City of Palm Springs

Department of Planning Services

Memorandum

Date: February 8, 2016

To: The Historic Site Preservation Board

From: Ken Lyon, RA, Associate Planner

Subject: Case HSPB #100 –. An application by Todd Hays, owner, for Class 1 historic designation of “The Bel Vista Residence” located at 1164 Calle Rolph.

Please find attached the historic resources report date stamped January 7, 2016 from the property owner, Todd Hays requesting Class 1 historic site designation for the subject parcel.

Aerial View of Site

RECOMMENDATION:

1. Receive the historic resources report and initiate study and investigation pursuant to PSMC 8.05.135 on the subject site in consideration of the Class 1 historic site application submitted by the applicant. 2. Continue the matter to a noticed public hearing of March 9, 2016 and direct staff to arrange site visits for board members to familiarize themselves with the content of the report and the conditions at the site.

Attachment: Application and historic resources report date stamped January 7, 2016.

3200 E. Tahquitz Canyon Way, Palm Springs, CA 92262 Tel: (760) 323-8245 Fax: (760) 322-8360 E-mail: [email protected]

Albert Frey Bel Vista Home: ______1164 N Calle Rolph Palm Springs, CA 92262

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Nomination Application For City of Palm Springs

Class 1 Historic Site

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Prepared By Todd Hays

2 Bel Vista Home: 1164 N Calle Rolph

Class 1 Historic Site Nomination

Table of Contents ______

Executive Summary page 3

Class 1 Historic Site Designation Application Form page 4

Current Site Photos page 9

Site Plan and Historic Context Statement page 11

Statement of Significance page 12

Integrity Analysis page 16

Bibliography page 18

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Appendices page 19-32

I Original floor plan

II Original subdivision map(s)

III Original permit, showing Culver Nichols as owner

IV Reprints: newspaper and magazine

V Original CC&Rʼs

VII Current site photo

VIII Early site photo and interior photos

VIIII Original Plans

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Executive Summary ______

Significance – The Bel Vista Residence located at 1164 N. Calle Rolph was designed in 1945 by master architect Albert Frey. One of only two remaining near-intact homes of the original 15 homes built in the Bel Vista subdivision, the structure was erected in 1946 on land owned by Sallie Stevens and Culver Nichols. The Nichols, along with Frey, also served as the developers and builders of the subdivision. Additionally, Sallie Stevens and Culver Nichols owned this particular property up until 1954.

As an important and largely intact example of an early modern structure, along with its standing as being a part of Palm Springsʼ earliest modern-style subdivisions, the private residence exhibits numerous stylistic markers that place it within the historic context of Palm Springsʼ Post-WWII, early-modern period.

Importantly, the home and subdivision represent one of the earliest examples of affordable housing built in Palm Springs and the only built housing tract designed by Albert Frey.

Designation Criteria and Research - The Bel Vista Residence has not previously been evaluated for Class 1 Historic Site eligibility. The residence was featured in the April 1951 issue of Architect and Engineer magazine, in a September 1959 issue of Daily Enterprise newspaper featuring an interview with Albert Frey, it appears in Joseph Rosaʼs 1990 book, Albert Frey, Architect, is featured in the Fall 2014 issue of Atomic Ranch magazine and is featured in the draft of the City of Palm Springs 2015 Citywide Historic Context Statement.

A brief summary of the evaluation and how the property meets the definitions of a historic site:

8.05.020 (a) paragraph 2, associated with persons who made meaningful contribution: Sallie Stevens and Culver Nichols, two of Palm most important early developers, developed the home and subdivision.

8.05.020 (a) paragraph 3, exemplifies a particular period: The Bel Vista Residence is eligible as a Historic Site under the theme of early because it possesses numerous unique and significant characteristics and attributes. The home exemplifies the description as defined in the 2004 City of Palm Springs Historic Resources Survey, “Emphasizing geometric forms and textures, strong linear qualities, spare ornamentation, outdoor living, and usually of a single story, the homes of this era are readily identifiable. From the 1940s through the 1960s, the residential architecture in the modernist idiom flourished and became integral to the character now strongly identified with Palm Springs.”

