Item 1G - Page 6
7. Owners/Investors with a 5% beneficial interest in the Aoollcant Entity or a related entitv EXAMPLE JANEDOE 50%, ABC COMPANY, Inc.
[name of owner/investor] [percentage of beneficial interest in entity and name of entity] A.
Richard Meaney 50% - 0 West Circle Drive LLC
[name of owner/investor] [percentage of beneficial interest in entity and name of entity] B.
James Miller 30% - o West Circle Drive LLC
[name of owner/investor] [percentage of beneficial interest in entity and name of entitvl C.
Farzhad Askari 20% - 0 West Circle Drive LLC
[name of owner/investor] [percentage of benefic ial interest in entity and name of entity] D.
[name of owner/investor] [percentage of beneficial Interest in entity and name of entitvl E.
[name of owner/investor] [percentage of beneficial interest in entity and name of entitvl
I DECLARE UNDER PENAL TY OF PERJURY UNDER THE LAWS OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA THAT THE FOREGOING IS TRUE AND CORRECT .
October 1, 2024
PENALTIES
Falsification of information or failure to report information required to be reported may subject you to administrative action by the City. (Revised 05/16/19}
CITY OF PALM SPRINGS - PUBLIC INTEGRITY DISCLOSURE
APPLICANT DISCLOSURE FORM
Attachment B
Item 1G - Page 7
Department of Planning Services
Vicinity Map
CITY OF PALM SPRINGS
TPM 38526
Acanto 4
Item 1G - Page 8
.....
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- Site > - soo· Site Radius
VIA
F6RMATO
Attachment C
Item 1G - Page 9
Item 1G - Page 10
THIS PARCEL MAP CONTAINS 2.24 ACRES GROSS AND
4 TOTAL LOTS WITHIN THE DISTINCTIVE BORDER.
OWNER'S STATEMENT
WE HEREBY STA TE THAT WE AR£ TH£ OWNERS OF TH£ LAND INCLUDED WITHIN TH£ SUBDIVISION SHOWN HEREON; THAT WE AR£ TH£ ONLY PERSONS WHOSE CONSENT IS NECESSARY TO PASS A CLEAR TITLE TO SAID LAND; THAT WE CONSENT TO TH£ MAKING AND RECORDING OF THIS SUBDIVISION MAP AS SHOWN WITHIN TH£ DISTINCTIVE BORDER LIN£.
WE HEREBY DEDICATE TO TH£ CITY OF PALM SPRINGS. PUBLIC US£ EASEMENTS FOR PUBLIC UTILITY AND SEWER PURPOSES TOGETHER WITH TH£ RIGHT OF INGRESS AND £GRESS FOR SERVICE AND EMERGENCY VEHICLES AND PERSONNEL, AS SHOWN WITHIN THIS MAP.
WE ALSO HEREBY RETAIN TH£ EASEMENTS FOR DRAINAGE INCLUSIVE AND RECIPROCAL ACCESS PURPOSES AND TH£ EASEMENT FOR STORM DRAIN PURPOSES, AS SHOWN WITHIN THIS MAP, FOR TH£ SOL£ BENEFIT OF OURSELVES, SUCCESSORS, ASSIGNEES AND LOT O 'NERS WITHIN THIS MAP.
6/eCLE, 'lJi V€
0 WEST ~~~~~ A CALIFORNIA LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY
-,,=:e:::__-~-------- . ~
PRINT NAME: RICHARD MEANEY
BENEFICIARY
3 BO , LC,~S BENEFICIARY UNDER THAT CERTAIN
DEED OF TR S: RE O DED AUGUST 08, 2023. AS INSTRUMENT
NO. 2 23- V3 "I- F OFFICIAL RECORDS
BY:_--JL..l!.fl.:.!!!<:c.__:_.=::........,~-~--- BY: ____________ _ NAM£: ,;Til,. Mw!S
TITLE: --<-//4=:....ot-""1~_._._.tJ,""'.._r ____ _
PRINTED NAME: ________ _
TITLE: ___________ _
NOTARY ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
A NOTARY PUBLIC OR OTHER OFFICER COMPLETING THIS CERT/FICA TE VERIFIES ONLY TH£ IDENTITY OF TH£ INDIVIDUAL WHO SIGNED TH£ DOCUMENT TO WHICH THIS CERT/FICA TE IS ATTACHED, AND NOT TH£ TRUTHFULNESS, ACCURACY, OR VALIDITY OF THAT DOCUMENT.
