chocolate Mountains while on a flight to Burbank.

The Great Alexander Weekend has fueled a revival of these treasures; don’t miss the 10th anniversary!

For a tour of Alexander homes currently for sale in the Palm Springs area, contact Ralph Haverkate at  www.haverkaterealestate.com

–  Pamela Bieri

Architect John Lautner’s Elrod House Now On the Market

Architect John Lautner’s iconic Arthur Elrod House (www.johnlautner.org) is back on the market with a  price tag of more than $13 million.

The late architect, renowned for his organic structures, composed  this amazing home carved into the rugged Southridge foothills overlooking  Palm Springs in 1968.  The house has been featured extensively in lifestyle, architecture and design magazine articles (www.palmspringslife.com/Palm-Springs-Life/February-2009/Daring-Design) and is best known  as the James Bond bachelor pad in Diamonds are Forever. It is one of three buildings in Palm Springs by Lautner:  Bob and Dolores Hope’s “space ship” domed home also on Southridge (1979) and the Desert Hot Springs Motel (1947).

The Elrod  house contains many Lautner hallmarks:  a difficult site, harsh environment, modest entrance that conceals soaring space, and rooms that conversely move between indoors and out.  The 8,901-square foot house possesses a daring Mid-Century design and breathtaking vistas.

Designed to shield dwellers from the intense desert sun, its enormous domed concrete roof rests on curved walls providing an interior pavilion with a wraparound view of the mountains, city and desert below.  Wedge-like sections in the roof lift to accommodate skylights and provide indirect light.  Retractable glass walls open the room to the elements.

Natural boulders are exposed in the living room while the tip of an indoor-outdoor swimming pool emanates from the interior to nearly fill a massive curved deck. The pool provides a cooling, ever changing reflection of sky and nearly “disappears” over the side of the deck.  Lautner, in fact, is credited for creating Los Angeles’ first “vanishing edge” or infinity pool, built for a private residence in the Silver Lake area in 1957 (www.poolandpatio.about.com).

The main floor includes a kitchen hidden from the circular living room by a long, curved wall. On the same level, the master bedroom features a bar and refrigerator tucked behind walls of exotic wood with carefully matched grains.  A sunken master bath tub is exposed to the outside with only a glass wall in between boulders and row of bamboo shoots, adding privacy to the already remote site.

A guest house and servants quarters, added after the main house was built, are reached via a spiral staircase from the pool deck.

The house is being sold along with two other properties in the Southridge development, owned and cared for by a real estate investor who admired the house a year before buying it in 2003.

The current owner bought the house from supermarket magnet Ron Burkle, who had poured millions into the house during the years he owned it, according to a Palm Springs Life feature by Allison Engle (February, 2009).

“I give Burkle full marks,” said the owner in the 2009 PSL article.  “He did all the thankless stuff you never see, basically renovating all the mechanical systems and furnishing it in a manner that’s true to the space.”

“You’ll never find this site again. You’ll never get the approvals again.  And you had true simpatico between the client (Eldrod), architect (Lautner) and contractor — something impossible count on and critical to the best results,” he said.

The owner’s two other properties create an unusual portfolio of architecturally significant homes:  the former Steve McQueen house designed by Hugh Kaptur and the “Boat House” designed by Michael P. Johnson for race-car driver James Jeffords (www.la.curbed.com/tags/elrod-house).

In keeping with their intent as unique dwelling places, the properties have been made available to friends, family, business associates and special occasions over the years.  Most recently they are for rent only to members of the Southridge Club; membership is $100,000 annually (www.la.curbed.com/tags/elrod-house).

Palm Springs is a virtual treasure trove of Mid-Century Modern architecture with one of the largest and best preserved examples of elegant homes and landmark buildings constructed during the 1940s through 1960s (www.architecture.about.com).  While Lautner’s style is considered Desert Modernism and Googie (his iconic Googie coffee shop on LA’s Sunset Boulevard), other architectural styles from that era in Palm Springs include Art Moderne, Spanish Eclectic, and Tiki.