8.05.020 (a) paragraph 5, presents the work of a master architect: As the work of architect Albert Frey, it must be considered the work of a “master” architect because of his record of architectural excellence. With its boxlike shape, plain façade and easy access between indoor and outdoor, the home is reflective of an “International Style” created by , Freyʼs early mentor.

The Bel Vista Residence retains nearly all of its original architectural integrity.

SUMMARY: This evaluation finds the Bel Vista Residence eligible for listing as a Palm Springs Historic Site under 8.05.020 (a) paragraphs 2, 3 & 5 of the local ordinanceʼs seven criteria.

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Western Elevation

Southern Elevation

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Eastern Elevation

Northern Elevation

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Site Plan

Historic Context ______

The Early Modern Period (roughly 1925 to 1960) in Palm Springs is considered to have begun with construction of the areaʼs first “modern” structure, Rudolph M. Schindlerʼs Paul and Betty Popenoe Cabin in 1922 (demolished) followed closely in 1925 by the Oasis Hotel designed by Lloyd Wright (mostly demolished), The Ship of the Desert in 1936 by Millard Sheets, the Kocher-Samson building in 1934 by A. Lawrence Kocher and Albert Frey — Freyʼs first building in Palm Springs, Richard Neutraʼs Grace Lewis Miller House in 1937 and the House in 1939.

Prior to this period, there was a wide range of architectural styles throughout the residential neighborhoods of Palm Springs – from adobe and Mexican hacienda to ranch, craftsman and Prairie Style. Thus, Palm Springs had proven itself as fertile ground for innovative residential architecture…yet only in the form of unique, one-of-a-kind single family homes. Such would not be the case for too much longer.

It was following WWII that Palm Springsʼ economy began to prosper through tourism — driven in part by the elite of Hollywood. Hollywood celebrities discovered the desert oasis and patronized its hotels, nightclubs and restaurants. Celebrity-seeking tourists soon followed, transforming Palm Springs from a sleepy village into a more cosmopolitan environment that saw the construction of schools, hospitals, an airport and other important public projects.

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Palm Springs also became an economical destination for the many service men and women returning from the war. It was during the war that Albert Frey designed Bel Vista — what would become the first modern-style subdivisions built in the City of Palm Springs, and the Cityʼs first affordable housing tract.

Not built until after the war, due largely to cost issues, construction of Bel Vista began with financial assistance from the Home Owners Loan Corporation. Built of standard wood frame construction with wood lath and stucco, Bel Vista was originally designed as war workersʼ housing. Since the government subsidized its construction, it had to follow specific design guidelines. Fifteen one-family units were constructed with one typical plan. Rotating and flipping the plan on each lot, thereby allowing various sides to face the street, achieved a variation in their appearance. In addition, each house was given individual identity by using different setbacks. A unique aspect of the plan is that each house has many entrances, through both private and communal spaces. The Bel Vista plan is almost identical to one of Freyʼs Farmhouse designs for the United States Department of Agriculture of 1934; that project, like Bel Vista, sought to provide economical housing. (source: Joseph Rosa, “Albert Frey, Architect.”)

So was born the first modern, affordable housing tract in Palm Springs.

Statement of Significance ______

Criterion 2: (associated with lives of persons who made meaningful contribution to national, state or local history.)

The Calle Rolph Residence was designed by architect Albert Frey and erected by a developer/builder team of Frey and Sallie Stevens and Culver Nichols.

First Owners and Builders: Sallie Stevens and Culver Nichols

The first owners of 1164 N Calle Rolph were Sallie Stevens (1908-1982) and Culver Nichols (1905-1995) — two of Palm Springsʼ most prominent and influential real estate owners and developers. Culver Nichols, one of the original members of the committee formed in 1936 to study the incorporation of Palm Springs, was the first President of the Palm Springs Chamber of Commerce in 1940. Sallie Stevens Nichols is the daughter of Prescott T. Stevens — one of the early founders and real estate developers of Palm Springs.