STA TE OF CALIFORNIA } 55
COUNTY OF RIVERSIDE }
ON Iu..ir, I~ 2024, BEFORE ME,
CA.rol 1..-~f-t/ck">\...,.,. A NOTARY PUBLIC,
...E.[R:,ONA~L y APPEARED R i ct,,.arel r'Vl-eA.~ f!:t- AND -~W\ 1.-ewi~ WHO PROVED TO EON THE
BASIS OF SATISFACTORY EVIDENCE TO BE THE PERSON(S} WHOSE NAME(S}JB'/ARE SUBSCRIBED TO THE WITHIN INSTRUMENT AND
ACKNOWLEDGED TO ME THAT X/:.HE/THEY EXECUTED THE SAME IN /./fSJi;JER/THEIR AUTHORIZED CAPACITY(IES), AND THAT BY .J.HS//;/Eff/THEIR S/GNA TURE(S} ON THE INSTRUMENT THE PERSON(S}, OR THE ENTITY UPON BEHALF OF WHICH THE PERSON(S} ACTED, EXECUTED THE INSTRUMENT.
I CERTIFY UNDER PENALTY OF PERJURY UNDER THE LAWS OF THE
STA TE OF CALIFORNIA THAT THE FOREGOING PARAGRAPH IS TRUE AND CORRECT.
WITNESS MY HAND AND OFFICIAL SEAL. MY PRINCIPAL PLACE OF BUSINESS IS IN:
,; l<.attel,..o ffl;r-.312, ~
S/GNA TURE.Ul:!::::.C~O.~~?"[.V'--1,'QMMISS/ON NQ_.;;i3jt,, BO 3 NOTARY PUBLIC EXP/RAT/ON DATE: vn~rct.. ( I, ol..m4>
NOTARY ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
A NOTARY PUBLIC OR OTHER OFFICER COMPLETING THIS CERT/FICA TE VERIFIES ONLY TH£ IDENTITY OF THE INDIVIDUAL WHO SIGNED TH£
DOCUMENT TO WHICH THIS CERT/FICA TE IS ATTACHED, AND NOT THE TRUTHFULNESS, ACCURACY, OR VALIDITY OF THAT DOCUMENT.
STA TE OF CALIFORNIA ) SS
COUNTY OF RIVERSIDE }
ON ----~ 2024, BEFORE ME,
--------~ A NOTARY PUBLIC,
PERSONALLY APPEARED __________ AND
WHO PROVED TO ME ON THE
BASIS OF SATISFACTORY EVIDENCE TO BE THE PERSON(S) WHOSE NAME(S} IS/ARE SUBSCRIBED TO THE WITHIN INSTRUMENT AND
ACKNOWLEDGED TO ME THAT HE/SHE/THEY EXECUTED THE SAME IN
HIS/HER/THEIR AUTHORIZED CAPACITY(IES), AND THAT BY
HIS/HER/THEIR S/GNA TURE(S} ON THE INSTRUMENT THE PERSON(S}, OR THE ENTITY UPON BEHALF OF WHICH THE PERSON(S} ACTED, EXECUTED THE INSTRUMENT.
I CERTIFY UNDER PENALTY OF PERJURY UNDER THE LAWS OF THE
STA TE OF CALIFORNIA THAT THE FOREGOING PARAGRAPH IS TRUE AND CORRECT.
