Palm Springs Modern Living

"Palm Springs is as much a showcase for its unparalleled collection of Midcentury Modern architecture as it is for the unique people that designed and inhabit that architecture ... photographer James Schnepf has created a wonderful collection of photographs that document both the iconic architecture and fascinating people of this desert oasis. More than fifty modernists, artists, builders and architects were interviewed"--Publisher's description.

Palm Springs is as much a showcase for its unparalleled collection of Midcentury Modern architecture as it is for the unique people that designed and inhabit that architecture. With Palm Springs Modern Living, photographer James Schnepf has created a wonderful collection of photographs that document both the iconic architecture and fascinating people of this desert oasis. More than fifty modernists, artists, builders, and architects were interviewed, including such Midcentury Modern luminaries as Donald Wexler, William Krisel, and Hugh Kaptur, and their stories and anecdotes provide a perfect complement to Schnepf’s vivid photography. Together, they manage to bring Palm Springs to life in a way that most volumes of architectural photos could never hope to achieve. James Schnepf is a location photographer with an emphasis on people. He has photographed for a long list of America’s leading corporations and publications, and these assignments have taken him to all parts of the world. In his travels he has always kept an eye open for a climate and community to balance the cold winters of his family’s Midwest base. He and his wife, Christiane, found that place in California’s Coachella Valley, where they own a 1959 William Krisel–designed home.

Paying homage to the seminal mid-century modern architecture of Palm Springs, this luxurious book showcases historic jet-set homes designed by legendary talents such as Richard Neutra, Albert Frey, and Paul Williams, as well as private residences by today’s leading tastemakers. Since Gary Cooper built one of the first modernist houses in Palm Springs in the 1930s, this desert oasis has entranced Hollywood. A mecca for the international jet set that lured Frank Sinatra, Walter Annenberg, and others, Palm Springs came into its own architecturally as a haven for visionary modernists such as Richard Neutra, who were practicing the International Style in Los Angeles. The architectural legacy remains unsurpassed for its originality and influence, and recently many of the city’s modernist residential treasures have been restored. In original new photography, Palm Springs captures the allure of this famed modernist destination. The book profiles outstanding examples such as the Annenberg Estate, the Ford House, and the Kaufmann House, shown in their splendor, as well as today’s restorations by top interior designers such as Martyn Lawrence Bullard and fashion designer Trina Turk. A resource section provides modernist furnishing stores and other points of interest.

This classic volume, now available at a lower price, showcases jet-set homes designed by the likes of Neutra, Frey, Lautner, and others. Palm Springs is famous as a mecca for the international jet set. But the city has also attracted its share of eccentrics and mavericks who have left an architectural legacy that remains unsurpassed for its originality and international influence. This book examines the impact that architects and designers have had on the desert oasis, primarily from the 1940s to the 1960s. Palm Springs Modern features examples of midcentury modernism at its most glamorous, some of them the residences of prominent figures who commissioned weekend getaways in the desert, including Frank Sinatra, Walter Annenberg, and Raymond Loewy. Adéle Cygelman’s insightful text, a foreword by architectural historian Joseph Rosa, contemporary color photography by David Glomb, and the celebrated archival black-and-white work of Julius Shulman all capture the distinctly modern allure of America’s famed desert playground.

This first major monograph chronicling the work and architectural philosophy of William Krisel features examples and insights from Krisel's own papers, culled from his personal collection as well as the extensive archives of the Getty Research Institute. Krisel's architectural drawings and renderings, as well as many archival photographs, highlight examples of his custom homes, mass-produced housing, and recreational facilities in Palm Springs and rest of the Coachella Valley. Contemporary photographs are by architectural photographer Darren Bradley. Heidi Creighton is a midcentury modern enthusiast, writer, collector, and researcher. In 2012, she purchased a Palm Springs home designed by William Krisel in 1957. Chris Menrad, a Southern California native, was drawn to Palm Springs in 1999 by its abundance of modernist architecture. He is a founding board member of the Palm Springs Modern Committee, an organization dedicated to the preservation of Desert Modern architecture and a real estate agent specializing in architectural properties in the Coachella Valley. He lives in a Krisel-designed home, which was the first Palm Springs' Class One historic Krisel/Alexander-built house.

This book collects more than two hundred fascinating and rarely seen historical photographs of Palm Springs, newly digitized from the Palm Springs Historical Society's expansive archive. Featured are many Hollywood celebrities, including Sinatra and the Rat Pack, who vacationed there, the early days of the desert paradise, various architectural masterworks, such as the fabulous El Mirador Hotel and the extraordinary, outrageous, and irreverent people of Palm Springs. Historian PETER MORUZZI is the founder of the Palm Springs Modern Committee, an architectural preservation group, and the author of Havan a Before Castro; When Cuba Was a Tropical Playground, Palm Springs Holiday: A Vintage Tour from Palm Springs to the Salton Sea, and Classic Dining: Discovering America's Finest Mid-Century Restaurants. He's been infatuated with Palm Springs since his first visit in 1990. He now splits his time between his homes in Los Angeles and Palm Springs.

This is the first book to reveal the eccentric treasure trove of commercial, civic, and domestic architecture that makes Palm Springs a true oasis of progressive design. Not merely regarded as a Hollywood playground, golf enclave, or retirement mecca, Palm Springs is also a bastion of idiosyncratic modernism that is unparalleled in the world. Creating stunning homes and an impressive array of other buildings in the middle of the desert, such masters as Albert Frey, Richard Neutra, John Lautner, R. M. Schindler, Donald Wexler, and Lloyd Wright exercised their creative potential there. Palm Springs Weekend explores everything from the grandiose, such as Neutra's Kaufmann house, to the more humble features of the city--motels, trailer homes, and the ubiquitous metal and concrete sunscreens that shade them. Filled with hundreds of archival and contemporary photographs, elevations, and vintage ephemera, Palm Springs Weekend reveals an inimitable city where modern design, Hollywood glamour, and the desolate drama of the desert coalesce.

178 stunning color and b/w photos present mid-century modern architecture as seen in Palm Springs, CA.