John Porter Clark is credited with introducing Frey to the Nicholsʼ. After graduating from Cornell, Clark returned to Pasadena where he apprenticed with Garrett Van Pelt, in the architectural firm of Van Pelt and Lind. While working in Pasadena, Clark met Sallie and Culver Nichols, a Pasadena Realtor, who encouraged him to relocate to Palm Springs. It was this introduction to the Nicholsʼ, and their subsequent introduction to Albert Frey, that would not only lead to Freyʼs work on the Bel Vista project but eventually his work on the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway Valley Station which still stands today at the entrance to Palm Springs.

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Additional Owners

Primary records show the chain of ownership for 1164 North Calle Rolph as follows:

Date Owner(s)

January 11, 1945 Sallie Stevens and Culver Nichols June 25, 1954 Herbert Garnets September 10, 1954 Herbert Garnets and Kate Garnets (his mother) October 21, 1957 Mary A. Tweedy October 2, 1962 Mary A. (Tweedy) and Robert E. Herndon July 22, 1971 Suzanne and Gary Plaza October 31, 2012 Todd A. Hays

The residence qualifies for listing as a Class 1 Historic Site on the local registry under Criterion 2.

Criterion 3: (reflects or exemplifies a particular period of the national, state or local history).

The stylistic markers of the residence place it directly in the historic context of Palm Springsʼ Early Modern Period and pay homage to Freyʼs intimate knowledge and understanding of the international style. The private residence represents a prime and intact example of the post-

14 WWII early modernist architecture. As such, the residence may be viewed as an important component of the historic trends that have come to define Palm Springsʼ image as a center of important midcentury architecture, i.e., an historic trend that exemplifies a particular period of the national, state or local history. The Calle Rolph Residence is eligible under the theme of Modern architecture because it possesses distinctive characteristics that make up the many qualities of the early roots of the style, such as overall horizontality, a flat roof, inexpensive mass-produced materials and an architectural design that strives to blur the line between the indoors and outdoors.

While modest in scale and simple in appearance, 1164 N. Calle Rolph holds a significant place in the post-war, early-modern history of Palm Springs. Designed in 1945 by master architect Albert Frey in a modern International Style, it was erected by the developer team of Frey and Sallie Stevens and Culver Nichols as a part of the larger 15-home Bel Vista tract. The project was financed through the Home Owners' Loan Corporation (HOLC), a government-sponsored corporation established in 1933 under President Franklin D. Roosevelt as part of the New Deal.

Bel Vista represents the first modern-style subdivision built in the City of Palm Springs. Built following years of Spanish-style tracts, including Palm Canyon Mesa in 1924, Las Palmas Estates and Merito Vista in 1926 and Palm Springs Estates in 1927 (built by Sallie Stevensʼ father, Prescott T. Stevens), Bel Vista was completed more than ten years before Jack Meiselman would build his earliest modern-style tracts in 1956: Karlisa Cove and Palm Lane.

The residence qualifies for listing as a Class 1 Historic Site on the local registry under Criterion 3.

Criterion 5: (represents the work of a master, or possesses high artistic values).

The architect Albert Frey qualifies individually as “master architect,” having been identified as such in several previous city designations.

Architect: Albert Frey

Albert Frey (October 18, 1903, Zurich, Switzerland, to November 14, 1998, Palm Springs, CA) received his architecture diploma in 1924 from the Institute of Technology in Winterthur, Switzerland, having received instruction in the then popular Beaux-Arts style. From 1924 through 1928, Frey worked on various architectural projects in Belgium. In 1928, Frey secured a position in the Paris atelier of the noted International Style architect Le Corbusier and . During his period of working for Le Corbusier, Frey worked on the project and other significant projects. In 1928, Frey left the atelier to take up work in the United States, yet maintained a friendship with Le Corbusier for many years.

