Hot on the heels of Palm Springs Modernism Week 2024, a classic Walter S White house has been updated and appears poised for take-off – literally and figuratively. The 1958 modernist architecture bungalow situated near the San Jacinto Mountains boasts architect and industrial designer White’s signature patented hyperbolic-paraboloid roof plan that makes it appear to levitate off the desert landscape.
A Walter S White house's rebirth
And yet even as it transcends its environment, it opens up to it. Grounded by two supports on each side of the home, anchored by concrete feet, White’s design orients the roof so that it both blocks the harsh desert light, allowing light in later in the day, and embraces the mountain view.
The renovation by Sean Gaston, is a triumph of both design and preservation. There were rumours in 2022 of the classic home’s eminent demise, when the Willcockson house, originally named for its first owner, a pastor of the same name, was put on the market. Indio lacks a historic preservation ordinance that has saved similar midcentury modern gems in neighbouring Palm Springs. But owner Gary Funtas whose family acquired it in 1963, wanted to sell to someone who would preserve the home and not demolish it.
Happily, its modernist heritage credentials were championed by local architectural aficionado Steve Aldana, an urban planner who runs the modern architecture and design website Esoteric Survey. While he was familiar with the home, he had never seen it and prior to the estate sale was unsure if it even still existed.
He had seen the prolific White’s other works scattered across 30 different Coachella Valley neighbourhoods via Modernism Week tours. These included the iconic Miles C Bates or Wave house, whose curved roof mimics the surrounding mountains and his 1954 Franz Alexander Residence in Palm Springs with a unique roofline that opens up to the sky.
White came to Palm Springs in 1947 to work with Albert Frey’s firm, and many architectural historians contend his Willcockson house influenced Albert Frey's house and the Tramway gas station that's now used as the Palm Springs Visitor Center.
While the home’s design credentials were impeccable, its interior suffered from some unfortunate 1980s interventions and additions and tired wallpaper that diminished it considerably. Streamlining the living room with a typically midcentury wood panelling and a built-in sofa unit, Gaston discovered existing wood-panelled walls that had been hidden by drywall. His initial preservationist instincts were happily challenged when he took his clients’ (new owners Chris and Jen Baldivid) cue to open up the boxy midcentury kitchen by taking out the wall. The new combined kitchen/living area is now the home’s great hall – one that both anchors it in the landscape and opens it up to the outdoors.
-
A new Athens gallery is a celebration of old and new, a stone's throw from the AcropolisNew Athens gallery Melas Martinos by Local Local is a contemporary art space, a stone's throw from the Acropolis, in the Greek capital's Monastiraki neighbourhood
-
Haute Couture Week A/W 2025: live updates from the Wallpaper* teamFrom 7-9 July, Haute Couture Week A/W 2025 arrives in Paris. Follow along for a first look at the shows, presentations and other fashion happenings, as seen by the Wallpaper* editors
-
Boundaries between art and life dissolve in Katherine Hubbard's intimate documentation of her mother's illnessIn 'The Great Room', Katherine Hubbard merges caregiving for her mother with an unflinching documentary of the process
-
A Rancho Mirage home is in tune with its location and its architect-owners' passionsArchitect Steven Harris and his collaborator and husband, designer Lucien Rees Roberts have built a home in Rancho Mirage, surrounded by some of America’s most iconic mid-century modern works; they invited us on a tour
-
Inside a midcentury modern house so good, its architect didn’t want to mess with it‘I was immediately a little bit frightened, because it was such a great house,’ says architect Casper Mork-Ulnes of Roger Lee-designed gem in Berkeley, California
-
Inside Frank Lloyd Wright’s Laurent House – a project built with accessibility at its heartThe dwelling, which you can visit in Illinois, is a classic example of Wright’s Usonian architecture, and was also built for a client with a disability long before accessibility was widely considered
-
Tour this fire-resilient minimalist weekend retreat in CaliforniaA minimalist weekend retreat was designed as a counterpoint to a San Francisco pied-à-terre; Edmonds + Lee Architects’ Amnesia House in Napa Valley is a place for making memories
-
A New Zealand house on a rugged beach exemplifies architect Tom Kundig's approach in rich, yet understated luxuryThis coastal home, featured in 'Tom Kundig: Complete Houses', a new book launch in the autumn by Monacelli Press, is a perfect example of its author's approach to understated luxury. We spoke to Tom Kundig, the architect behind it
-
Tour architect Paul Schweikher’s house, a Chicago midcentury masterpieceNow hidden in the Chicago suburbs, architect Paul Schweikher's former home and studio is an understated midcentury masterpiece; we explore it, revisiting a story from the Wallpaper* archives, first published in April 2009
-
The world of Bart Prince, where architecture is born from the inside outFor the Albuquerque architect Bart Prince, function trumps form, and all building starts from the inside out; we revisit a profile from the Wallpaper* archive, first published in April 2009
-
Is embracing nature the key to a more fire-resilient Los Angeles? These landscape architects think soFor some, an executive order issued by California governor Gavin Newsom does little to address the complexities of living within an urban-wildland interface
