For The Love of the Land

According to the Desert Sun--

John Lautner, a "radically climate-based architect," found his inspiration in nature and sought to unify structures with the landscape.

Elrod House, Palm Springs, 1968

Joshua White/Courtesy Palm Springs Art Museum

The architect John Lautner designed for the desert in an inspired way, if, just this once, the notion of inspiration is admissible. It might be equally true to say the desert inspired the Los Angeles-based architect and gave him ideas for structures. Lautner’s desert projects look so well suited to their respective settings, in fact, that an observer might assume that the flinty, movie-star-handsome architect, who died in 1994, had a special affinity for the desert. It is nearly impossible to imagine masterworks like the Elrod House and the Desert Hot Springs Motel in any other setting than the Coachella Valley.

A masterpiece of his later career, the Elrod House in Palm Springs, with its concrete sunburst roof and the integration of boulders into the floors and walls, should rank near the top of anyone’s list of houses they would most like to live in, if they weren’t disturbing anybody or anything (but only after realizing that Fallingwater is cold, damp, and noisy.)

Another Lautner landmark, the Desert Hot Springs Motel, part of his early, socalled “Googie-style” commercial buildings is all too rare. The 62-year-old building can still set a space-age mood and cast dramatic shadows.

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