Interesting Links To Palm Springs Modernism
The Alexander Construction Company was founded by George Alexander and his son Robert. Together they built over 2,200 homes in Palm Springs, California between 1947 and 1961. The construction of these homes doubled the size of Palm Springs and caused the city to take on a new shape, direction and character.
Robert Alexander and his wife Helene moved to Palm Springs in 1957. Alexander built the Honeymoon Hideaway for his wife in the early 1960's. William Krisel of Palmer & Krisel was the architect for their home at 1350 Ladera Circle. The house was designed in four perfect circles, on three separate levels, incorporating glass and peanut-brittle stonework to allow indoor-outdoor living. Nestled at the base of the San Jacinto Mountains, the honeymoon suite of the house offers a panoramic view of the Santa Rosa Mountains and the Coachella Valley. The house is said to be one of the most outstanding homes in the United States.
The Alexander's became national celebrities when an eight page article appeared in Look Magazine in September 1962. It showed the Alexander family in their new home at Ladera Circle, and the readers got a peek at 
the "The Way Out Way of Life" in the "The House of Tomorrow". It portrayed the Alexander's and their estate as the center of social activities in Palm Springs in the early 1960's. Barbara Sinatra, a close friend of Helene Alexander, has explained that there was an entire group of friends in Palm Springs who were living an exciting life which included memorable dinner parties and fabulous lunches. The Alexander family enjoyed this life to the fullest.
Tragedy struck On November 14, 1965, when it was announced that the Alexander's had been instantly killed in a private plane crash, the entire city of Palm Springs went into mourning. As recently as September 1999, the Desert Sun newspaper devoted a section to "The Great Alexander's". Six passengers boarded the Learjet for the return flight to Burbank into patchy low clouds and rainfall. Within minutes of takeoff, eyewitnesses reported that the jet banked to the left and slammed into the Indio Hills at an elevation of 1,180 feet, approximately 13 miles east of the airport.
William Krisel and the two began to discuss how to build Modern housing tracts at a time when ranch and colonial were still the favored style. Influenced by Cal Straub, a teacher at the School of Architecture at USC Krisel and partner Dan Palmer designed houses that used post and beam construction methods, with butterfly roofs, natural stone walls, pattern concrete block, clerestory windows, carports these designs showed that Modern design could be a successful commodity in the housing market
The houses built by the Alexander's in Palm Springs have held up remarkably well over the years. They are some of the best examples of mid-century modern architecture in the country. The simple post-and-beam construction, the exposed beamed ceilings, the sloping roofs with deep overhangs, the wide expanses of glass, the open floor plans, as well as the trademark closets boxed below the ceiling, make the houses works of art. "The open floor plan is to a designer what a blank canvas is to a painter."
Courtesy of Look Magazine, September 1962 (All Rights Reserved) And http://www.elvishoneymoon.com
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