Desert retreats with breathtaking views offer indoor-outdoor lifestyle
Desert retreats (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
The desert landscape offers unique opportunities for architects and designers. Here are some of our favorite desert retreats from our archives.
Jim Austin’s home at Rimrock Ranch in the desert north of Palm Springs incorporates a modern design with an industrial canopy which shields the home from the blazing sun while helping to keep it warm during the winter months. More photographs from 2008 here.
(Annie Wells / Los Angeles Times)
Rosa Muerta, photographed in 2009, is architect Robert Stone’s new kind of desert-modern architecture. “It offers you a chance to re-frame and re-create your own world...if only for a weekend,†says Stone. Full story and photos here.
(Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)
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Robert Shiell recently completed a year-long renovation of a1958 Krisel & Palmer home in Palm Springs. More photos here.
(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
John Bernard settles into the comfortable surroundings of his midcentury A–frame home in Palm Springs. Full story here.
(Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)
Howard Joyce and his wife Jennifer Cabalquinto at the kitchen counter of their William Krisel-designed home in Palm Springs. More Krisel designs here.
(Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)
The former 1962 home of actor Jack Webb of “Dragnet†fame features a mix of period and contemporary furnishings designed by Palm Springs designer Christopher Kennedy. More photos here.
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Los Angeles residents Clea Benson and John Schuster sit on the porch of their house in Joshua Tree, adjacent to the northern boundary of Joshua Tree National Park. Full story from 2005 here.
(Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)
Liz and Mark Ostoich have filled their 1959 Hugh M. Kaptur-designed Palm Springs home with Midcentury Modern decor from a variety of international designers. More photos here.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
Developer Alta Verde Group and the architecture firm Poon Design recently finished the initial phases of Escena in Palm Springs, believed to be the first truly modern, single-family tract house development in Southern California since builders such as Joseph Eichler and the Alexander Construction Co. brought Midcentury Modern to the masses. More photos from 2013 here.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
Sunnylands, the desert residence of philanthropists Walter and Leonore Annenberg, encompasses 200 acres and a 25,000-square-foot house designed by iconic architect A. Quincy Jones and interior designer William Haines, working with associate Ted Graber. The Times took a sneak peek in 2012.
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Paul Goff and Tony Angelotti entertain friends on the outside patio near a glowing fireplace and desert garden at their pueblo style house. Full story and photos here.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
The strawbale home of the late composer Lou Harrison, whose retreat home in Joshua Tree was finished shortly before he died in 2003. The unique house is defined by several arches and a vaulted ceiling, and has thick walls made of actual strawbales. The shape of the house, influenced by the work of an Egyptian architect Harrison admired, was designed to provide an acoustic environment perfect for playing music. Full story here.
(Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)
Craig Ferree sits on the kitchen counter facing the dining room at his home in Palm Springs in 2009. The house is decorated in an imaginary mix of contemporary and period furnishings that breaks with the midcentury-as-museum look. The home was decorated by designer Christopher Kennedy. More photos here.
(Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)
Rob Hoyt plays with his son Lewis and daughter Ellie in the pool at their midcentury home in Palm Springs, designed by William Krisel.
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An abandoned house transforms into an al fresco retreat for dinner with friends in Pipes Canyon, near Joshua Tree National Park. Photo gallery here. For more on the desert, check out our Travel section’s tour through Death Valley.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
The 1960 midcentury Palm Springs house of Ingrid Jackel’s facade features classic midcentury modern decorative concrete blocks and a view of the mountains. (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)
A view of the historic 1923 Cavanaugh Adobe and weekend home of architects Diane Wilk and Michael Burch in Indian Wells (one of the oldest still standing adobe homes in the Coachella Valley). (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
A view of the historic 1923 Cavanaugh Adobe and weekend home of architects Diane Wilk and Michael Burch in Indian Wells (one of the oldest still standing adobe homes in the Coachella Valley). (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
