As Modernism Week’s footprint has grown, the fun has spread into the mid-Coachella Valley cities like Palm Desert.
For the fourth year in a row, Modernism Week has featured a home tour of Sandpiper, the first condominium project in the Coachella Valley which began construction in 1958 and continued until 1969. The most recent tour attracted more than 400 people.
Designed by the firm of Daniel Palmer and William Krisel – the latter is the renowned architect of the famed Alexander homes – Sandpiper was intended to be an innovative forward-thinking concept of luxury desert living.
Developed on 55 acres of what was raw desert sand in 1958, Sandpiper’s more than 300 homes are located on the corner of Highway 74 and El Paseo.
The units are arranged in pin-wheel buildings clustered around a pool and a common area specifically oriented to offer pool and mountain views while ensuring privacy. The homes were primarily post and beam construction and flat roofs with generous use of decorative concrete block walls that created privacy screens.
Lydia Kremer has worked in the architecture and design communities of Palm Springs for more than 10 years. As a publicist, she promoted Palm Springs Modernism Week for seven years since its inception, she served on the Architectural Design Council board for five years, and was a board trustee for the California Preservation Foundation for five years.
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