1963 Studebaker Avanti parked at the Loewy
house.
The Kaufman House designed by architect
Richard Neutra and the Avanti exhibited at the Montana St. Martin
Gallery.
Albert Frey's Tramway Gas Station became
the Montana St. Martin Gallery. |
The Avanti was designed
in 1961 in a two-room building in the Palm Springs desert. Palm
Springs became world famous as a playground for celebrities
such as Clark Gable, Carole Lombard, Bette Davis, Cary Grant,
and Errol Flynn. In those days the season kicked off in late
October with a party at the Racquet Club, with impromptu soirees
at which Frank Sinatra, "Honorary Mayor" Bob Hope, and Bing
Crosby performed for their peers in the club's bar. A couple
of years ago property renovator Marc Sanders hit the real estate
jackpot when he came across a neglected 1947 house designed
for Frank Sinatra (who owned an Avanti) by Palm Springs architect
Stewart Williams, complete with a piano-shaped pool in which
Ava Gardner, Greta Garbo, and Lana Turner had splashed. A typical
Palm Springs modernist villa has a low-slung pavilion with plenty
of glass to capture striking views of desert, mountains, and
the pool and garden that made the private oasis complete. The
big overhangs, sun-resistant metal and rock, and pools that
have a cooling effect all look as stark today as they did when
they were built. The town flourished from the forties through
the sixties, when the modern movement was in full bloom. The
area attracted architects now recognized as modern masters,
both L.A. imports like Richard Neutra and John Lautner and locals
like William Cody, Stewart Williams, and Albert Frey. In the
late nineties, Frey's house for Avanti designer Raymond
Loewy, with its amoeba-shaped indoor/outdoor pool and its
view-framing trellis, was restored by metalware manufacturer
Jim Gaudineer. "It was built in 1947 as a compact bachelor pad
and Loewy added onto it when he got married," says Gaudineer.
"When you slide open the glass walls, it's almost like living
outdoors." The desert's most celebrated architectural rescue
remains the lavish, museum-quality restoration of Richard Neutra's
exquisite Kaufmann House (designed for the same family that
built Frank Lloyd Wright's famous Fallingwater house). Albert
Frey's 1965 Tramway Gas Station, which marks the northern approach
to the city with its soaring, flying-wedge roof has been renovated
as the Montana St. Martin Gallery,
which included the Avanti in its Raymond
Loewy exhibit. |