An apprentice to Frank Lloyd Wright, Lautner’s subsequent fascination with new shapes and structures may have caused him to be overlooked or miscast as an Atomic Age futurist or celebrating Hollywood excess during his lifetime.  After he died in 1994, his original designs began to receive serious attention and recognition.

In a foreword to a book that accompanied a retrospective exhibition of Lautner’s work at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles in July, 2008, Museum Director Ann Philbin wrote that Lautner’s vision “came from his determination to humanize the spaces of the built world and create an endlessly varied organic poetry.  This was a profoundly serious agenda.”

The Hammer Museum’s John Lautner retrospective was at the Palm Springs Desert Museum this past spring.

You can see all the properties for sale in Southridge here

– Pamela Bieri

Welcome to Haverkate Real Estate.com.

Take a Closer Look At Palm Springs Modern Architect Donald A. Wexler.

Palm Springs Modern is practically a genre in its own right:  Light, spacious steel-and-glass masterpieces  reflect a “golden era” of Mid-century desert architecture that ingeniously adapted industrial technology into now classic civic and residential buildings.

Celebrated  Palm Springs architect Donald Wexler’s  www.psmodcom.com contributions to Coachella Valley architecture are plentiful and exceptional.

While he may be best known for his neighborhood  of steel houses designed for the Alexander Construction Company in the early 1960s (http://www.psmodcom.com/buildings.html), most of Wexler’s works are found among public and commercial projects including one that first greets Palm Springs  air travelers – the Palm Springs International Airport.

Top Palm Springs Mid-Century Modern Realtor , Ralph Haverkate, Broker Associate with Tarbell Realtors, (www.ralphhaverkate.com ) represents  a number of Wexler-designed homes and commercial buildings for buyers who appreciate and value these classic modern masterpieces.

Bold and striking with steel integrated  in every part of the house — walls, roof, fascia, trim — its beams, channels and columns were designed to fit together quickly and securely, to be erected in a matter of hours instead of days. Light weight but strong steel frame homes allowed more floor space and floor to ceiling windows to capture the breathtaking desert and mountain landscapes.  Many of Wexler’s homes featured a folded plate or zigzag roof line that today seems almost a signature “W” for his innovative design.

In an interview by Jack Levitan for CA-Modern Magazine(www.eichlernetwork.com ), Wexler  said, “‘I saw steel as ideal for the desert.  In the desert, steel, concrete and glass are the only materials to build.  They’re inorganic and they don’t deteriorate in the extreme temperature we have.”

Back in the Mid-1950s and 60s, the steel homes were designed to be affordable (when steel was cheap), saving labor and materials, and  low maintenance — a garden hose the only maintenance tool required.

An advertising feature in Home Builder’s Journal, dated August 1962, (www.eichlernetwork.com) touted steel homes as being termite and fire-proof, longer lasting, acoustically superior, and snugly fitting to keep out dirt, insects, and hot or cold air with “consequent lower maintenance costs.”

This sounds hauntingly like today’s quest for energy efficiency, sustainability, low-maintenance and affordability.
The famed architect also designed the Palm Springs Police Department and Jail, the Larson Justice Center in Indio,  the Merrill Lynch Building in Palm Springs, the original Palm Springs Spa Hotel’s Bath House (a joint venture with then partner Rick Harrison, architect William Cody and Pierre Koenig), the Desert Water Agency, El Rancho Vista Estates, Royal Hawaiian Estates (Palm Springs’ first residential historic district), Palm Springs Medical Clinic, Union 76 gas station, numerous schools and celebrity homes (www.ranker.com/list/donald-wexler-buildings-and-structures).

Wexler’s celebrity homes included the stunning Dinah Shore and Leff/Florsheim houses, actor Alan and Sue Ladd’s home, one that eventually became Ann and Kirk Douglas’, actress Andrea Leeds and her race-horse and Buick agency owner husband Bob Howard, and a project for Frank Sinatra.