Frey, the first architect in America to have worked directly with Le Corbusier, soon began working with the American architect A. Lawrence Kocher—who was also the managing editor of Architectural Record. Their collaboration would last until 1938. The pair contributed significantly to the American modernist movement through their work and numerous articles published in Architectural Record on urban planning, the modernist aesthetic, and technology — one collaboration was the 1931 Aluminaire House, designed for an exhibition, and later sold to New York architect Wallace K. Harrison. Harrison used it as a guesthouse on his Long Island property for years. Another of their commissions was an office/apartment dual-use building for Kocher's brother, Dr. J. J. Kocher of Palm Springs—this project introduced Frey to the California desert, which was to become his home and the backdrop for most of his subsequent work. From 1935 to 1937 Frey worked with John Porter Clark (1905–1991), under the Pasadena, CA firm of Van Pelt and Lind Architects as both were yet unlicensed in California. April 1937 saw Frey briefly return to the east coast to work on the in New York.

15 While in New York Frey married Marion Cook, a writer he had met in Palm Springs. Upon completion of his work on the Museum of Modern Art in 1939, he and Marion returned to the Palm Springs where Frey resumed his collaboration with Clark, which was to continue for nearly twenty more years.

At the end of World War II, Palm Springs' population almost tripled and the city experienced a building boom. Known as an escape for the Hollywood elite and a winter haven for east coast industrialists, Palm Springs emerged post-war as a resort community for a broader segment of the American populace with more leisure time than any previous generation. Veterans and their families also migrated to the desert after the war, which resulted in a building boom for Palm Springs. Clark and Frey received several commissions from the returning soldiers for homes and small businesses during this time. Frey and Clark were well positioned to capitalize on this, and both the city and their firm benefited from an unprecedented period of construction. Significant buildings by Frey include:

- Aluminaire House, 1930 - Kocher-Samson Building, 1934 - Frey House I, 1940 and Frey House II, 1963 - Loewy House, built for industrial designer , 1946 - Palm Springs Aerial Tramway Valley Station, 1949-1963 - Palm Springs City Hall, 1952 - North Shore Beach and Yacht Club at North Shore, Salton Sea, 1958 - Tramway Gas Station, 1961 source: Wikipedia

As the work of a Master, and for its high artistic values, the residence qualifies for listing as a Class 1 Historic Site on the local registry under Criterion 5.

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Integrity Analysis (using U.S. Secretary of Interior Standards) ______Integrity Integrity is the ability of a property to convey its significance. To be listed in the local registry, a property must not only be shown to be significant under the criteria, but it also must have integrity. The evaluation of integrity is sometimes a subjective judgment, but it must always be grounded in an understanding of a property's physical features and how they relate to its significance. Historic properties either retain integrity (that is, convey their significance) or they do not. The definition of integrity includes seven aspects or qualities. To retain historic integrity a property will always possess several, and usually most, of the aspects. The retention of specific aspects of integrity is paramount for a property to convey its significance. Determining which of these aspects are most important to a particular property requires knowing why, where, and when the property is significant. The following sections define the seven aspects and explain how they combine to produce integrity.

Location Location is the place where an historic property was constructed or the place where an historic event occurred. The relationship between the property and its location is often important to understanding why the property was created or why something happened. The actual location of a historic property, complemented by its setting, is particularly important in recapturing the sense of historic events and persons. Except in rare cases, the relationship between a property and its historic associations is destroyed if the property is moved. The Calle Rolph Residence remains in its original location and therefore qualifies under this aspect.

Design Design is the combination of elements that create the form, plan, space, structure, and style of a property. It results from conscious decisions made during the original conception and planning of a property and applies to activities as diverse as community planning, engineering, architecture, and landscape architecture. Design includes such elements as organization of space, proportion, scale, technology, ornamentation, and materials. A propertyʼs design reflects historic functions and technologies as well as aesthetics. It includes such considerations as the structural system; massing; arrangement of spaces; pattern of fenestration; textures and colors of surface materials; type, amount, and style of ornamental detailing. The Calle Rolph Residenceʼs essential characteristics of form, plan, space, structure, and style have survived almost entirely intact.

