Architectural tourism is big business in Palm Springs. Whether its organized tours, exhibits, or just a traveler with a map, Palm Springs is well-trampled by those looking for a peak at an icon. Sometimes the icon is the architecture, and sometimes, the occupant was an icon. Occasionally, it’s both.
Near our home, along North Indian Canyon, there are two landmarked properties that don’t see as much tourist traffic. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t something to see.
Grace Lewis Miller House, (Richard Neutra-1937)
2311 North Indian Canyon
One of the most highly regarded examples of modern architecture in Palm Springs is the Kaufmann House, designed by architect Richard Neutra. Walk by that house at any time of day, and you will likely see gawkers. The solitary aficionado sneaking a peak, or golf carts loaded with those doing the same. Unlike many neighboring homes that were once owned by Clark Gable or Kirk Douglas and are hidden behind walls and hedges, this one is actually visible. This was Neutra’s tour de force in town, and from the street, one can just get a glimpse of the home’s symbiosis with the landscape.
Neutra built 3 homes in Palm Springs. In addition to the Kaufmann House, a second that has long since demolished. The third location, the Grace Lewis Miller House, is situated conveniently near our residence. You will not see gawkers here.
In the winter of 1936, St.Louis socialite and health guru Grace Lewis Miller left St. Louis in search of a winter home. She was a practitioner and teacher of a European exercise program, the Mensendieck system, a method that emphasized balance and posture to help alleviate pain. She wanted a home and studio that would compliment her focus on the exercise and mental well-being.
She worked very closely with Neutra on the design. For Neutra, it would be his first home in the desert, and he played with the contrasting desires of shelter from the desert heat and an openness to what was then a pristine desert landscape. The collaboration resulted in a simple home of stucco walls with large expanses of glass under broad sheltering overhangs. The interior was inspired in part by Japanese tea house’s sliding partitions. The partitions were used to open or close off porches depending on the weather. The porches otherwise kept the home proper in shadow.
The house sat on a 2-1/2 acre lot in what was then the sparsely populated north side of town. At 1,100 square feet, it was a much more modest predecessor to the grander Kaufmann House.
Some of the original photos, taken by the photographer Julius Schulman, show just how open the land was.
Grace Lewis Miller lived there, part time, for the next 23 years, before selling the home to the nearby Racquet Club in 1960. She returned to St. Louis permanently in 1960 and passed away in 1976. The home would go on to change hands a number of times, and fell into complete disrepair.
The current owner purchased the home in 2000 and has been methodically restoring the home ever since. The home was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2020.
Today, the Miller House still sits quietly on Indian Canyon. The pristine desert landscape has long since disappeared. The home is bracketed on the south by a drab apartment building, and on the north by a run-down building. Indian Canyon, a rural 2 lane road in 1937, is now a 4-lane thoroughfare on which drivers routinely rocket along the 40 mile per hour road at 60. And behind the home, that once unfettered view of Mt. San Jacinto, as depicted above, is now an untidy vacant lot scattered with plastic bags and power lines.
Walking along Indian Canyon, the only indication that this landmark exists is a wood and steel canopy over the driveway gate, a refined, albeit aged, hint. And there is Palm Springs first truly modern home, hiding in plain sight.
Steel Houses, (Wexler and Harrison-1962)
Simms Road and Sunnyview Drive
Just north of the Miller House, also off Indian Canyon, sits a set of landmark modern homes. They too, a bit off the beaten track of the architecture tour loop, but not for lack of interest.
In the late 1950s, the Alexander Company developed the nearby Racquet Club Estates. Working with the architect William Krisel, their goal was to develop an affordable modern prototypical family home. The homes’ signature was a butterfly roof, an open plan, and floor to ceiling glass at the rear that opened to pool and patio.
Emboldened by the success of these homes, the Alexander Company teamed with the firm of Donald Wexler and Richard Harrison to launch another neighborhood of affordable homes next door. But it would be unlike anything else built to date in Palm Springs. They would be steel homes, assembled in a Los Angeles factory, trucked to Palm Springs, and set on awaiting concrete slabs.
The architects developed a site plan and several typical prototypes that would populate the site. There were to be 38 homes planned along Simms, Sunnyview, and Molino.
The homes exploited the possibilities of steel, which allowed for longer uninterrupted roof spans, and deeper roof cantilevers. They took cues from industrial buildings in design and detailing.
Prototype 1 sits at Simms and Sunnyview. Its signature is a sawtooth roof that floats over the enclosing walls. Delightfully, the home is open to the street.
And like all good Palm Springs homes, it opens to the pool in back with floor to ceiling glass.
The plans emphasized openness, and that added a sense of spaciousness to an otherwise compact home. As seen below, the plan of Prototype 1 was just 1,100 square feet with 2 Bedrooms, but open front to back.
I found this section of the 2nd Prototype. A lovely drawing that captures the marriage of the open design with leisurely desert living.
But alas, the full buildout of 38 homes never happened. The cost of steel became prohibitive in the early 60s, and after building the first 7 homes, the Alexander Company ended the experiment.
And so, when you walk along the adjacent streets, you do not see the planned neighborhood of steel prefab homes. The remaining lots were sold and populated with a repeating ranch home design. And they had uhhhhh…., a slightly different vision.
Each property was designed in an idyllic time. Grace Lewis Miller came west and found pristine desert on which to build her dream home in 1937. And Donald Wexler and Richard Harrison were given an opportunity in the heady early 60s to dream up a new American housing prototype, one that could be built in a factory and dropped on a slab.
Time has dramatically altered the landscape along this stretch of Indian Canyon. But if you walk slowly down Indian Canyon, you might catch a glimpse of the old Miller Place through the garage gate. And if you happen to walk by the corner of Simms and Sunnyview at twilight, you will catch something more dramatic. A prefabricated steel home, with a sawtooth roof, glowing under the midnight blue desert sky.
Leave a Reply