“I felt houses were very personal .  You got very involved with people.  It’s different than doing  a public building or commercial job, ” said Wexler in the CA-Modern Magazine interview.

This past January, the Palm Springs Preservation Foundation (www.pspreservationfoundation.org) celebrated a three day Wexler Weekend, showcasing his work in honor of his 84th birthday.  The weekend kicked off with a showing of the film “Journeyman Architect: The  Life and Work of Donald Wexler”(available on YouTube)  by Design Onscreen (www.designonscreen.org).

The homes tour included 14 Wexler-designed tract home properties in El Rancho Vista Estates, Wexler’s original Palm Springs Home, the Krizman, Douglas and Shore residences.  Visitors toured the 2004 restored Leff/Florsheim house (built 1957) which was taken down to the slab and rebuilt using Wexler’s original blueprint while incorporating modern day conveniences and upgrades.

Some fascinating books on Wexler available through Palm Springs Preservation Foundation include the Wexler Tribute Journal, and Donald Wexler: Architect by Patrick McGrew (www.pspreservationfoundation.org).

More Palm Springs Modern events coming up:  Modernism Week, February 18-27, 2011 (www.modernismweek.com ) and the 10th Alexander Weekend, March 25-27, 2011, celebrating the Alexander tract homes’ architectural importance (www.pspreservationfoundation.org) .

In Palm Springs, be sure to contact http://www.haverkaterealestate.com/mid_century.php for the most comprehensive listings of Mid-Century Modern homes and estates for sale in the California desert area.

– Pamela Bieri

]]> http://www.modernhomesblog.com/2010/07/07/palm-springs-modern-architect-donald-a-wexler/feed/ 1 http://www.modernhomesblog.com/2010/06/28/great-vista-las-palmas-location/ http://www.modernhomesblog.com/2010/06/28/great-vista-las-palmas-location/#comments Tue, 29 Jun 2010 04:31:34 +0000 Ralph Haverkate http://www.modernhomesblog.com/?p=290

Vista Las Palmas is a quiet neighborhood west and within walking distance of downtown Palm Springs.  Situated by the San Jacinto Mountains it is cooler in the summer and warmer in winter.  Those lucky enough, have a full view of the mountainside.  Architect William Krisel is responsible for the design of most of the Alexander homes found here,  built by  Alexander Construction in the 50’s and 60’s in response to the growing demand for Modern Architecture.  Although many homeowners strive to keep their homes as close as possible to the originals,  others have progressively changed them to match contemporary tastes.

We have a new Alexander listing at 953 N Rose Avenue that will appeal to those who don’t feel bound to the past.  Along with a great location it has been expanded with a new master bedroom, bath, closets, den and more kitchen area.  Updates include roof, HVAC, windows and sliders, kitchen, ceramic tile floor, custom shutters, built-ins and appliances, many still under warranty.  The well separated Masters have private entrances. The new  wing has a Den that could be a fifth bedroom and an office uses one of the other  four bedrooms.  It has an area that could be a formal dining room, and the kitchen has enough room for both a breakfast area and a family room.

Fruit trees and a very private pool make good use of the large lot.  The west-facing mountain-side pool and patio area is off the kitchen, living/family room and new Master.   The shady patio overhang has fans and there is a raised sunning deck on two sides of the pool.  Except for a single grassy area, the home is desert-landscaped.

Vista Las Palmas is a quiet neighborhood west and within walking distance of downtown Palm Springs. Situated by the San Jacinto Mountains it is cooler in the summer and warmer in winter. Those lucky enough, have a full view of the mountainside. Architect William Krisel is responsible for the design of most of the Alexander homes found here, built by Alexander Construction in the 50’s and 60’s in response to the growing demand for Modern Architecture. Although many homeowners strive to keep their homes as close as possible to the originals, others have progressively changed them to match contemporary tastes.

