Vogue Living, December 2012

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6=B3: 1/:74=@<7/ Hunkered down bunker-like in the shimmering heat, this mid-century dwelling built by visionary architect John Lautner is faithfully restored as a bijou hotel in the Sonoran Desert.

PHOTOGRAPHER: PEGGY WONG WRITER: CARLI PHILIPS

Steel beams wrap Hotel Lautnerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s low-angled roof, reminiscent of Frank Lloyd Wrightâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Taliesin West in Scottsdale, Arizona. In the corner of the compound is a lounge area with a custom-made steel firepit, barbecue and vintage 1960s Brown Jordan furniture. The panoramic backdrop spans the Little San Bernadino Mounains on the edge of the Joshua Tree National Park.

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b`OdSZ OPPOSITE: Designers Tracy Beckmann and Ryan Trowbridge came across an estate sale from a “swanky” private Palm Springs home, where they bought the 1970s chrome and smoked Lucite brass chandelier by Rober Sonneman hanging in this suite, the art collection, including these works, and the Milo Baughman dining chairs, which they upholstered in charcoal velvet. BELOW: A 1960s reading lamp by Angelo Lelli is bracketed above the Nicole Miller bedding. Trowbridge made the concrete counters that feature in all four units. Contributing to the clandestine ambiance, a TV is hidden behind a vintage oil painting.

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rising out of the burnt earth in the heart of southern California’s Desert Hot Springs is a compact compound ensconced in a mysterious concrete wall. A futuristic pitched roof with ‘crazy beams’ peeks above the barricade, while parched palm trees bake languidly under the searing sky. Put heat-induced hallucinations aside, because this is the recently restored Hotel Lautner – an upscale hideaway in the vast Coachella Valley, the north-western extension of the Sonoran Desert. American Indian nature reserves and dusty plains in the distance frame the panorama like a hazy Polaroid. A busy town centre is only minutes away, yet this feels like a nucleus of silence.

Originally built in 1947 as small apartment-style residences by legendary 20th-century architect John Lautner for Hollywood producer Lucien Hubbard (he envisaged a community development which never eventuated), it passed through various owners before being rescued by Los Angeles-based interior designer Tracy Beckmann and furniture designer Ryan Trowbridge four years ago.

Despite its derelict state, Beckmann “died and heard the voice of God” when she first walked in. Two days after accidently stumbling across an internet sales listing for the neglected property, it was theirs.

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THIS PICTURE:

Suite three is furnished with a Sigurd Ressel ‘Falcon’ chair in spicy paprika leather, a 1960s tubular chrome and wood sofa

by Stendig and 1970s chrome coffee table with inset mirror. RIGHT: On the cover of this book is the Sheats-Goldstein house where Tracy first fell in love with Lautner’s architecture while on a shoot. BELOW: A 1970s Kodawood bar stool sits beside a mid-century rosewood sideboard from the Pasadena Rosebowl flea market.

Beckmann first encountered Lautner’s work as a young stylist on location in Los Angeles. The aesthetic affair continued while she honed her skills working for influential interior designer Kelly Wearstler.

Beckmann cites Le Corbusier, Warren Platner and Eero Saarinen as forming her “bible”, with Lautner “the visionary who just tied everything together”. Strongly influenced by his teacher, Frank Lloyd Wright, Lautner’s space-age creations are characterised by clean, lowlying silhouettes and an elegant informality that exemplified the spatial richness and resort lifestyle of Desert Modernism. Spearheading the ambitious project was Trowbridge – an artist, as well as a furniture designer, with a penchant for renovating buildings in Silver Lake, home to some of North America’s most eminent Modernist architecture.

Beckmann and Trowbridge consulted the Getty Museum, John Lautner Foundation and the architect’s daughters on the colour palette, but black and white memories proved elusive. Just as Beckmann was about to call illustrious architectural photographer Julius Shulman – “because I thought if anybody could remember, it would be him, as he was the one who first photographed it” – he passed away.

Armed with only their bare hands and a set of blueprints, the pair began the painstaking task of bringing the hotel back to life. Minor structural additions were made and the original glass and Kaiser steel beams salvaged. New plumbing and electrical systems were installed, concrete resurfaced, and each bungalow meticulously clad in redwood. In the guest rooms, Boogie Nights meets The Flintstones and a splash of mid-century glamour – each is uniquely appointed with vintage furniture sourced from nearby Palm Springs, including 1970s Sigurd Ressel ‘Falcon’ chairs, a chrome cocktail table by J Wade Beam, a velvet Milo Baughman sofa and German pottery from the 1960s. There are James Bond-like design features, with a recessed television hidden behind an oil painting.

The remote cabins form a neatly compressed jewellery box of four interlocking ‘little desert bunkers’ that incorporate natural materials, air flow, skylights and clerestory windows. Slightly below ground level, they have a subterranean feel, “like you have been embedded in the earth, shielded from the wind and elements”, says Beckmann.

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Beckmann and Trowbridge had the dipping pool built and lined with rare, acid-yellow embossed Heath tiles sourced as overrun stock directly from the Sausalito factory. The protective canopy shields the drought-tolerant velvet leaf succulents from the scorching sun.

RIGHT: Guests are greeted by the redwood gates next to the hotel’s custom iron street sign on the protective concrete wall.

Each with its own private patio, the glass-walled terrarium-like units are surrounded by succulent gardens of totem pole cactus, lush aloe, fire pencil plants, blue agaves and ocotillos. Unsure of what could flourish in the arid environment, Beckmann’s first crop burnt and had to be replanted. This was followed by devastating flash floods and brutal winds a month before the hotel’s scheduled opening in September 2011. “Peaceful and calm nine times out of 10,” reassures Beckmann, there’s nearby horseback riding, mineral springs, and hiking trails in the Joshua Tree National Park. On site, guests can enjoy the outdoor firepit lounge, dipping pool and open-air films.

The City of Los Angeles officially declared 16 July 2011 John Lautner Day in honour of what would have been the architect’s 100th birthday. To celebrate, the John Lautner Foundation, in conjunction with LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art), hosted The John Lautner Turns 100 series, featuring roving exhibitions, film screenings, home tours and symposia. Fortuitously, Beckmannn and Trowbridge were also the recipients of the 2011 Best Commercial Renovation award from The Palm Springs Modern Committee for their ‘adaptive reuse’ of the hotel.

For Beckmann, the magic hour at Hotel Lautner is dusk. “It’s every photographer and director’s dream – just when the sun starts to go down, the desert turns pink and the property glows. It only lasts for maybe 30 minutes, if you’re lucky – blink, and it’s gone. But if you’re there, you’ll know. It’s like going to the theatre.” VL

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