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Midcentury International Will Paice, Co-Producer of Modernism film-documentary ‘Visual Acoustics: The Modernism of Julius Shulman’ visits in the Desert Palm Springs, where celebrated photographer Shulman created some of his most iconic images, and takes us on a tour of one of the Modernist Greats. Palm Springs 126 MidCentury|Autumn/Winter 2013 MidCentury|Autumn/Winter 2013 127 The steep San Jacinto Mountains to the Palm Springs when you see The Local deterioration followed, with many iconic Neutra, perhaps inspired by his visit to west of Palm Springs protect the city Tramway Gas Station (now a visitor organisations Modern buildings being demolished or the Palm Springs house Neutra had from coastal fog, rain and smog, creating centre), designed by Albert Frey and involved in the altered beyond recognition. designed for the St. Louis socialite, Grace preservation of a sanctuary in the middle of the desert. Robson C. Chambers in 1965. The Palm Springs However, a painstaking, decade-long Lewis Miller in 1937. The seemingly unlimited land, a good dramatic wedge-shaped roof structure, architecture restoration of the Kaufmann House The floating quality of the Kaufmann supply of spring water from an a hyperbolic paraboloid of steel I-beams include Palm (completed in 2007), helped to spur a House design was achieved with minimal underground aquifer, mineral hot springs with corrugated metal roofing, floats Springs revived interest in the mid-20th century vertical supports of steel and wood, and clean, dry air has attracted settlers above the forecourt, supported by only a Historical architecture of Palm Springs. Architects allowing the concrete roofs to hover Society since the late 19th century. But it was few tubular steel pillars, creating a pshistorical Marmol Radziner worked with the above sliding glass panels, which give film executives, looking for locations gateway to the city. society.org, owners to restore the house to its original unimpeded access to the landscape outside Los Angeles, who first brought Frey was followed to Palm Springs by Palm Springs structure and condition, even reopening a beyond. Walls of chiseled Utah-buff Palm Springs and the Coachella Valley to other talented architects. William F. Preservation long-closed section of Utah quarry to stone lend solidity and reflect the palette the attention of Hollywood’s glitterati. Cody settled there in 1945, E. Stewart Foundation mine stone to replace what had been lost. of the desert. Aluminium fins protect the pspreservation The area quickly became a popular Williams arrived in 1946, and with Frey foundation. The original plans for the house no longer house from sandstorms and intense heat. escape: accessible from Los Angeles and and Clarke they developed Palm Spring’s org, Palm existed, so the owners and architects At the centre of the house are the styled as a Californian Shangri-La, the unique style of Desert Modernism. Springs Modern used prints from the archives of the living and dining rooms from which the wealthy and famous transformed it into Donald Wexler, who had previously Committee architectural photographer Julius remaining rooms radiate out in a their own desert playground. Tennis worked for Neutra and is best known for psmodcom. Shulman as a guide to its authentic form, pinwheel, their arrangement balanced by org, and clubs, spas, cocktail lounges and resort size and aesthetic integrity. his Steel Development Homes, arrived in Palm Springs the pool. Poured concrete floors extend hotels were built to accommodate their the early 1950s. Art Museum seamlessly from the interior to the tastes for luxury entertainment and the Together, these architects affirmed psmuseum.org. The Kaufmann Desert House exterior. Modest furnishings used muted town flourished during winter months. Modernism’s key propositions with open In the shadow of the sandy-gold desert colours repeated in the pool Hollywood stars like Frank Sinatra, floor plans and light structures mountains, the slopes of Palm Springs’ loungers outside. Cary Grant and Kirk Douglas purchased embracing the landscape. Exaggerated Little Tuscany are strewn with huge The house was immortalised by hideaway homes in Palm Springs, and overhangs were provided for additional boulders. Smoothed by the weather and architectural photographer Julius they were followed by businessmen shade, thin steel beams allowed floor to softened by aromatic sage and thorny Shulman, who took over 50 photographs looking to escape harsh East Coast ceiling windows and sliding doors, succulents, the brutal desert landscape of the home, helping to make it the winters. So it was a rich market for opening straight out onto outdoor pools provides an unlikely context for one of architectural icon it later became. well-travelled architects looking for and views of the mountains. architecture’s great experiments. Published in Life magazine in August undeveloped spaces in which to Soldiers returning from World War II But this is where Richard Neutra 1949, the best-known image shows the experiment with the International Style flocked to Palm Springs and the built a winter house for the Pittsburgh house at dusk, the geometric aesthetic. Rudolph Schindler and Richard surrounding communities. Developers department store owner, Edgar J. architectural forms perfectly juxtaposed Neutra had built a couple of Modernist such as The Alexander Construction Kaufmann, arguably one of the most against a backdrop of the softening homes in Palm Springs for clients before Company, working with architects Dan important examples of International mountains behind. Mrs Kaufmann World War II, but by the 1940s everyone Palmer and William Krisel, took full Style architecture in the United States. reclines by the pool, seemingly oblivious wanted modern. And by the 1960s very advantage, doubling the size of the city The Kaufmann Desert House, to the onset of night. few new homes were built in the between 1955 and 1965 with stylish, completed in 1946, glitters like ice in the traditional Spanish vernacular style. mass-produced modern tract homes desert landscape. Its flat roof is edged Palm Springs back on the map Established architects with practices with clean lines and simple elegance, with silver, glinting in the unyielding sun A renewed interest in Modernism, in Los Angeles were brought in to design complete with private swimming pools and hovering over transparent walls of together with the untiring efforts of second homes for their wealthy clients, and twin palms. glass. It is a sculptural object whose preservationists, have put Palm Springs but the first modern architects actually to Modern architecture reflected the geometric forms contrast dramatically and its unique concentration of Modern live in Palm Springs were Swiss-born optimism and exuberance of the time and with the desert around it, and yet it architecture back on the map. Shulman’s Albert Frey (a disciple of Corbusier), the availability of new materials, many of reaches out to the landscape, drawing it photographs have made the faithful who moved from New York in 1934, and which had been developed during the war into its cool interior. restoration of so many of these significant John Porter Clark, who he partnered to and were readily available in Southern Kaufmann was no stranger to and precious buildings possible, allowing form the most significant architectural California. Air conditioning made International Style modernism. He had them to be cherished by a new generation practice in the desert. The houses they year-round living possible in the desert, commissioned Frank Lloyd Wright to of wealthy enthusiasts. built for themselves, with flat roofs and and new golfing communities and build Fallingwater in south-western wood frames sheathed in corrugated retirement homes sprang up in the valley. Pennsylvania, named by The American The film-documentary ‘Visual Acoustics: metal, put Palm Springs on the By the 1970s, however, the Modern Institute of Architects as “the best The Modernism of Julius Shulman’ is architectural map. style had fallen out of favour and the all-time work of American architecture”. due for UK release in 2014 – for more Driving East from Los Angeles along recession of 1973-75 forced many with For his desert commission, however, information, go to juliusshulmanfilm. CA-111, you know you have arrived in second homes to sell up. 25 years of Kaufmann used architect Richard com. 128 MidCentury|Autumn/Winter 2013 MidCentury|Autumn/Winter 2013 129 Title page: Clark, Frey and Chambers, City Hall, Palm Springs, 1958, photograph by Julius Shulman; Left: Neutra Kaufmann House restored, Palm Springs, 1998, photograph by Julius Shulman; Below: Palmer & Krisel, Alexander House, Palm Springs, 1957, photograph by Julius Shulman. All photographs © J. Paul Getty Trust. 130 MidCentury|Autumn/Winter 2013 MidCentury|Autumn/Winter 2013 131 .
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