Palm Springs Architect’s Midcentury Home Is Temporarily Turned Into Modern Art Gallery

As most design aficionados are no doubt aware, Modernism Week is upon us. Now in its 19th year, the annual festival celebrating midcentury architecture, art and design is ongoing in Palm Springs through February 26. In honor of the occasion, Dirt is also shining a spotlight on the ever-popular design movement and its key figures.

One of the most influential practitioners of the style that came to be known as Desert Modernism is William F. Cody. Born in Dayton, Ohio, in 1916, Cody received his architectural degree from USC, and post-graduation, did a stint in the office of Cliff May, the “father of the modern ranch house.” Following World War II, Cody began getting commissions in Palm Springs as the town was becoming an increasingly fashionable resort for the show business crowd and other well-to-do leisure-seekers. By 1950, Cody’s desert-based workload had grown to such a degree that he relocated his practice and his family from Santa Monica to Palm Springs.

Along with various country clubs, residences, hotels, library, and church projects, the architect designed a house in the desert community that would be the Cody family residence for decades. Featured in the September 1952 issue of Arts & Architecture, the 3,038-square-foot home’s design incorporates Douglas fir tongue-and-groove ceilings, cedar wall paneling, Italian marble and granite, and a multitude of glass walls looking out to numerous courtyards and atria, each of which have been meticulously landscaped with creosote and organ pipe cactus.

Since 2022, the Cody abode has been owned by Paula Bueso-Inchausti and Guille Castaneda, husband-and-wife architects from Spain who run the Palm Desert-based design-build firm Nomos RED. But for the next month, the desert modernist’s former domain will serve as an art gallery for an exhibition of modernist art and furniture. The event was spearheaded by real estate broker Keith Markovitz of TTK Represents and curated by Laguna Beach gallerist Peter Blake.

Composed of a series of vignettes set against the striking sculptural backdrop of the home’s cactus gardens, the exhibit illustrates modernism’s wide-ranging scope and long-lasting influence, with pieces from the 1930s through the ’70s mixing seamlessly with works produced in 2022. Among the artists represented are Lita Albuquerque, Peter Alexander, Gisela Colon, Phillip K. Smith III, DeWain Valentine, and Stephanie Bachero, while designers include Jens Risom, Paul McCobb, Afra and Tobia Scarpa, and Vladimir Kagan.

The appointment-only exhibit runs until March 25, with a special benefit tour and cocktail reception scheduled to take place this Saturday, February 25th.