Category: California Cities outside of San Francisco
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Palm Springs – Gothic Revival
Over the years I have walked by this little church on my way to downtown Palm Springs. It has always caught my eye. A Gothic Revival made of CMU is a big hmmmm? in my book. It is in fact that only surviving Gothic Revival Building in Palm Springs. Completed in 1935 is was designed…
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Palm Springs – Ship of The Desert
“Ship of the Desert” is classic Art Moderne due to its “nautical” elements. This home, located at 1995 S. Camino Monte in Palm Springs, was built in 1936. However, the original (designed by Earl Webster and Adrian Wilson) was seriously damaged by fire. The owner, clothing designer, Trina Turk hired Marmol Radziner, an architecture firm…
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Elvis in Palm Springs
Okay, I don’t know if this one would be rated up there as one of the best examples of Modern Architecture, but I had to use it because it has ties to Elvis Presley. This is called the House of Tomorrow and was designed in 1962 by William Krisel. It was commissioned by Robert Alexander,…
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Palm Springs – Modern Architecture
I loved this building. To me it epitomizes everything you think about when you think 1960’s architecture. It’s square lines, its concrete tilt-up panel walls and its austereness. It was built in 1969 and designed by Robert Ricciardi. I have found absolutely no information about this building, one little blurb mentioned that the “failure” of…
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Palm Springs – Modern Architecture
Palm Springs is the home of the Modernism movement, especially “desert modernism”. While modernism is not my favorite architecture style, when it is done right, it really does sing. This is the Del Marco Hotel. It is located at 225 W. Baristo Road in Palm Springs. The architect was William Cody. In 1947 Cody…
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Malibu, California – Adamson House
This is the Adamson House, also known as Vaquero Hill, a historic house with lovely grounds in Malibu, California. It has been called the “Taj Mahal of Tile” due to its extensive use of decorative ceramic tiles created by the Malibu Potteries company. The house was built in 1930 for Rhoda Rindge Adamson and Merritt…
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Malibu, California – April 22, 2001 – Getty Villa
In 1954, oil baron J. Paul Getty opened a gallery adjacent to his home in Pacific Palisades. Can you imagine, you were able to walk around his home and view his collections. Visitors were limited but it must have been very intimate. When he ran out of room, he built a second museum on the property…
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Pasadena – Huntington Gardens
The Chinese Garden at the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Gardens, in San Marino, California. I saw the most amazing special exhibit by John Frame called “Three Fragments of a Lost Tale”. According to the gallery notes, “the project had its beginnings in a dream: Frame was jolted awake by what seemed like an unfolding…
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Daffodil Hill, Amador County April 10, 2011
* McLaughlin’s Daffodil Hill Ranch in Volcano, California. Daffodil Hill is a 4 acre ranch that has been in the same family since 1887. Wagon pioneers Arthur and Lizzie McLaughlin were the original owners. The ranch was a stopping place for drivers bringing timber down from the Sierras to the Kennedy and Argonaut mines, during…
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Atascadero City Hall
The City Hall is a gem of a building sitting aside a wonderful city park. The town itself is being revitalized with a lot of modern chain stores, but the downtown still holds its historic charm. Sadly, like so many valley towns in California it is suffering from these terrible economic times. The building was…
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Sonoma, California – Watmaugh Road Bridge
This truss bridge is the center of an acrimonious debate going on in Sonoma, California. It is the Watmaugh Road Bridge built in 1929. It was dedicated as an historic landmark in 1981. Today the county engineers want to replace it, and the preservationists want to rehab it. We will have to watch, probably for…