The Hotel Book – Great Escapes North America 2006
Excerpt by Daisann McLane
Edited by Angelika Taschen – Photography by Don Freeman
Exploring Your Inner Sinatra
In 1947 Frank Sinatra built his first house in the desert colony of Palm Springs, California. He’d remain in Palm Springs for the next 50 years, and his inimitable style of glitzy cool would come to define this vacation city where dazzling mid-century modern houses by Albert Frey, Raymond Loewy and Rudolf Schindler nestle at the foot of the bare, purple-tinted San Jacinto mountains.
In Palm Springs, Sinatra and his cronies like Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr. (known as the “Rat Pack”) could party and relax with martinis at poolside, away from the prying eyes of the Hollywood press. 1947 is also the year that the original Orbit In Hideaway opened. Build by Herbert Burns, the first designer to introduce the concept of the “ultra-modern motor court inn” to Palm Springs, it was photographed shortly afterwards by renowned architectural photographer Julius Shulman. From those black and white photographs Orbit In co-owner Christy Eugenis supervised the loving and painstaking restoration of both the Hideaway, and its sister property (also designed by Burns) a few doors down the street, the Oasis. The Hideaway, with its studio-style apartments in neutral tones, outfitted with originals by Eames, Breuer, and Jacobsen, is the more classic of the two restorations – it’s also serene and private, with spacious landscaped grounds, rooms with mountain views, and no sign out front, not even a lobby. Contemporary creature comforts that the Rat Pack never enjoyed – like hydrating facials and detox morning-after scrubs – are available in-room. The more social and lively Oasis has a spectacular rectangular swimming pool with a boomerang-shaped bar. From the sunshade canopy above poolside, water-misting devices emit a fine spray over the lounge chairs – as if the Orbit In needed to be any cooler than it already is.