1275 South Calle de Maria, Palm Springs | Deepwell Estates
Tucked into Palm Springs and the Coachella Valley are a number of historically and architecturally significant homes, with few carrying as much weight as the property known as the Koerner House. At PS Properties, we’ve seen, sold and represented buyers on enough historically and architecturally significant properties in the Palm Springs and Coachella Valley area to know, without question, which ones are the standouts.
The Koerner House is undoubtedly worthy of any and all praise it receives. And it’s received quite a bit.
An anchor of the storied Deepwell Estates community in Palm Springs, the Koerner House is considered an architectural masterpiece for its striking embodiment of midcentury design. And, it has a few direct and peripheral Hollywood connections.
The Koerner House has been featured in photo shoots for major fashion magazines, including Vogue and Marie Claire, and was even featured in a major motion picture starring Justin Timberlake. One-time neighbors within Deepwell Estates included actress Tippi Hedren and actor and comedian Jerry Lewis.
Adding even more drama to the home’s lore is its setting against the dreamy backdrop of the San Jacinto Mountains, finished with thoughtful landscaping that integrated the desert environment across the property’s almost full-acre of land.
Beyond encapsulating desert modernism, and serving as its beacon for more than 70 years, the Koerner House is revered for the way it came to be. The home was a rare residential commission at the time for renowned architect E. Stewart Williams, who left his celebrated fingerprint across the civic landscape of Palm Springs.
An E. Stewart Williams Legacy Design
At the time the Koerner House was commissioned, celebrated architect E. Stewart Williams had already begun to build his legacy across the Palm Spring area. Most notably, Frank Sinatra hired him — after strolling into the architectural firm while eating an ice cream cone — to design and build him a custom home that would later become known as Twin Palms. What followed was a series of projects, both residential and commercial, that offered opportunities for E. Stewart Williams to shape the indelible architectural landscape of Palm Springs and sprinkle his signature elsewhere.
His portfolio of work locally includes the Coachella Valley Savings and Loan, the Palm Springs Desert Museum and the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway Mountain station, which ferries people to the state park at the top of Mount San Jacinto. From a commercial and civic perspective, E. Stewart Williams designs were instrumental in shaping the architectural energy for which the Coachella Valley is known.
On the residential side, his incorporation of a “shed roof” on Sinatra’s Twin Palms home became a trendsetter, as it was a first for desert architecture. It is that modernist roofline aesthetic that E. Stewart Williams wove into the Koerner House.
An Owner Of Historical Significance
Leon Koerner, a distinguished Canadian businessman who fled Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia and eventually became a titan of British Columbia’s lumber industry, purchased the Deepwell Estates lot created from four parcels in 1955. He commissioned E. Stewart Williams to design a home for him and his wife, Thea, as they considered retirement and a focus on philanthropic endeavors.
In the decade-plus prior to the purchase, Koerner found success in Canada reigniting his family’s lumber business, which had flourished in Czechoslovakia but was decimated by German occupation. When he and his wife fled Czechoslovakia, Koerner left several family members behind. Many of them lost their lives at Auschwitz.
Koerner transferred his experience in the European lumber industry to his new surroundings, bringing with him a process that allowed him to build a market for an until-then useless type of lumber. Utilizing that process, he rebranded hemlock as “Alaska pine” and built a company that eventually produced the lion’s share of ammunition and rations boxes for the forces from the British Commonwealth during World War II.
Their dedication as conservationists and philanthropists earned the Koerners special recognition for their historical significance from the Canadian government in 2018. In fact, they became the first immigrants to establish a private foundation in British Columbia, offering a $1 million endowment to the Leon and Thea Koerner Foundation to support the arts, education and social welfare.
The two saw Palm Springs as a welcome escape from Canada’s harsh winters. Unfortunately, Thea was only able to enjoy the home for a few short years before she passed away in 1959. The floorplan of the home was modified slightly following Thea’s death, to better accommodate guests, but its architecturally significant features remained a mainstay.
Midcentury Modernism At Its Finest
The Koerner House is so truly befitting of owners who embrace a sense of conservationist ideals, in part for its ability to blend in with and not conquer its environment and in part for its adoration and embrace of the natural landscape. Featuring a number of familiar hallmarks of a minimalist era, the Koerner House begins with an 8×8 grid that invites clean, geometric lines and highly functional spaces.
Its asymmetrical shed roof doubles down on the home’s modern shape, capping a post-and beam floorplan that capitalizes on view corridors and intentionally dissolves traditional boundaries that separate indoor and outdoor spaces. Its use of exterior slumpstone is just one example, as an encased atrium offers views that blur typical interior boundaries. The home’s commitment to dramatic and steel-cased, wall-to-wall and floor-to-ceiling glass serves as another indoor-outdoor portal, in addition to a series of clerestory windows that offer even more natural light.
A signature of the 3,400 square-foot home’s integration with the natural landscape is a portion of its roof, interrupted but allowing passage for a trio of hearty Washingtonia filifera palm trees growing through it. The roof’s deep overhangs, as is typical of midcentury architecture, allows for this type of natural embrace, creating an uncommon connection between the built structure and the land’s organic elements.
