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The Hidden Modernism of La Quinta Country Club"},"content":{"rendered":"\n[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”]The desert will harbor one less secret when Modernism Week<\/a> 2026 sweeps in next month: La Quinta Country Club<\/a> will finally unlock its long-impenetrable gates for public tours of six private residences. Until now, only flashes of the architectural gems inside Golf Estates \u2014 the largest of\u200a the 13 tracts orbiting the club \u2014 have drifted into the collective consciousness. One of the most whispered-about is the 1960 A. Quincy Jones and Frederick Emmons house designed for film director Frank Capra, an outwardly modest hideaway with a loyal fan base. (Spoiler alert: It\u2019s not <\/span>on the tour. But you won\u2019t miss it.)<\/span><\/p>\n At long last, La Quinta Country Club\u2019s modernist pedigree is coming into view. The debut event, organized by Golf Estates homeowner Robert Millar, effectively answers a challenge from Modernism Week CEO Lisa Vossler Smith. \u201cWhen I asked her why the organization had never featured modernism in La Quinta,\u201d Millar recalls of their conversation at a January 2025 event, \u201cshe lowered her glasses to the tip of \u200aher nose and said, \u2018Because, Robert, nobody\u2019s ever volunteered to make it happen.\u2019\u200a\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n A small footnote before we continue: Linda Williams, president of La Quinta Historical Society, attempted to organize a home tour in 2018, writing letters to homeowners in hopes of sparking both participation and architectural <\/span>documentation. If \u200aheritage design exists in a vacuum, preservation can\u2019t flex. <\/span><\/p>[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row column_structure=”1_2,1_2″ _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_column type=”1_2″ _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/cdn.palmspringslife.com\/media\/2025\/12\/27040246\/clubhouse.jpg” title_text=”clubhouse” _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][\/et_pb_image][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_2″ _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/cdn.palmspringslife.com\/media\/2025\/12\/24204726\/146-31247-cc.jpg” title_text=”146-31247 cc” _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][\/et_pb_image][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row column_structure=”1_2,1_2″ _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_column type=”1_2″ _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/cdn.palmspringslife.com\/media\/2025\/12\/24204732\/146-31307-cc.jpg” title_text=”146-31307 cc” _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][\/et_pb_image][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_2″ _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/cdn.palmspringslife.com\/media\/2025\/12\/24204738\/146-31311-cc.jpg” title_text=”146-31311 cc” _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][\/et_pb_image][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”891ded8d-bfb6-4883-9783-3a50da9dba2e” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”] Early clubhouse concepts by William F. Cody, Hugh Kaptur, and William Krisel (Cody\u2019s shown above) gave way to Los Angeles\u2013based architect Jack Lawrence White\u2019s Mediterranean design for the 1966 clubhouse: whitewashed stucco, red-tile roofs, carved doors, and timber-trussed ceilings.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”e6b43398-9dc0-46ed-9cc4-b9de69bf0e6a” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”] Photographs courtesy palm springs life<\/i> archives<\/span><\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” custom_margin=”50px||||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”] \u201cI talked to one neighbor who owns an original William Cody, and she didn\u2019t even know [of\u200a its provenance],\u201d Millar says, still alarmed. In that light, a home tour is less spectacle than scaffolding, a way to build awareness to a meaningful end. \u201cIt took someone from the inside \u2014 an actual neighbo<\/span>r \u2014 <\/span>to make it happen,\u201d Williams says.<\/span><\/p>\n That appetite for privacy may explain why desert modernism remains, at least in the zeitgeist, a Palm Springs story. But La Quinta was shaping a parallel legacy beginning in 1926, when architect Gordon Kaufmann gave travelers like Greta Garbo, Clark Gable, and Katharine Hepburn a taste of desert glamour with the La Quinta Hotel, a Spanish Colonial Revival mirage set among date and citrus groves at the foot of \u200athe Santa Rosa Mountains.<\/span><\/p>\n Three decades later, Chicago attorney Leonard Ettleson and his merry band of investors bought the hotel and more than 1,000 acres of surrounding farmland, envisioning a golf community that would extend the resort\u2019s reach and reputation. In 1958, approximately 130 acres were parceled from that pie for what became La Quinta Country <\/span>Club. Developers tapped Cody, Hugh Kaptur, and William Krisel for clubhouse concepts, but the final commission went to Los Angeles architect Jack Lawrence White.