The Decorator: Richard Neutra

Bougain Villa designed by William Burgess & Albert Frey

Kaufmann House designed by Richard Neutra

There is something so comfortingly familiar to me about
Palm Springs.

I feel as though the idea of Palm Springs is indelibly stamped into my memory, and I keep wanting to return although I have never been.

Is it because I am a child of the 1960's?

Is it because my parents were in showbiz during the 1950's and '60's and the memories of their little showbiz world
in Sydney Australia
and their love and admiration of all things American
somehow echoed
the glamorous heyday of
Palm Springs that they only heard about?

Kaufmann House by Richard Neutra

Is it a reminder of my childhood homes?
Our Australian version of the 'Californian Bungalow'
which later morphed into a two storey
Mansard/Cape Cod hybrid around 1972.
Or the 1960's sun room with its cane saucer chairs,
the faux bamboo screens sliding across
the Neutra style glass windows
with their crisp white wooden frames
looking out to my mother's succulent pebble garden?

Loewy Residence by Albert Frey

Is it the memory of the reel to reel tape which recorded not only my parents singing songs of
Sinatra and Martin
but me at the age of six belting out
Barbra Streisand's "My Man"
from the 'Funny Girl' soundtrack.

Is it the memories of the Rat Pack,
Shirley Maclaine and Sammy Davis in "Sweet Charity"?

Or watching Laugh In and the Carol Burnett Show?

Miller Fong Lotus chairs 1968

Or growing up on Australia's Gold Coast during the 1970's
where our very own waterfront suburbs such as
Miami, Palm Beach, Coral Gables, Florida Gardens and Rio Vista
were developed and flourished.

Poolside at the Kaufmann House Photo by Slim Aarons circa 1970

I have had a love for all things mid-century modern
ever since I was lucky enough to acquire my
Grant Featherston armchairs from an upholsterer friend
back in the 1980's
who passed them off as his own wacky designs
reupholstered in
"1980's doing 1950's"
printed lime green and orange fabric.

This was way before we were even talking about Australia's
own mid-century designers,
and I had not even heard of Grant Featherston!

I was only then learning about Mies and Eames!

Del Marcos Hotel designed by Albert Frey

Bougain Villa by Burgess & Frey

For whatever reason, Palm Springs and the mid-century style
has somehow been transposed into my psyche from a young age.

Neutra's Desert House gardens at the Kaufmann Residence

Palm Springs Condominium

Palm Springs style and mid-century modernism
will always evoke a feeling of "going home" for me.

That feeling of familiarity, leisure time, perceived comfort,
hope and innocence of times past.
And the excitement and glamour of modernism!

The memories and the legacy that these times encapsulate,
will always energise and inspire me.