Korakia Pensione’s Auric House.
PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY AURIC HOUSE
For more than three decades, Korakia Pensione, located in the Historic Tennis Club neighborhood, has been elevating an ordinary stay into an unforgettable experience. Set within a century-old Palm Springs landmark, the Moroccan fantasy–styled Korakia is the antithesis of the modern “box” hotel. Each of its rooms and suites, which carry names like Kasbah, Marrakesh, and Nomad, is designed to give every guest an individualized experience.
This concept has allowed Korakia to expand into adjacent historic structures, with each addition retaining the spirit of the original while possessing its own special character and charms. Two restored villas dating to 1924 and the 1930s, along with a rare California adobe from 1918, offer a total of 28 storied accommodations.
Earlier this year, the “petite resort” introduced a sister property that adds a new level of privacy and exclusivity to the Korakia experience. Auric House beckons families and small groups a stone’s throw from the main hotel yet envelops its guests in a distinct world almost 100 years in the making.
The Moroccan-tiled pool is the centerpiece of the private, family-friendly escape that features six bedrooms (including two casitas), six bathrooms, two indoor fireplaces, and a courtyard hot tub.
Auric House partners the intimacy of a private home with the amenities of a luxury hotel as a stand-alone hideaway that can accommodate up to 12 guests. In the Korakia tradition, the six-bedroom adobe-ranch style residence exudes the romantic and glamorous feelings of a time and a place gone by. While the rest of Korakia elicits the magic of Morocco and the Mediterranean, Auric House evokes a more local look and feel: vintage Palm Springs.
There is a serene authenticity behind its stone wall that transports guests out of the age of cell phones and traffic jams to a time when the only distractions were the ever-changing colors of the desert sunsets playing across the rugged folds of Mount San Jacinto. Auric House is not something modern artfully disguised in vintage attire. It is the real deal; a genuine survivor from a time when Palm Springs was not yet a city, but a quaint Spanish-styled village poised to come into its own.
A cozy inset lined in stone inspires fireside lounging on cool desert evenings.
Architecturally, the home is a virtual master class in the Spanish Colonial Revival style. The low horizontality of its red-tile roof, whitewashed stucco walls, welcoming front veranda, and the profusion of French doors and windows are all hallmarks from before Palm Springs was seduced by the jet-age sophistication of midcentury modern.
Its long and interesting history stretches back to the 1930s. For many years, it served as the residence of Richard F. Outcault Jr. and his family. Outcault was famous in Palm Springs as co-owner of the popular Town House hotel and as the son of renowned cartoonist R.F. Outcault Sr., one of the fathers of the modern-day comic strip. In 1956, with their children grown and moved away, the Outcaults decided to turn their home into a small apartment house, dividing it into three separate units and adding two more at the rear. They named their venture the Ranch House Apartments, and that is how it remained well into the 2000s.
By then, the property was showing its age. Its vintage charms had been dimmed by decades of hard use. Fortunately, between 2020 and 2022, a sensitive restoration honored its past while gently lifting it into the present. While most changes were relatively minor, one alteration dramatically transformed the home by enhancing, rather than diminishing, its original charisma: stonework.
A secondary living area with plush leather seating finds a comfortable position aside an original brick fireplace.
The great room combines living and dining under a vaulted ceiling with exposed trusses.
Opening the series of doors along this conservatory-style room invites a beautiful day inside.
Roughly quarried stones bearing the warm rust-colored hues of desert varnish have been masterfully employed throughout Auric House. From the stacked-stone front wall and the hand-cut stone floors to the polished stones in the courtyard surrounding the pool, the stonework is not only decoratively pleasing, it connects the house to the massive mountain behind it. Nowhere is this more evident than in the breathtaking outdoor fireplace and seating area, which boldly incises the space between the two casitas and gives the feeling of it having risen directly from the ground.
Architectural elements in place, all attention turned to the interior design. And it was here that the magic touch was truly made. “Auric House purposely had no interior decorator,” states Paulette Monarrez, who has served as Korakia’s general manager for 18 years. Instead, the home’s current owners, Paul Makarechian and Jason Liebman, filled it with pieces discovered on numerous buying trips to Morocco and around the world. Their goal was to give the impression that its interiors evolved over time with pieces slowly added by different generations.
Auric House is a repository of wonderful treasures of different styles, ages, textures, and materials. And the cloud-white painted walls serve as a calming backdrop to all of it. Queen Anne chairs surround a marble-top table in the dining area. Nearby, a leather sofa and chair grouping form a perfect place to sit while enjoying the fire, a glass of wine, a good book, or conversation with a cherished friend.
A classic marble prep island makes itself at home in the cook’s kitchen of the main house. Stainless appliances by Miele, Wolf, and Sub-Zero add modern convenience and contrasting style. A second full kitchen is tucked inside one of the two casitas.
Auric House is a repository of wonderful treasures of different styles, ages, textures, and materials. And the cloud-white painted walls serve as a calming backdrop to all of it. Queen Anne chairs surround a marble-top table in the dining area. Nearby, a leather sofa and chair grouping form a perfect place to sit while enjoying the fire, a glass of wine, a good book, or conversation with a cherished friend.
In one bedroom stands an English barley twist bed; bunk beds rule the roost in another. Art deco club chairs, Danish modern tables, Japanese lanterns, old chests, woven lampshades, an Anglo-English settee, rattan, thick textiles, and soft cottons in the hands of owners less skilled could yield a disjointed effect. But they have balanced it all in perfect harmony.
A rustic bistro chair pulls up to a desk in one of the casitas, which sit across the pool from the main house.
In the primary suite, a beaded chandelier, wood storage bench, and a leather channel-stitch chaise lounge add warm accents that complement the wood floor.
Because Korakia manages the home, guests share in the hotel’s bevy of time-honored amenities, including breakfast delivered each day, complimentary cruiser bikes, spa services, and even the availability of a private chef. Just don’t search Auric House for a television set; a record player suggests a less modern alternative. Anyone sitting poolside in an oversized bamboo lounge chair, sipping a cocktail with the voice of Frank Sinatra wafting through the French doors will likely forget all about that TV. They say time travel is impossible, but a stay in this gracious slice of Old Palm Springs might make you wonder.