<\/span><\/p>\n In 1966, a temporary clubhouse \u2014 affectionately called \u201cThe Shack\u201d \u2014 gave way to White\u2019s Mediterranean design: whitewashed stucco, red-tile roofs, tall carved doors and iron balustrades, and 20-foot timber-trussed ceilings nodding to the romance of Kaufmann\u2019s historic hotel. Even a magnitude 5.6 earthquake in 2005 couldn\u2019t shake that identity; when the damaged clubhouse was rebuilt in 2009, it held fast to its architectural roots, right down to <\/span>the arched colonnades and terracotta flourishes.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”72254185-3469-42a3-afce-c267c1ed93ce” custom_margin=”||||false|false” custom_padding=”25px||30px||false|false” border_width_top=”1px” border_color_top=”#AFAFAF” border_width_bottom=”1px” border_color_bottom=”#AFAFAF” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”] You could practically taste the icy martinis while watching\u200a golf\u200a balls sail through the air, poolside. <\/span><\/p>[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row column_structure=”1_2,1_2″ _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_column type=”1_2″ _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/cdn.palmspringslife.com\/media\/2025\/12\/24205427\/RobertMillarRE_ModernismWeek-0294-cc.jpg” title_text=”RobertMillarRE_ModernismWeek-0294 cc” _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”891ded8d-bfb6-4883-9783-3a50da9dba2e” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”] The living room highlights original midcentury bones in the stack-bond brick, terrazzo floors, and tongue-and-groove ceiling. The covered outdoor living space extends indoor-outdoor flow.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”e6b43398-9dc0-46ed-9cc4-b9de69bf0e6a” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″] Photo by scott pasfield, courtesy Robert Andrew Millar & Associates<\/span><\/p>[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_2″ _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/cdn.palmspringslife.com\/media\/2025\/12\/24205432\/RobertMillarRE_ModernismWeek-0841-cc.jpg” title_text=”RobertMillarRE_ModernismWeek-0841 cc” _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”891ded8d-bfb6-4883-9783-3a50da9dba2e” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”] A gathering space for games leads to the bar and kitchen, Photo by Scott Pasfield, courtesy Robert Andrew Millar & Associates<\/span><\/p>[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/cdn.palmspringslife.com\/media\/2025\/12\/24205505\/RobertMillarRE_ModernismWeek-1431-cc.jpg” title_text=”RobertMillarRE_ModernismWeek-1431 cc” _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”891ded8d-bfb6-4883-9783-3a50da9dba2e” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”] Robert Andrew Millar and Mario Guariso fell in love with this 1969 home by architect Robert Ricciardi.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”e6b43398-9dc0-46ed-9cc4-b9de69bf0e6a” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″] Photo by Scott Pasfield, courtesy Robert Andrew Millar & Associates<\/span><\/p>[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” custom_padding=”40px||||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”] In 1966, a temporary clubhouse \u2014 affectionately called \u201cThe Shack\u201d \u2014 gave way to White\u2019s Mediterranean design: whitewashed stucco, red-tile roofs, tall carved doors and iron balustrades, and 20-foot timber-trussed ceilings nodding to the romance of Kaufmann\u2019s historic hotel. Even a magnitude 5.6 earthquake in 2005 couldn\u2019t shake that identity; when the damaged clubhouse was rebuilt in 2009, it held fast to its architectural roots, right down to <\/span>the arched colonnades and terracotta flourishes.<\/p>\n The course itself carries pedigree. Lawrence and Frank Hughes \u2014 the same brotherly duo behind the tour-tested turfs at Thunderbird, Tamarisk, and Eldorado \u2014 designed the spread at La Quinta Country Club. In October 1960, President Dwight D. Eisenhower christened La Quinta\u2019s first course (there are now more than two dozen in the city) by hitting an 8-iron straight down the fairway. For many years, his brother Edgar was believed to have kept a <\/span>home \u200a\u201con campus.\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s collegiate jargon used by Catherine Krell, who works in marketing at the club, to describe the satellite neighborhoods occupying the remaining acreage of Ettleson\u2019s original holding. Bounded by Eisenhower Drive, Washington Street, and Avenue 50, this area contains about 475 houses across 13 tracts, including Country Club Estates (the original 1958 subdivision), Golf Estates (an architecturally significant cluster), and <\/span>Montero \u200a(a 1970s ranch-style enclave).