E. Stewart Williams Palm Springs Architect

E. STEWART WILLIAMS
(Emerson Stewart Williams (1909-September 10, 2005)

Coachella Valley Architect

Around the Coachella Valley, when you hear the name E. Stewart Williams, you think of the Palm Springs Desert Museum, his most dramatic and well-known architectural design.

E. Stewart Williams' born in 1909, with his unique modernistic architectural style, had a significant impact on the building landscape around our desert communities.  

Early Years

Mr. Williams' father, Harry Williams, was a well-known Dayton, Ohio architect who designed the offices of National Cash Register in Dayton, Ohio.   Julia Carnell, whose husband was the Nash Cash Register controller commissioned Harry Williams in 1934 to design a commercial real estate development in Palm Springs, California, where she spent her winters.  That development became known as the historic La Plaza Shopping Center.  

E. Stewart Williams, after graduating Cornell University in 1932, taught at Columbia University from 1934 -1938, traveled around northern Europe in 1938, where he met and married a Swedish women.  In 1939 he returned to the United States to work in Raymond Loewy's office, on the 1939 New York World's Fair and Lord and Taylor Department Store projects.  In 1941, he went to work for his father Harry in the Dayton, Ohio office working primarily on defense projects.  In 1946, he joined his father and his brother, Roger Williams, in their father's Palm Springs practice.  They formed the company of Williams, Williams & Williams.

Frank Sinatra Home

This home can be rented for weddings and photo shoots, you have to see this home!

Click on this link

In 1947, Frank Sinatra hired E. Stewart Williams to design his desert home.  Mr. Sinatra choose a modern design, which later became an architectural trend and model for homes in the Palm Springs and other desert communities.  Mr. Sinatra's house was the first "shed roof" home built in the area.

After that, there were numerous commissions that followed, both commercial and residential.  The firm of Williams, Williams & Williams and E. Stewart Williams became legendary and they had a significant impact on our desert architecture and landscape.  Williams' father passed away in 1957.  In the 1960's, John Porter Clark joined the firm.  E. Stewart Williams passed away on September 10, 2005.

William and Marjorie Edris Home

William and Marjorie Edris, Seattle hotel owners, commissioned Mr. Williams as an architect and contractor to build their desert home.  The Edris home has remained mostly untouched and was been designated by the Palm Springs City Council in 2004, as a historic building.

Other Significant Designs 

The following is a list of other significant desert commercial and residential real estate buildings which E. Stewart Williams designed:

· 1946 Potter Building - Palm Springs, California

· 1947 Sinatra House - Palm Springs, California

· 1949 The Colony: A Studio Apartment Group - Palm Springs, California (Architectural Record, Nov. 1949, pp. 124-129)

· 1952 Oasis Building - Palm Springs, California

· 1954 Edris House - Palm Springs, California

· 1955 Coachella Savings and Loan (I) - Palm Springs, California

· 1956 Williams House - Palm Springs, California, Los Angeles Examiner Pictorial Living Magazine, March 22, 1959, pp. 10-11.

· 1960 Santa Fe Savings and Loan - Palm Springs, California

· 1961 Mountaintop Station, Palm Springs Aerial Tramway, Palm Springs, California 1961 Coachella Savings and Loan (II) - Palm Springs, California

· 1972 Crafton Hills College - Yucaipa, California

• 1976 Palm Springs Desert Museum - Palm Springs, California  [Expansion known as "Steve Chase Addition" designed in 1990-1993 and completed in 1995]