We Can Dream: A Palm Springs Paradise Awash in Art and Views
Midcentury and contemporary design, wild and cultivated landscapes, and plenty of art merge in this gorgeous desert home
Camille LeFevre
May 12, 2017
Houzz Contributor. Arts journalist specializing in design and architecture. Former editor of Architecture Minnesota, editor of Innovative Design Quarterly, contributor to Midwest Home and HomeDish blog, contributor to Architect's Newspaper and author of the monograph Charles R. Stinson: Compositions in Nature. Have also written for Architect, ICON and Architectural Record. On my bucket list: Modernism Week in Palm Springs; happy to have done Modernism Week in Phoenix in 2017!! More at camillelefevre.org
Houzz Contributor. Arts journalist specializing in design and architecture. Former... More
When two design-minded artists decided to move from Pennsylvania to Palm Springs, they asked architect Brandon Newell and his team for “a very modern house, with thin lines, high ceilings, large expanses of glass and places to showcase not only their own art collection, but also works from local artists as well,” Newell says. The team obliged, in spectacular fashion.
Photos from Cioffi Architect
Houzz at a Glance
Who lives here: A couple who are artists and art collectors
Location: Palm Springs, California
Size: 5,692 square feet (529 square meters)
Architect: Brandon Newell of Cioffi Architect
Both of the homeowners are artists: She works with a myriad of materials, including watercolor, oil, acrylic and ceramic. He’s a photographer. When they asked the team at Cioffi Architect to create a home to highlight their work and the work of others, the team designed a modern post-and-beam showcase with plenty of white walls for displaying art.
Since indoor-outdoor living is practically de rigueur in Palm Springs, full-height windows topped with clerestories and floor-to-ceiling glass doors look out on patios, a pool and breathtaking desert views.
Houzz at a Glance
Who lives here: A couple who are artists and art collectors
Location: Palm Springs, California
Size: 5,692 square feet (529 square meters)
Architect: Brandon Newell of Cioffi Architect
Both of the homeowners are artists: She works with a myriad of materials, including watercolor, oil, acrylic and ceramic. He’s a photographer. When they asked the team at Cioffi Architect to create a home to highlight their work and the work of others, the team designed a modern post-and-beam showcase with plenty of white walls for displaying art.
Since indoor-outdoor living is practically de rigueur in Palm Springs, full-height windows topped with clerestories and floor-to-ceiling glass doors look out on patios, a pool and breathtaking desert views.
Five metal gates, designed by the homeowners’ son, pivot across the front of the stucco house to create a play of light and shadow. Their pattern reflects the nearby mountain peaks. Outside the guest rooms, a privacy wall of white burnished concrete blocks, punctuated with zinc blocks, creates a serene patio space. Openings for plantings give “the boxy house a more organic feel,” Newell says.
The light-and-shadow patterns cast by the gates change throughout the day in the entry, where tables and chairs await breakfast coffee or evening cocktails. To the left is one side of the black steel fireplace, which continues on the inside. The fireplace sits on a cantilevered concrete plinth.
Inside the living room, the massive gas fireplace of hot-rolled steel frames the views. Visible to the left are the entry gates; to the right are the mountains. “It’s the wild and the civilized, the natural versus the built, old Palm Springs versus the modern age,” Newell says.
“We utilized the fireplace to hold up the roof planes as they come together overhead,” he explains. At 15 feet wide and 12 feet tall, the fireplace penetrates both planes as they connect.
“We utilized the fireplace to hold up the roof planes as they come together overhead,” he explains. At 15 feet wide and 12 feet tall, the fireplace penetrates both planes as they connect.
The main level of the house has an open plan, with living spaces open to the dining area and kitchen. The kitchen area has two islands: one for cooking, one for serving. The kitchen’s back wall is covered in white frosted glass. The dark wall of cabinets behind the sculpture houses the refrigerator and pantry. The cabinets are from Poliform.
While the house includes lots of white walls for artwork, it also has full walls of glass to “let the landscaping and the views be the artwork,” Newell says.
The library features a wall of books.
It also includes a chaise lounge for reading or napping. A stacked-stone wall of Norstone chiseled quartz and a corner of floor covered in river rock topped with an indoor plant provide a sense of peaceful enclosure.
The Norstone chiseled quartz was also used to create a half wall in the master bathroom, with a niche for toiletries. As in the rest of the house, sliding glass doors bring in light and spectacular views.
The master bedroom’s sliding glass pocket doors lead directly to the patio and pool area. The floors are covered in porcelain tile. “We really opened up the design to allow for maximum enjoyment of indoor-outdoor living,” Newell says.
Amid the natural landscape around the pool is a small grassy area ideal for bare feet — another meeting of the wild and the cultivated. “This house really reflects what Palm Springs is trying to be,” Newell says, “which is an innovative, modern architectural city while still maintaining classical modern architecture brought here in the late 1950s and early 1960s. We’re so fortunate our clients allowed us to design this really beautiful house for them.”
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The sun roof is my favorite detail on that beautiful masterpiece of a home.
I saw this house in person today on a Modernism Week Fall preview event. The article and photos just cannot do it justice. It is amazing! The owners, both photographers, have an incredible collection of art, beautifully curated and displayed, and have done a superb job of creating a one-of-a-kind home to showcase it. It's possibly the most beautiful house I've seen during the five years I've been going to Modernism Week and other home tours.
This is so good!