<\/p>\n La Quinta Country Club general manager and former golf pro Chris Gilley resists the idea of any formal campus. \u201cThere are HOAs around us whose residents can drive a golf cart onto our property, but we have no real connection aside from many of our 350 members living there,\u201d he says. \u201cUnlike clubs like Madison or Vintage, where homeownership is tied to the experience, we\u2019re more of a mom-and-pop standalone.\u201d That independence has roots: The club parted ways with La Quinta Hotel in 1977, when the members purchased it from the owners, solidifying <\/span>an autonomous spirit decades in the making.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row column_structure=”1_2,1_2″ _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_column type=”1_2″ _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/cdn.palmspringslife.com\/media\/2025\/12\/24210501\/CalPolyPomona_LQDisplayResidence_5-cc.jpg” title_text=”CalPolyPomona_LQDisplayResidence_5 cc” _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”e6b43398-9dc0-46ed-9cc4-b9de69bf0e6a” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”] Photo courtesy William F. Cody Papers, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo<\/span><\/p>[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_2″ _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/cdn.palmspringslife.com\/media\/2025\/12\/24210448\/CalPolyPomona_LQDisplayResidence_2-cc.jpg” title_text=”CalPolyPomona_LQDisplayResidence_2 cc” _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”e6b43398-9dc0-46ed-9cc4-b9de69bf0e6a” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”] Photo courtesy William F. Cody Papers, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo<\/span><\/p>[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/cdn.palmspringslife.com\/media\/2025\/12\/24210804\/LQC.jpg” title_text=”LQC” _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”891ded8d-bfb6-4883-9783-3a50da9dba2e” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”] Photographs taken in 1962 show vignettes of the newly completed W. & J. Sloane House, designed by architect William F. Cody as a display home for the Sloane furniture company. It showcased high-end design and a quintessential desert way of life.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”e6b43398-9dc0-46ed-9cc4-b9de69bf0e6a” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”] Photo courtesy William F. Cody Papers, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo<\/span><\/p>[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” custom_padding=”40px||||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”] \u201cWe\u2019ve always called this corner of La Quinta the best-kept secret in the Coachella Valley,\u201d Krell says. She lives a stone\u2019s throw from the Capra residence, which has fueled city lore for years. Tourgoers will likely get a bonus drive-by aboard the event\u2019s official golf carts, glimpsing the director\u2019s 4,221-square-foot retirement pad, where he and his wife, Lucille, lived until downsizing to a casita at the hotel around 1980.<\/span><\/p>\n A bit of imagination helps when passing the post-and-beam classic with a split personality: modest to the street, then dramatically opening to the fairway \u2014 privacy in front, party in back. Another Cody-designed Golf Estates showpiece \u2014 the 1961 W. & J. Sloane House, aka La Quinta Display House \u2014 pushed that idea further, serving as a model residence for the new tracts. The project offered a full Kodachrome picture of country club living. You could practically taste the icy martinis while watching golf balls sail through the air, poolside. It set the stage for the fairway <\/span>flaunting to come in La Quinta.<\/p>\n \u201cThe whole idea of lining the greens with houses really started with Johnny Dawson, the developer at Thunderbird,\u201d says historian Luke Leuschner, referencing the valley\u2019s first private country club, established in 1951 in Rancho Mirage. \u201cThat\u2019s where you get the concept of the country club home being closed off from the street, but open to these beautifully <\/span>composed views of a pastoral landscape.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n At La Quinta Country Club, that means a plush \u201cmagic carpet\u201d of Bermuda grass \u2014 overseeded with perennial rye and Poa trivialis<\/i>, for the agronomists \u2014 with 84 bunkers, five lakes, and one heck of\u200a a <\/span>cinematic backdrop of \u200athe Santa Rosas. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a beautiful tree-lined course with no trickery, no gimmic<\/span>k \u2014 <\/span>just enjoyable to play every day,\u201d Gilley says. For more than 50 years, the club has been part of the PGA Tour rotation, and pros are known to gush about the conditioning. Phil Mickelson once called the greens \u201cthe best on tour,\u201d while Scottie Scheffler described them as \u201csome of the best surfaces I\u2019ve ever seen.