We have a new Mid-Century-Modern “Alexander” listing at 953 N Rose that will appeal to those who don’t feel bound to the past. Along with a great location it has been expanded with a new master bedroom, bath, closets, den and more kitchen area. Updates include roof, HVAC, windows and sliders, kitchen, ceramic tile floor, custom shutters, built-ins and appliances, many still under warranty. The well separated Masters have private entrances. The new wing has a Den that could be a fifth bedroom and an office uses one of the other four bedrooms. It has an area that could be a formal dining room, and the kitchen has enough room for both a breakfast area and a family room.

Fruit trees and a very private pool make good use of the large lot. The west-facing mountain-side pool and patio area is off the kitchen, living/family room and new Master. The shady patio overhang has fans and there is a raised sunning deck on two sides of the pool. Except for a single grassy area, the home is desert-landscaped.

Haverkate Real Estate Recommends Dwell On Design: The West Coast’s Largest Design Show Celebrates the Best Modern Projects, Products and People.

Welcome to www.HaverkateRealEstate.com , Palm Springs’ premier site for Mid-Century Modern Real Estate and design resources.

If you can’t get enough Mid-Century Modern, do not miss Dwell On Design (www.dwellondesign.com ), the West Coast’s largest design event, returning June 25-27 to the Los Angeles Convention Center. It’s only a short two-hour drive from Palm Springs.

Curated by the editors of Dwell Magazine, this three-day extravaganza features more than 200 brands on exhibition with design-forward exhibits, competitions, East and West side home tours, and over 80 presentations and panels by design industry  leaders and influencers.

“We’re thrilled to see how the creative community in Los Angeles has taken cultural ownership of Dwell on Design, making this show the premiere event on the design calendar,” said Dwell Media President Michela O’Connor Abrams.

It’s no wonder that Los Angeles has taken an active role in this major design event:  also called California Modern style, Los Angeles and Palm Springs offers a wealth of residential  Mid-Century Modern architecture, furnishings, and designs.

While in LA, take a look at some prime examples on the self-drive home tours into areas that most visitors don’t see.  From Larchmont to Silver Lake and Atwater Village to the east, and a “surf and turf” drive from West Hollywood to the beaches, explore Mid-Century Modern homes like the Walnut and Skywave houses in Venice Beach, the Los Feliz residence or Auburn 7 house in Silver Lake district.  The landmark Stahl House tour (by Architect Pierre Koenig, 1960) in the Hollywood Hills is sold out, however.  Planning and engineering company Latitude 33 ( www.latitude33.com ) is the tour sponsor.

Check out Room & Board (www.roomandboard.com), a respected American purveyor of “all things domestic,” who will be on the Design show floor offering sensible and affordable Mid-Century classics.   A bevy of small Southern California-based brands will also join their international counterparts.

Gleaming rows of low-flow faucets, fixtures, toilets, bathtubs, and kitchen designs by Kohler (www.kohler.com), CB2 (www.cb2.com )  Holdit (www.holdithome.com), Miele (www.mieleusa.com) and Ecofabulous (www.ecofabulous.com) offer eco-friendly, sustainable innovative products.

Exhibits run the gamut of building materials and systems, from the bright lights of design-forward Lutron (www.lutron.com) to the cozy environs of Napoleon fireplace.  A lush landscape of planters, prefabs, shrubs and sheds with solar panels, outdoor carpet, and patio furniture, Dwell Outdoors explores exterior spaces with a focus on greenery and green energy.

Los Angeles’ AIA design conference,  MOBIUS LA ( www.aialosangeles.org ), offers  multi-day professional development seminars, lectures, panel discussions and special events like the Restaurant Design Awards Ceremony. More than 100 of leading design, sustainability and culinary thinkers will be presenting live on the Design Innovation and  Sustainability stages.

