Robert Imber | Poolside, somewhere

I’ve just returned from a fabulous Palm Springs sojourn where we explored the mid-century modern mecca by bike and on a tour with the wonderful Robert Imber. We checked out two hotels while there, first was the Del Marcos, here it is now…

The Del Marcos Hotel in 2011

and here it is in 1947…

The Del Marcos 1947

It has been preserved well, it was designed by William F. Cody, the ‘architect’s architect’ according to Imber, he also noted that the hotel is a tip of the hat to Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin West. The owners have lovingly restored it recently to its former mid-centruy glory, a sunset swim with a Modelo beer was a must. There were a group of other tourists there, ‘walk-ins’ according to the desk clerk, they were headed for the Grand Canyon and Las Vegas. They seemed perplexed as to why we would choose to holiday just in Palm Springs. We told them we love the architecture, they just shrugged. Dean Martin was blaring from the speakers encased in fake rocks (you can get them in the Sky Mall catalogue) behind us, I closed my eyes and caught the sun’s last rays.

Del Marcos pool

The hotel provides free bikes to explore the surrounding area on. We had to wait until sundown as it was over 100 degrees out. We headed to the Racquet Club and explored the Las Palmas estate, and dreamed of owning a slice of this living and functioning museum.

Del Marcos bikes

And of course, one has just become available in El Rancho Estates, a fixer-upperer for $249K, I like.

El Rancho Vista estates

The fixer-upperer

Robert took us through all the Alexander tract housing, designed by Bill Krisel, here is one house four ways, note though that none of these (there were three templates) were ever next door to each other, fearing that a drunken owner stumbling home from the Chi Chi Lounge wouldn’t enter the wrong home, they made sure the no same templates laid side-by-side. Note also the scheme of the design – parking, breezeway, window, wall.