In 1953, interior designer Arthur Elrod, charming, handsome, and a
tireless worker for his A-list clientele, relocated from Beverly Hills to
Palm Springs and opened Arthur Elrod Associates on Palm Canyon Drive.
Elrod soon became the design king of the desert, friendly with and
decorating for Hollywood stars, industrial millionaires, and socialites.
In 1968 he decided that he wanted to create a house, an extraordinary
house. He chose a dramatic site in a new gated development on the edge of
a narrow, rocky southern ridge, looking west to Mount San Jacinto and
north into Palm Springs . Neighbors included Steve McQueen and William
Holden. And Elrod chose an extraordinary architect named John Lautner,
saying, "Give me what you think I should have on this lot.”
The result is one of the most stunning homes in the world, pure
creativity, an integral part of the Palm Springs desert. When Lautner
first visited, he noticed rocks and so dug down ten feet to reveal huge
natural boulders, which he featured in the living room, and Lautner
actually had the floors cut into the rock so that the bigger boulders are
at roof height, the landscape literally brought into the house as wall,
screen, or furniture. From the street you see a curving wall, then
copper-clad gates allow entry to the forecourt. A curving fascia sweeps
you in, past a desert sculpture garden. A glass door slides back, and you
enter the main space. It is stunning. A wide circular area steps down past
the boulders to the pool, the desert spreads itself out in a 220-degree
view of the San Jacinto Mountains, and overhead the ceiling itself rises
in a great conical dome opening to the sky. The 60ft diameter clear-span
roof is filled with sunlight penetrating the space through the angled sun
protectors of the roof. One has the sense that the roof of the main space
is being lifted off.
From the other side you exit the house to the outside through an
opening hidden from view behind a boulder, where steps lead through to the
terrace and pool, onto concrete steps cantilevering out of the wall of the
pool down to the cliff. The living and entertainment area is paramount
here; this is a house for entertaining in a spectacular circular space.
The house contains a total of five unique bedrooms, with the Master
Bedroom Suite in a wing extending off the concentric living area;. The
floors are black slate, and at night the slate throws no reflection,
disappearing, which makes the view of stars and lights in the valley
twinkling in the reflection of the pool like a view of earth from space or
a private island in the air.
There was one big change in the house, and it involved James Bond. The
mitered glass wall that had wrapped around the living room's terrace blew
inward in a freak windstorm shortly before the house was to be used for
the 1971 Bond movie Diamonds Are Forever. Elrod was supposed to be having
a party for a hundred just two weeks after the storm (the party went
forward with potted plants acting as a guardrail so people didn't step off
the rocks and into the pool), and Lautner replaced the glass wall with
massive electronic sliding glass doors suspended from the perimeter of the
roof, a 25-foot glass curve that retracted automatically to the side of
the house, leaving the living room completely open to the desert. The
Diamonds are Forever crew began filming. The parties at the house
continued, and in fact became legendary. Bill Blass held a fashion show.
Playboy did a feature. Elrod was photographed in his sunken bathtub filled
with bubbles, and Lautner designed a new house for Bob and Dolores Hope,
who so admired Elrod's. Elrod filled the house with a mix of modernist
furniture by Knoll, Harry Bertoia, Warren Platner, Marcel Breuer. A
twenty-eight-foot arced sofa and facing curved bench by Martin Brattrud
were covered in a Jack Lenor Larsen fabric stretched taut so that no seams
showed. Elrod placed eight black leather and chrome chairs around the
dining table, which was six feet long with two sheets of
three-quarter-inch black glass with hammered and polished edges on a
glass-and-chrome base and had belly dancers performing on it during
parties.
