I might as well have stayed in DiCaprio’s home

A city in the middle of the desert, which thrives again as the favored second home of stars. This is where the rich and the beautiful come down from the grey, rainy fall and the cold winter. I visited Palm Springs, famous for its residents and architecture.

Anyone could rightly ask, what on earth attracts celebrities to live in the middle of the desert? You don’t need to search too long for the answer. In the 1920s and 30s, for the actors working in Hollywood there was a so called two-hour-long rule in effect. This meant they had to be available all the time, and when they were called in, they had to show up at the shooting within two hours. Palm Springs was ideal from this perspective, as it only took this short amount of time to find themselves in a completely different world: in a desert that is wonderful in winter, too, where you can wake up to beautiful sunshine 350 days a year.

Surrounded by mountains, the beneficial effect of this wind-protected desert area was already known by a few at the start of the 20th century. There was a hospital specializing in curing patients with tuberculosis, which moved to the valley decorated by palm trees, due to the beneficial dry air. Among their first clients was a journalist, and ever since then, there was no secret. The news of the special climate spread like wildfire.

In 1927, the very first hotel opened, El Mirador, which attracted dozens of stars to the town with its wonderful location and swimming pool. For example Johnny Weissmuller, Charlie Chaplin, Albert Einstein and Salvador Dali all spent their vacations here.

Soon, film stars were not satisfied with just spending a few days in a hotel. They started to build their own houses, as a result of which in the 1950s, an incredibly rich arsenal of modernist architecture was built.

But how did I get here? My story is manifold. It all began last fall, when I was driving along Route 66.  I liked the road-trip feeling so much, that I would have continued from Los Angeles up north along the coast, but unfortunately I was short of time. Then in January, the readers of my blog voted that I should travel to Alaska in summer. While searching for plane tickets, it turned out that it would be the best if I booked a transatlantic ticket to LA. Back then, I already had an idea in mind to combine Alaska with a Seattle-Los Angeles road trip. There was another reason for that, namely, last fall I bought an annual national park pass, so I could use that too.

In the meantime, I flew to the Caribbean in March and on my way to Guadeloupe, I saw a genius article about Palm Springs’ modernist architecture in the Air France in-flight magazine. I decided right away that I was going to visit it. The article mentioned a gentleman who lead architecture tours, but they didn’t provide his contacts details. Then in April, during the tulip season it was Amsterdam’s turn.  Whilst on a boat trip, I met an American lady living in Paris, with whom I shared my travel plans. When I got to Palm Springs, she said one of her best friends – who worked at a tourist office – would be able to connect me with the guy in article who ran the architecture-themed walks.

So that’s how it happened and on my first morning in Palm Springs, the same Robert Imber whom I had read about in the Air France article was waiting for me at Reception.  For the whole morning he drove me around town to show me the astonishing houses, which are on display in the pages of the most prominent design magazines.

At the beginning of the tour it turned out, to my greatest regret, that we could not get into the apartments, despite the fact that in the middle of summer the owners don’t live here. Gardeners and housekeepers maintain the houses during this time. The wealthy owners who spend winter here, only start coming back in the middle of Fall.  Then, the number of inhabitants, which in summer is approximately 50 thousand, grows to around 150 thousand. In winter, whilst on a similar tour, you can get into some houses, as Robert – with the help of his rather extensive circle of acquaintances – can arrange this.

We didn’t have to go far for the tour begin. The very hotel I stayed at is itself an architectural piece of interest, with a legendary past. Elvis Presley, Dean Martin or Sammy Davis Jr. have all stayed here.

Caliente Tropics was built in the 60s. It’s a tropical style, a so-called tiki car motel, of which very few are left now, and which at the time of their construction was a revolutionary novelty.

In earlier times, mostly the elite traveled and for them, grandiose, elegant hotels were built with luxurious lobbies, uniformed bellboys, and extra soft carpets. With the appearance of the baby boom generation and the improvement of the roads, the middle class also started to travel, and they arrived with totally different expectations. Their cars were packed up with joyful and loud kids and young parents didn’t need elegance. They were looking for affordable accommodation, in front of which they could park their car without having to carry around too much. This is how car motels were born, where the number of staff is minimal. The family gets their keys, and from then on they organize everything on their own, from carrying their luggage to parking their car. The tiki style itself was introduced by those soldiers who fought in the world war on tropical grounds, and fell in love with the motives seen there.