\u201d Comparisons to <\/span>Augusta National are never far from earshot.<\/p>\n During the 1970s heyday of the Bob Hope Classic (now The American Express), the fairways glowed with their own constellation of tee-timing stars \u2014 Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Jack Benny, Jackie Gleason, and Andy Williams among them. The allure hasn\u2019t faded: Gilley confirms that current members include comedian George Lopez and actor-director Clint Eastwood. Pop singer Justin Bieber has initiated the application process.<\/span><\/p>\n But we digress. The homes on these fairways exemplify Princeton architectural historian Beatriz Colomina\u2019s observation that modern architecture negotiates the charged space between private retreat and public gaze. One stop on the Modernism Week tour \u2014 a 2023 house by Palm Springs architect Lance O\u2019Donnell for Michael and Betty Terry of Orange County\u2013based Graystone Custom Builders \u2014 pushes that tension into International-style territory. Horizontal planes hover over floor-to-ceiling glass; from the second story, the 11th fairway unfurls in full panorama. At ground level, a ficus screen turns spectacle into seclusion \u2014 privacy in the front and, in a plot twist, privacy in the back. \u201cThe ficus even reframes the mountains <\/span>to be the show, not the golf,\u201d Betty says.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row column_structure=”1_2,1_2″ _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_column type=”1_2″ _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/cdn.palmspringslife.com\/media\/2025\/12\/24211537\/RobertMillarRE_ModernismWeek-0938-cc.jpg” title_text=”RobertMillarRE_ModernismWeek-0938 cc” _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”891ded8d-bfb6-4883-9783-3a50da9dba2e” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”] 2023 home designed by Lance O\u2019Donnell of O2 Architecture.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”e6b43398-9dc0-46ed-9cc4-b9de69bf0e6a” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”] Photo by scott pasfield, courtesy Robert Andrew Millar & Associates\u00a0<\/span><\/p>[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_2″ _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/www.palmspringslife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/RobertMillarRE_ModernismWeek-2062-cc.jpg” title_text=”RobertMillarRE_ModernismWeek-2062 cc” _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”891ded8d-bfb6-4883-9783-3a50da9dba2e” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”] Sitting area in Millar and Guariso\u2019s office.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”e6b43398-9dc0-46ed-9cc4-b9de69bf0e6a” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″] Photo by scott pasfield, courtesy Robert Andrew Millar & Associates<\/span><\/p>[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row column_structure=”1_2,1_2″ _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_column type=”1_2″ _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/cdn.palmspringslife.com\/media\/2025\/12\/24211543\/RobertMillarRE_ModernismWeek-1171-cc.jpg” title_text=”RobertMillarRE_ModernismWeek-1171 cc” _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”891ded8d-bfb6-4883-9783-3a50da9dba2e” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”] 1967 George Kocher residence.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”e6b43398-9dc0-46ed-9cc4-b9de69bf0e6a” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”] Photo by scott pasfield, courtesy Robert Andrew Millar & Associates\u00a0<\/span><\/p>[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_2″ _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/cdn.palmspringslife.com\/media\/2025\/12\/24211548\/RobertMillarRE_ModernismWeek-1987-cc.jpg” title_text=”RobertMillarRE_ModernismWeek-1987 cc” _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”891ded8d-bfb6-4883-9783-3a50da9dba2e” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”] Millar and Guariso\u2019s covered outdoor living space.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”e6b43398-9dc0-46ed-9cc4-b9de69bf0e6a” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”] Photo by scott pasfield, courtesy Robert Andrew Millar & Associates<\/span><\/p>[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”] Millar\u2019s own home brings a warmer register to the tour \u2014 duskier and brickier than its sleeker counterparts. The 1969 Robert Ricciardi design \u2014 updated by O\u2019Donnell in 2010 and renovated again in 2024 by Millar\u2019s husband, designer Mario Guariso \u2014 moves from a low-key street fa\u00e7ade into a long, glassy pavilion opening onto pool, palms, and par. Apropos of the couple\u2019s recreational tendencies, the fairway reads as borrowed scenery rather than main event. \u201cWe don\u2019t play golf,\u201d Millar says. \u201cWe\u2019re pickleball people.