Project:
Linsky-Thomas Residence
1019 Cielo Drive, Palm Springs, CA 92262
Owner:
Andrew Z. Linsky
Architect:
Ana Maria Escalante, AIA & Lance C. O'Donnell, AIA.
Team Members:
Martin Brunner and Rosalinda Chapa
Structural:
Raymond Frangee, Gouvis Engineering
Contractor:
HJH Construction
Area:
4,800 SF
Materials:
Concrete masonry units, fieldstone veneer galvanized, sheet metal fascia, structural steel, satin finish aluminum sliders, storefront glass assemblies, smooth finish plaster concrete.
Project Description:
The house sits on a sloping site above a 50' rock outcrop overlooking the 100 miles of desert, the Salton Sea and the San Jacinto Mountains. A series of colliding and ebbing grids were devised as a point of departure in order to develop a datum and anchor parts of the program. The building spatial arrangement and glass facades are developed to capture the unedited rawness and primal beauty of the desert landscape without competing with it. These relationships are reinforced by extending the interior of the house to outdoor rooms such as the reading porch, the lap pool and the garden. In turn, the outdoor design focuses on restoring the natural beauty of the desert of the site by uncovering boulders, incorporation drought-tolerant plantings and by removing imported soil. Consequently, the volumes, low in profile, with minimally sloped horizontal planes settle on the edge of the site in order to welcome the seamless continum of the desert below.