Before modernism, Spanish architecture was in fashion in Palm Springs. The most important example of this is the house called the Ship of the Desert. The building, designed in 1936, also appeared on the cover of a Los Angeles design magazine (California Arts and Architecture). When Robert showed me the picture, I was surprised to see that at that time only a few dozen houses existed in the town; almost the whole area was still a desert. It was only by 1938 when the number of residents grew to such an extent that the place could be called a town.

We couldn’t visit Trina Turk fashion designer’s house either, but thanks to a magazine article I still got to know what the interior was like. All due respect to the owners, who have twice done their best, to keep this architectural monument. They purchased the rather shabby house in 1990, and having paid so much attention to the authentic details, restored it to its original state. As soon as they were finished with the restoration, almost the whole building was gutted by a mysterious fire. But they were still not tempted in the direction of an easier solution. Instead of scooping up the insurance money and building some modern villa, they dug out the old plans and rebuilt the whole building to the exact specifications of the original design.

Many move to Palm Springs because the desert ‘talks’ to them, and they like to see how it changes throughout the seasons. According to them, the best district is the one called Indian Canyon, which offers a great view to the San Jacinto Mountain. Here every house was built in the modernist style, fashionable in the middle of the 20th century. The mostly ground-floor houses are very simple from the outside, the whiteness of the walls are broken only by a yellow, black or pink door. The last mentioned one has its own Instagram fan page and hashtag.

Behind the simple walls, there are elegantly but not ostentatiously furnished rooms designed by renowned architects, and the part of the houses looking to the garden is always all glass. This way, from the living room you can see the swimming pool and golf course formed behind the houses, and of course the mountain, plus the palm trees stretching to the sky.

The wide streets spread wonderful tranquility, with the silence only broken once in a while by the sound of lawnmowers. In front of the houses you never see huge jeeps or expensive sports cars; instead vintage car are popular.

The Twin Palms district is also very cozy, with a pair of palm trees standing in front of every house. In this area not only the very rich, but the upper middle class could purchase a house.

It’s worth going for a ride in the Vista Las Palmas district too, where you can find a number of architectural masterpieces as well. One of them is the Kaufmann Desert House, which was built by the Kaufmann family, to whom we can be thankful for another significant piece of American architecture. Fallingwater in Pennsylvania, a house built on a waterfall, was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, whilst the one in Palm Springs was created by Richard Neutra in 1946.

Frank Sinatra was one of the first Hollywood stars to have a house built in Palm Springs, setting a fast trend among his contemporary celebrities.  Anybody can rent the building complete with its legendary, piano-shaped swimming pool for weddings, banquets or even for a vacation, provided they are willing to pay 1950 US dollars per day for it!

Although it is not for rent, and with the exception of the hot summer season, it is possible to visit the home of Elvis Presley, the House of Tomorrow, where the singer spent his honeymoon in 1966.

Apart from those mentioned above, a number of other celebrities have lived here, for instance Marilyn Monroe, Dean Martin, Joan Collins, Elizabeth Taylor, Katherine Hepburn, Kirk Douglas.

Since the 1990s it is very chic once again to maintain a house in the town. My architecture-fan tour guide showed me Leonardo DiCaprio’s house, the Dina Shore Residence, which is also up for rent for 4500 US dollars per day.

According to a survey, one third of Palm Springs’ residents are gay. Homosexuals can easily hide from curious eyes and live in this definitely liberal town, without experiencing any atrocity.

The world-famous White Party movement started here. Besides the stars from Hollywood, the gay community, who are quite well-to-do and fixated on great architecture and design, have done a lot to make Palm Springs fashionable. The present mayor is gay, as well as his two predecessors.

The town hall is also an architectural masterpiece, of course. For example, on top of the terrace, in front of the entrance are holes for the palm trees, letting them stretch towards the sky. Here, construction work doesn’t start with cutting trees; instead, they use the plants as part of the design.

Robert was obviously glowing in the role of a tour guide. He is really into his town and architecture, and he loves to talk about them both together. Not long ago he met some of his old customers at a party, who had decided to buy a house in Palm Springs just after his architecture tour. And they were not the only ones – in fact, some of his former clients have founded the ‘Blame it on Robert’ club.

Unfortunately, it may be some time before I can join the club. However, Robert persuaded me that the location, climate, architecture and lively social life of Palm Springs are truly beautiful. And it is also true, without any doubt, that the desert winter has its own special magic.