Rancho Mirage

No longer overshadowed by neighboring Palm Springs, Mod Mirage reveals in photos and stories the historic homes and communities of Rancho Mirage that make up its significant midcentury heritage. Mod Mirage documents the architecturally innovative homes and communities that were built on and adjacent to the historic Thunderbird and Tamarisk Country Clubs from 1950 to 1970, in what is now the community of Rancho Mirage, California. Some of the midcentury’s most distinguished architects, including William Cody, Donald Wexler, William Krisel, E. Stewart Williams, and William Pereira, designed many of these structures, many of which are hidden behind country club gates and not easily accessible to the public. This is the first book to focus solely on Rancho Mirage’s rich architecture while also discussing its influential social history. Melissa Riche is a writer, researcher, architecture enthusiast, preservationist, and media consultant. She has written about architecture and design for twenty years, including articles for Atomic Ranch magazine and the Desert Sun newspaper and historic nominations for the Palm Springs Preservation Foundation. She is the founder of Mod Mirage, a group of midcentury modern homeowners in Rancho Mirage, California. Melissa and her husband, photographer Jim Riche, live in Tamarisk Ranchos, a William Krisel–designed midcentury modern community.

Rancho Mirage is a beautiful residential and desert-resort community nestled along the Santa Rosa Mountains, located between the cities of Palm Springs and Palm Desert in the Coachella Valley. Bighorn sheep and the Agua Caliente tribe of Cahuilla Indians were the area's early inhabitants. Date farms and ranchos developed after aquifers were discovered. Guest ranches soon followed and became favorite destinations for the rich and famous in the 1940s and 1950s. By the early 1950s, residential communities designed in classic Desert Modern style were being constructed along with the valley's first two country clubs with 18-hole golf courses. Rancho Mirage soon emerged as the "golf capital of the world" and has since grown to be a premier resort and residential community with a permanent population of 16,870 and several thousand additional winter residents who enjoy the city's 10 country clubs, three world-class resorts, and scores of restaurants.

This is one of the strangest true-crime stories ever written: a story of murder, reported rape, abduction and multiple personalities. It contains all of the ingredients of a chilling page-turner. Saroyan writes nonfiction as compelling as a great novel. Readers won't stop until the last page.

Sunnylands, the Annenberg estate in Rancho Mirage, California, is one of America's great estates. This richly illustrated book chronicles its extensive history, and individual essays by distinguished specialists document each major collection and the home's significance as an example of California midcentury modernist architecture.

RANCHO MIRAGE is a bitingly funny black comedy about what happens when the fictions that hold our lives together are exposed. In this sharp and surprising sojourn into the psyche of modern-day America—where affluence is perhaps our greatest mirage—three couples, long-time friends, find themselves at a dinner party where everyone finally decides to tell the truth. RANCHO MIRAGE asks what connects us when our youth, our dreams, and our last bottle of wine are gone.