During the Ideas Conference, The New Face of Affluence seminar turns brands toward a new generation of high value customers who spend $303 billion annually on discretionary purchases from apparel and autos to home furnishings and travels.  Speakers include Rose Marcario of Patagonia (www.patagonia.com), Michela O’Connor Abrams (www.DwellMedia.com)  , Chris Chamberlin of Paine PR, Richard Whitehall of SMART Design (www.smartdesignworldwide.com), advisor and social media expert Dale Larson, and Betsy Burroughs of FocusCatalyst (www.FocusCatalyst.com).

In Palm Springs, be sure to contact www.HaverkateReal Estate.com/resource.php. for the most comprehensive listings of Mid-Century Modern homes and estates for sale in the California desert area.

We’ll see you at Dwell on Design June 25-27! By Pamela Bieri

We don’t have a Case-Shiller Home Price Index for our area, so we make do with what we have.  We can’t simply track prices say above $1 Million, because that is a changing population – a house that sold for $1.5 M a couple of years ago may have sold recently for $950,000, and we would lose that change based on a price limit alone.  As a substitute, I use homes over 4,000 square feet in size.  The vast majority of these homes sell for above $1 Million.  I chose only 4 cities, as they are of similar age and have many similar homes.  The graph shows a growing number of sales.  The average sales price was around $1.8M for the first three months this year, but dropped to around $1.4M in April.  As prices drop, sales increase.    – Wayne Longman

We just listed this architecturaly significant “Green” Modern House in Joshua Tree.

Seen in Variety, the LA Times, The Week and Angeleno magazines, this ‘green’ home was conceived by Beverly Hills landscape architect W Garett Carlson. The result is notably significant in uniqueness of concept, materials and execution of a structure at one with its environment. Design elements include rusted steel, concrete, glass, desert sand and indigenous landscaping. A faux boulder facade mimics the famous rock faces in nearby Joshua Tree National Park and hides the home from view. Low energy in-floor thermal warming and cooling is assisted by massively insulated walls, a desert garden on the roof, and the cooler high desert location. Disappearing 10 by 40 foot glass doors completely open the great room to the deck and desert views. Stained concrete floors, CaesarStone counters, upscale stainless appliances, glass tiles, and wood ceiling surround the furnished living spaces. Priced to market, it is well below its 2009 construction cost. Easy driving times to Palm Springs and LA.

Nearby 800,000 acre Joshua Tree National Park has granite monoliths that attract visitors and rock climbers from around the world. The town, an enclave of musicians and artists, continues to grow in popularity, with its own music festival, and an eclectic mix of art galleries, antique and curio stores, cafes and design shops. It is home to the annual Joshua Tree Music Festival. The band U2 stayed and recorded in the town to create their legendary album, ‘The Joshua Tree’. Visit www.boulder-house.com

We see a lot of news about home prices, both good and bad.  Nobody can predict the future, but we might find clues about it in the past.  The Case-Shiller Home Price Index, captured the California home price collapse in 1990, as shown in the first chart - for high-tier Los Angeles homes.  Then the prices had increased by about a factor of two, just like our last bubble, as shown in the second chart.  The scale in the first chart has been expanded to show they were very similar bubbles, even to their relative size, shape, duration and the false recoveries in 1991 and 2007.  Maybe we can use the 1990′s experience to project our current recovery. 

If so, the blue bars show that it took seven years from the peak to just get to the point where prices began a true recovery.  Our price recovery may not start until 2013, and this is a worse economic situation than in the 1990′s. In between now and 2013 we may see still lower prices.  It is difficult to tell if the small peak we see today is a false recovery or the reaction to an overshoot in the drop, but from the last bubble it is not likely the beginning of recovery.  Again historically, that increase around 2013 will be at the rate of inflation, which in the long term is around 2.5% a year.  If so, this is relative price stability and isn’t bad news – volatility in home prices is the bad news because neither sellers or buyers know what to expect.  – Wayne Longman

Case-Shiller LA High Tier 1990 Bubble

LA Case-Shiller High Tier 2006 Bubble