EF Hutton

Midcentury Cover-Up

The new office and showroom of H3K Design in South Palm Springs is located in a building whose past is literally shrouded in secrecy

Lawrence Karol Modernism

EF Hutton
The midcentury-style E.F. Hutton building at 501 S. Palm Canyon Drive in Palm Springs was completed in the spring of 1966. The office had one of the first New York Exchange ticker tapes in the Coachella Valley.
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE PALM SPRINGS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

In the spring of 2015, designers Howard Hawkes and Kevin Kemper of H3K Design were looking for a space that could house their offices along with a new showroom.

Although the interior of 501 S. Palm Canyon (at Ramon Road) in Palm Springs was extremely chopped up, and overgrown landscaping obscured the exterior, the duo was still drawn to the building.

There’s a large parking lot in the rear — ideal for their future showroom customers — and the location seemed hard to beat. “Being on this corner is such a great presence,” says Kemper. “It’s on the most visible corner of the intersection when you’re coming down Palm Canyon.”

But as the history of the building, which has the feel of a 1970s Brutalist structure, began to reveal itself, the designers wondered if they may have been unknowingly attracted to the space for its fascinating past as well as its promising future.

PHOTO COURTESY OF H3K DESIGN
The same building today. In 1977, Santa Barbara Savings and Loan moved into the space and hired architect Gil Garcia to redesign it. One of his changes was to wrap the existing building in a new skin.

“We were looking around and exploring the interior and we came across the electrical panel in the back and realized it was a midcentury panel,” says Kemper. “But in our heads, we’d kept thinking this was a late ‘70s building.”

After doing more research and pulling all the permits necessary for their renovation, they discovered what is literally the hidden history of the building.

You’d never suspect it from looking at the structure today, but actually it was built between 1965 and 1966 for the brokerage firm E.F. Hutton in a pure midcentury modern style reminiscent of the E. Stewart Williams’ design for the nearby Santa Fe Federal Savings and Loan (now the Palm Springs Art Museum Architecture and Design Center).

After E. F. Hutton vacated the space, Santa Barbara Savings and Loan opened an office there in 1977 and hired architect Gil Garcia to redesign it. He added square footage by constructing a wraparound for the entire exterior, but it hid the existence of the original structure. So the skeleton of the E.F. Hutton office remains.

RENDERING COURTESY OF H3K DESIGN
The building has been vacant for several years, but it’s getting a new lease on life as the offices and showroom of H3K Design.

“They probably thought they were doing some great update,” says Hawkes. “It was just 12 years later, but it shows how quickly it [the midcentury style] fell out of fashion.”

After Santa Barbara Savings and Loan left the building in 1991, it housed various tenants including RE/MAX real estate. “When it was RE/MAX, it was chopped up into lots of little offices and was very compartmentalized,” notes Kemper. “But we knew from just looking at the space overall that it was a much bigger expanse and realized as we started to do demo that it was a really great open space that we could keep open.”

“And every time tenants remodeled they kept putting in another drop ceiling,” adds Hawkes. “So it was very low, but we opened it up and got rid of all the old wiring.”

As they removed the various ceilings, they also discovered what they jokingly referred to as a “UFO” with a desert-style mural peaking out. The structure had hovered over the teller stations during the Santa Barbara Savings and Loan era. “One of the tenants just covered it up, [but] we’re making it part of the architecture of the showroom,” Hawkes says.

PHOTO COURTESY OF H3K DESIGN
During the current renovation, several drop ceilings were removed and peaking out was what H3K designers Howard Hawkes and Kevin Kemper jokingly referred to as a UFO. The teller stations were located here when Santa Barbara Savings and Loan occupied the building.

“Our whole concept in moving here is two-thirds showroom, one-third design offices,” says Kemper. “The extension of the showroom has a natural synergy with what with we do in terms of furniture and furnishings. The whole other idea and concept behind it is that we want people, when they walk through the showroom doors, to feel like they’re walking into an H3K house,” he adds.

The firm will offer a turnkey package geared toward clients who’ve purchased a second home. “Our showroom, when it evolves into the finished product, is going to be like a destination kind of store where you can go for fun,” says Hawkes. “It’s going to be affordable for people and they can buy a lot of furniture — and that’s where we have a whole furniture package option that we’re doing where people [who live in other cities] can do a one-stop shop and buy an entire condo full of furniture all at once.”

The designer’s office at the new location is open and fully functional, but the showroom renovation will take several more months; it should be completed by fall.

H3K Design, 501 S. Palm Canyon Drive, Palm Springs, 760-325-5400; www.h3kdesign.com

Follow Lawrence Karol on Twitter: @WriteEditDream

Like what you’re reading? Then “Like” us on Facebook and “follow” us on Twitter.

PHOTO COURTESY OF H3K DESIGN
The pillar on the left is one of original exterior pillars when the building was constructed for E. F. Hutton.