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Lest you assume the tour will comprise one rectilinear marvel after another, a 1991 design by Laszlo Sandor provides a compelling shift. Filmmaker Matt Tyrnauer describes his 5,500-square-foot estate with a widescreen lens: \u201cIt has a confident midcentury-tycoon feeling,\u201d he says, \u201cwith elements of high modernism, brutalism, post-modernism, and some Las Vegas Liberace \u2014 all constructed as a view machine for the mountains.\u201d That plays out in glowing ceilings, mirrored planes, towering rooftops, and a stone protrusion pushing <\/span>through the fa\u00e7ade in a sculptural thrust.<\/span><\/span><\/p>[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row column_structure=”1_2,1_2″ _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_column type=”1_2″ _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”] Tyrnauer attributes this mashup to Sandor\u2019s midcentury sensibilities \u2014 after all, he once practiced with Cody, who arguably claims a place on modernism\u2019s Mount Rushmore \u2014 colliding with the scale and irony of the postmodern era. The result is a house that\u2019s less an outlier than a natural expression of the desert\u2019s evolving architectural story. For as much as preservation efforts have turned Palm Springs into a globally recognized time capsule of\u200a midcentury archi<\/span>tecture, design movements rely on motion.<\/p>\n Leuschner links this fluidity to a concept in Marshall Berman\u2019s 1982 book, \u200aAll \u200aThat\u200a Is Solid Melts Into Air: The Experience of Modernity<\/i>. \u201cUnder capitalism, there\u2019s always a desire for newness,\u201d Leuschner explains. \u201cThat\u2019s why styles are constantly developing and iterating. Nothing in progress stays around forever.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_2″ _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/cdn.palmspringslife.com\/media\/2025\/12\/27041146\/RobertMillarRE_ModernismWeek-0958-cc.jpg” title_text=”RobertMillarRE_ModernismWeek-0958 cc” _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”891ded8d-bfb6-4883-9783-3a50da9dba2e” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”] Details of Millar\u2019s La Quinta Country Club home, which will open next month for Modernism Week tours.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”] That instinct is clear in La Quinta\u2019s 2023 Historic Resources Survey and Context Statement, which catalogs more than a dozen architectural styles \u2014 from Monterey to Moderne, Pueblo to post-and-beam \u2014 that have shaped the city since the early 1900s. And the story stretches beyond the architects already mentioned: La Quinta also includes work attributed to Cliff May, Walter White, and S. Charles Lee, with God knows how many other notable structures still hiding in plain sight, or even tragically lost. Lee\u2019s 1937 Desert Club, La Quinta\u2019s first \u2014 and possibly only \u2014 Streamline Moderne building, was destroyed during firefighting drills by California Department of\u200a Forestry in 1989. <\/span><\/p>\n If all goes well, the tour will draw attention to a marvelous concentration of preservation-ready modernism outside the <\/span>usual center of \u200agravity.<\/p>\n Tyrnauer, who will deliver a keynote at the reception following the tour, hopes La Quinta Country Club\u2019s Modernism Week debut broadens the architectural narrative \u2014 a shift that challenges what urban historian Sharon Zukin calls a \u201csymbolic economy,\u201d in which a single branded center (ahem, Palm Springs) monopolizes a narrative better shared across the valley. \u201cThere\u2019s an unbroken chain of inspiration and brilliant architecture all the way from the windmills to the Salton Sea,\u201d Tyrnauer says. \u201cIt\u2019s a revelation.\u201d<\/span><\/p>[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The desert will harbor one less secret when Modernism Week 2026 sweeps in next month: La Quinta Country Club will finally unlock its long-impenetrable gates for public tours of six private residences. Until now, only flashes of the architectural gems inside Golf Estates \u2014 the largest of\u200a the 13 tracts orbiting the club \u2014 have drifted into the collective consciousness. One of the most whispered-about is the 1960 A. Quincy Jones and Frederick Emmons house designed for film director Frank Capra, an outwardly modest hideaway with a loyal fan base. (Spoiler alert: It\u2019s not on the tour.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8640,"featured_media":782056,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[549],"tags":[],"advertiser":[],"poi_city":[],"class_list":["post-782054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
where clerestory windows and slender steel supports make the roof plane appear to float.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”e6b43398-9dc0-46ed-9cc4-b9de69bf0e6a” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″]