PALM SPRINGS — The gasps were audible as 50 pairs of eyes settled on the scene: a circular living room covered by an enormous, weighty cement dome, floor-to-ceiling glass walls revealing a stunning panoramic view of the city. If there is such a thing as an architectural nirvana, this may have been it.
The setting was the Elrod house, designed by John Lautner and now used primarily for entertaining by its current owner, former supermarket magnate Ron Burkle. The house was part of a tour and symposium last weekend sponsored by the Palm Springs Desert Museum titled "Modernist Residential Architecture in the Desert." The second annual two-day program included lectures, a panel discussion and a rare tour of sleek, dynamic homes by Lautner, Richard Neutra, E. Stewart Williams, William Cody and Crombie Taylor. While perhaps not household names even among those familiar with architecture, these were some of the American and European-born architects who were drawn to the desert's harsh, beautiful terrain from the 1930s to the 1960s.
Although many only know this resort town for its high kitsch and tacky factor and as a haven for golfers, former presidents and aging, overly tanned entertainers, it's received another distinction in recent years: mecca of modern architecture.
Modernism may be in the spotlight today simply because of the cyclical nature of tastes and styles, but there could be more to the attraction than just fashion. These homes exude a kind of pure peacefulness, an antidote to our frenetic lives.
The chance to experience such architecture up close drew hundreds of people from the area, as well as Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York and even Belgium. Some described it as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see these classic homes and to discover how owners approach restoring, decorating, maintaining and living in them. Under uncharacteristic gray skies, architects, artists, historians, designers and those with an intense passion for modernism convened to see in three dimensions some of the iconographic homes they had only seen in photographs. "In college, I had the Kaufmann house done by Neutra above my desk," said Palm Springs architect Michael Coon. "There are so many more hidden gems around."