A Flourishing Desert Garden
The footprint of the Koerner House includes four bedroom suites. Notably, it includes just as many, if not more, spaces where the outdoors are welcomed in. A delicate interior atrium serves as a standout feature, offering a soothing connection to the outdoors set to the soundtrack of a trickling fountain. Multiple patios and a screened porch complement an entryway that is anchored by a fountain and a cluster of mature palms growing through a cutout in the roof.
Designed by Garrett Eckbo, a master landscape architect, the grounds that surround the home are flourishing with intention. Desert-adapted plants, including flowering succulents and Mediterranean-based species, add color and texture while aligning with the arid, Palm Springs environment.
Besides palms, the inviting landscape at the Koerner House originally incorporated olive trees, white oleander, sycamore trees, colorful petunias, pineapple guava and juniper. While much of the original landscape has been restored, more recent additions include ocotillo and lush hedges that add color, depth and privacy to certain areas of the property. In addition, several foundations dot the grounds, complementing the home’s rectangular swimming pool and creating a soothing ambiance.
Most importantly, much of the landscape is visible from inside the home.
An Unmatched View
Intention to design is felt throughout the Koerner House, as view corridors strategically capture the home’s lush garden areas, its relaxing pool area and its remarkable skyline — which includes the nearby San Jacinto mountains. When the home was built in 1955, a collaborative team of designers worked together to maximize its minimalist mystique.
Beyond Eckbo and Williams, the interior design is credited to the masterful work of Arthur Elrod, a decorator known for outfitting the homes of Palm Springs’ golden age. It is hard to overstate the impact this trio of masters of their craft had on architectural, landscape and interior design for this period of time, for which the historical record notes as significant for the home. In addition, famed architectural photographer Julius Shulman, known for helping to proliferate the midcentury aesthetic beyond California, photographed the home in 1956.
In fact, the collective talents of the collaborative design team were one of the qualifying factors for the Koerner House’s designation as a Class 1 Historic Resource, which it earned following a rehabilitation effort to return the layout of the home to its original footprint. The restoration effort utilized original blueprints to effectively reduce its square footage and bring its footprint back down to its original configuration.
Modernized updates include rooftop solar panels, but the home’s design integrity — including its natural teak paneling and wood ceilings indoors — remain as a welcome callback to the era it represents. The home’s flagstone walkways, its midcentury built-ins and its sandblasted walnut board-and-batten paneling sharpen the pin that holds this stunning property in its historical place.
The Koerner House is, without question, a formative residence of the Palm Springs architectural record. It is one of significance and influence, situated within a community of note. And its class, its integrity, its craftsmanship and its modernism have endured decades of exposure and architectural trends. It remains an enduring lens into desert modern architecture and acts as a guidepost for responsible and respectful restoration.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who designed the Koerner House in Palm Springs?
The Koerner House was designed by E. Stewart Williams, the architect behind Frank Sinatra’s Twin Palms, the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway Mountain Station and the Palm Springs Desert Museum. It was one of his rare residential commissions, built in 1955 for Canadian lumber industrialist Leon Koerner and his wife, Thea. Landscape architect Garrett Eckbo designed the grounds and Arthur Elrod is credited with the interiors.
Where is the Koerner House located?
The Koerner House sits at 1275 South Calle de Maria in Deepwell Estates, a Palm Springs neighborhood whose one-time residents included actress Tippi Hedren and comedian Jerry Lewis. The lot was assembled from four parcels and covers almost a full acre against the backdrop of the San Jacinto Mountains.
What makes the Koerner House an example of desert modernism?
The house begins with an 8×8 grid that produces clean geometric lines and highly functional spaces. Its asymmetrical shed roof caps a post-and-beam plan built around view corridors, and steel-cased floor-to-ceiling glass plus clerestory windows dissolve the boundary between indoors and outdoors. Deep roof overhangs shade the glass, and part of the roof is interrupted to let a trio of Washingtonia filifera palms grow through it.
Is the Koerner House a designated historic property?
Yes. The Koerner House was recognized as a Class 1 Historic Resource after a rehabilitation effort that used the original blueprints to reduce the square footage and return the layout to its original footprint. The collective work of Williams, Eckbo and Elrod was one of the qualifying factors for the designation.
How big is the Koerner House?
The home measures about 3,400 square feet and includes four bedroom suites, an interior atrium with a fountain, multiple patios and a screened porch. Julius Shulman photographed the house in 1956.
PS Properties, also known as Patrick Stewart Properties, has been serving the Palm Springs and Coachella Valley area for more than 20 years. Principals Patrick Jordan and Stewart Smith guide a team of experts who specialize in offering clients guidance when buying or selling distinctive modern, luxury, architecturally-significant or historically-significant homes. In a rare class of Palm Springs area realtors, PS Properties has been included in the $100 million club for three years running and has accrued more than $1 billion in real estate transactions. Learn more at https://www.patrickstewartproperties.com/.