Setting Setting is the physical environment of a historic property. Whereas location refers to the specific place where a property was built or an event occurred, setting refers to the character of the place in which the property played its historical role. It involves how, not just where, the property is situated and its relationship to surrounding features, architecture and open space. Setting often reflects the basic physical conditions under which a property was built and the functions it was intended to serve. In addition, the way in which a property is positioned in its environment can reflect the designerʼs concept of nature and aesthetic preferences. The setting of the Calle Rolph Residence continues to reflect the architectʼs original design relationship of site and structure.

Materials Materials are the physical elements that were combined or deposited during a particular period

17 of time and in a particular pattern or configuration to form a historic property. The choice and combination of materials reveals the preferences of those who created the property and

indicate the availability of particular types of materials and technologies. The Calle Rolph Residenceʼs exterior surface materials have been painted to match the original colors, and the exterior doors and windows are all to original specifications.

Workmanship Workmanship is the physical evidence of the crafts of a particular culture or people during any given period in history or prehistory. It is the evidence of artisansʼ labor and skill in constructing or altering a building, structure, object, or site. Workmanship can apply to the property as a whole or to its individual components. It can be expressed in vernacular methods of construction and plain finishes or in highly sophisticated configurations and ornamental detailing. It can be based on common traditions or innovative period techniques. Workmanship is important because it can furnish evidence of the technology of a craft, illustrate the aesthetic principles of a historic or prehistoric period, and reveal individual, local, regional, or national applications of both technological practices and aesthetic principles. The Calle Rolph Residence continues to express a high degree of early modern period workmanship.

Feeling Feeling is a propertyʼs expression of the aesthetic or historic sense of a particular period of time. It results from the presence of physical features that, taken together, convey the propertyʼs historic character. For example, a rural historic district retaining original design, materials, workmanship, and setting will relate the feeling of agricultural life in the 19th century. When constructed, the Calle Rolph Residence was part of a planned early modernist tract development and sited to take advantage of panoramic, mountain views to the west. Accordingly, the Calle Rolph Residence retains its original integrity of feeling.

Association Association is the direct link between an important historic event or person and a historic property. A property retains association if it is the place where the event or activity occurred and is sufficiently intact to convey that relationship to an observer. Like feeling, association requires the presence of physical features that convey a propertyʼs historic character. For example, a Revolutionary War battlefield whose natural and man-made elements have remained intact since the 18th century will retain its quality of association with the battle. Because feeling and association depend on individual perceptions, their retention alone is never sufficient to support eligibility of a property for the National Register. The Calle Rolph Residence is an important example of a post-WWII early modernist private residence built under the direction of the U.S. government. It continues its association with a pattern of events that have made a meaningful contribution to the community.

INTEGRITY SUMMARY: The Calle Rolph Residence is in excellent condition due to a recent comprehensive restoration.

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Bibliography ______

Books —

Rosa, Joseph, Albert Frey, Architect, Rizzoli, New York 1990

Bogert, Frank M., PALM SPRINGS First Hundred Years,

Magazines —

“Residential ʻBel Vistaʼ,” Architect and Engineer, April 1951

Kleinschmidt, Janice, “High and Mighty,” Palm Springs Life, September 2013

“Belle Vista,” Atomic Ranch, Fall 2014

Newspapers —

“Frey Honored by Institute of Architects,” The Desert Sun, May 7, 1957

Ringwald, George, “Cookie Cutter Tract Solution Offered PS”, Daily Enterprise, Sept 11, 1959

Other Sources —

Culver Nichols political ad, The Desert Sun, March 26, 1948

The Albert Frey Archives, University California Santa Barbara

Palm Springs Historical Society

Architecture and Design Center, Palm Springs Art Museum

Special Thanks and Sincere Appreciation to —

Jeri Vogelsang, Palm Springs Hist Society

Frank D. Lopez, Palm Springs Art Museum

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Appendices ______

Original floor plan

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Original Recorded Tract Map

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Original Tract Plan

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Original Building Permit

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Original CC&Rʼs

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Interior photos by Gail Thompson, Gayleʼs Studio

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Early site photo of tract by Julius Schulman

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Original plan drawings by Albert Frey Architects