Swell Dwelling

Swell Dwelling

Excerpt by Elisabeth Dunham

A one-of-a-kind mid-century home in Palm Springs gets a fitting addition from its new Portland owners.

In the still-cresting craze for midcentury modern architecture, Palm Springs guards its status as the movement’s unofficial holy ground, a place where cultural tourists pilgrimage to pay respects to the creations of hallowed architects such as E. Stewart Williams, Albert Frey, William Cody and Donald A. Wexler.

And it so happens that few in the city’s priesthood of style hold more clout than a couple from Portland, Christy Eugenis and Stan Amy. Eight years ago Eugenis, a former owner of the Nanu clothing boutique, and Amy, a founder of the New Seasons Market grocery chain, bought a grungy ’50s motel in Sinatra’s old stomping grounds and turned it into a swank showpiece of midcentury restoration. By the time the Orbit In went on the market last year for $2.9 million, it had become a home base for travelers soaking up Palm Spring’s radiant design heritage and a symbol of the city’s resurgent fabulousness.

But lately Eugenis and Amy, who retain a nine-room Palm Springs retreat called the Hideaway, have been spending their desert weekends pursing a more private preservation project: updating their new Palm Springs vacation home, a post-and-beam residence that the aforementioned Wexler designed for his own family in 1954.

One of the founding fathers of the “desert modern” style that originated in Palm Springs, Wexler is best known for his expertise in prefabricated steel construction and public works. In addition to the prototype steel houses he drafted for U.S. Steel (developed by Palm Springs based Alexander Construction Co, the six that have been restored to original condition are mainstays of any architectural tour of the city), he designed Dinah Shore’s home, the Palm Springs International Airport and many other homes and public buildings in the city.

This early residence, however, represented a different innovation. Designed while the architect’s wife, Lynn, was pregnant, Wexler’s “expandable” house incorporated non-load-bearing partitions that could be moved and supplemented to create new rooms with unusual ease. Written up in the Los Angeles Times Homes Magazine twice – the second time concurrent with additions made to accommodate the couple’s three sons, Glen, Gary and Brian – it gradually grew from 1,200 to 2,400 square feet.

And Eugenis is pleased to note that despite its idiosyncratic construction, the home is elegantly of a piece, bearing the must-have hallmarks of the desert modern style – a low-pitched, almost flat roof; deep overhangs; huge glass windows; and of course an outdoor pool.

“I love all of its lines,” she remarks. “There’s the linear quality of the plywood siding on the outside and on the inside, and the tongue-and-groove on the ceiling and where the beams come across to the clerestory windows. It makes the house feel floaty and airy. You just keep discovering these new angles.”

The backyard pool, chicly outfitted with a long, shallow shelf where adults can lounge and loll as young children play, was featured in the 2003 coffee table book More Spectacular Pools by Marina Ubach.

Recently Wexler, now 80, made a final addition at the request of the new, Portland-based owners: a bike garage. But other than that and “about a hundred little repairs,” Eugenis and Amy have kept the structure of their pedigreed residence intact.

“You feel like you inhabit this wonderful piece of art,” Eugenis says. “But it’s simplistic and not real lavish or overdone. It’s more to a human scale.”

The home’s new décor follows the same tone. Making use of the plethora of retro shops in Palm Springs, Eugenis and Amy added a mix of classic midcentury furniture (a Bertoia bird chair and ottoman in the den, for instance), contemporary pieces (a sculptural Italian sofa in the living room) and fun retro items (a ’50s-era manicure cart in a guest bedroom).

Notwithstanding all that furniture shopping, Eugenis says one of the best things about owning the house has been getting to know its architect.

“When we bought the house I called him up and had he and his wife over for cocktails,” she recalls. “Every time we have him over, we learn a little bit more.”

Wexler, who lived in the house for 38 years and now consults on midcentury-style home designs in Palm Springs, says he’s just happy that his old abode has been kept up so well by subsequent owners.

“To me, it’s a great pleasure to see it taken care of and looking as good as – or better than – when I lived in it.”

Now, if only someone would make a bicycle with tailfins and chrome fenders to go in that new garage.