WITNESS MY HAND AND OFFICIAL SEAL. MY PRINCIPAL PLACE OF BUSINESS IS IN:
SIGNA TUR£: ______ _ COMMISSION NO. __ _
NOTARY PUBLIC EXP/RATION DA TE: ___ _
IN THE CITY OF PALM SPRINGS, COUNTY .OF RIVERSIDE, STATE OF CALIFORNIA PARCEL MAP 38526
A SUBDIVISION OF PARCEL 1 OF PARCEL MAP 36431, P.MB. 237/33-35 SECTION 35, TOWNSHIP 4 SOUTH, RANGE 4 EAST, S.B.&M
VAN SURVEYING, INC. JANUARY 2024
TAX COLLECTOR'S CERT/FICA TE
I HEREBY CERTIFY THAT ACCORDING TO THE RECORDS OF THIS
OFFICE, AS OF THIS DA TE, THERE ARE NO LIENS AGAINST THE
PROPERTY SHOWN ON THE WITHIN MAP FOR UNPAID STA TE, COUNTY,
MUNICIPAL, OR LOCAL TAXES, OR SPECIAL ASSESSMENTS COLLECTED
AS TAXES, EXCEPT TAXES OR SPECIAL ASSESSMENTS COLLECTED AS TAXES NOW A LIEN BY NOT YET PAYABLE, WHICH AR£ EST/MA TED TO BE$ ______ _
DAT£: _______ _ 2024
MATTHEW JENNINGS
COUNTY TAX COLLECTOR
BY _________ ~ DEPUTY
TAX BOND CERT/FICA TE
I HEREBY CERTIFY THAT A BOND IN THE SUM OF $ ____ _
HAS BEEN EXECUTED AND FILED WITH TH£ BOARD OF SUPERVISORS OF TH£ COUNTY OF RIVERSIDE, CALIFORNIA, CONDITIONED UPON TH£
PAYMENT OF ALL TAXES, STA TE, COUNTY, MUNICIPAL, OR LOCAL, AND ALL SPECIAL ASSESSMENTS COLLECTED AS TAXES, WHICH AT TH£ TIME OF FILING OF THIS MAP WITH TH£ COUNTY RECORDER ARE A
LIEN AGAINST SAID PROPERTY BUT NOT YET PAYABLE AND SAID BOND HAS BEEN DULY APPROVED BY SAID BOARD OF SUPERVISORS.
DATE: _______ _ 2024
CASH BOND
MATTHEW JENNINGS
COUNTY TAX COLLECTOR
BY: ________ ~ DEPUTY
SOILS REPORT
PURSUANT TO SECTION 66490 OF TH£ SUBDIVISION MAP ACT, A PRELIMINARY SOILS REPORT, PROJECT NO. 544-23400, WAS PREPARED BY SLADDEN £NG/NEERING. ON JANUARY 08, 2024, AND IS ON FIL£ WITH TH£ CITY OF PALM SPRINGS, ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT.
•• _.. ...... _____ .- -<{.
S/GNA TUR£ OMMISS/ONS
PURSUANT TO SECTION 66436 (A), AND (C), OF THE SUBDIVISiON MAP ACT. TH£ S/GNA TURES OF TH£ FOLLOWING OWNERS OF
EASEMENTS AND/OR OTHER INTEREST HAVE BEEN OMITTED.
NONE
SHEET 7 OF 3 SHEETS
RECORDER'S STATEMENT
FILED THIS _ DAY OF ------- 2024, AT
~M. IN BOOK ___ OF PARCEL MAPS AT
PAGES ____ AT TH£ REQUEST OF THE CITY CLERK OF THE
CITY OF PALM SPRINGS, CALIFORNIA.
NO.~-----
FE£:· ____ _
PETER ALDANA
COUNTY RECORDER-ASSESSOR-CLERK
BY:----------~ DEPUTY
SUBDIVISION GUARANTEE BY: NORTH AMERICAN TITLE CO.
SURVEYOR'S STATEMENT
THIS MAP WAS PREPARED BY ME OR UNDER MY DIRECTION AND IS BASED UPON A
FIELD SURVEY IN CONFORMANCE WITH THE REQUIREMENTS OF THE SUBDIVISION MAP ACT AND LOCAL ORDINANCE AT TH£ REQUEST OF O WEST 1?5M 0/RCtE; LLC IN AUGUST OF 2023. Cl~CL.G !Jl(JVE
I HEREBY STA TE THAT ALL MONUMENTS ARE OF TH£ CHARACTER AND OCCUPY THE POSITIONS IND/CA TED OR THAT THEY WILL 8£ SET WITHIN ON£ YEAR OF THE FILING
OF THIS MAP WITH THE COUNTY RECORDER AND THAT THE MONUMENTS ARE, OR WILL 8£, SUFFICIENT TO ENABLE THE SURVEY TO 8£ RETRACED, AND THAT THIS FINAL TRACT MAP SUBSTANTIALLY CONFORMS TO TH£ CONDITIONALLY APPROVED TENTATIVE TRACT MAP. THIS SURVEY IS TRUE AND COMPLETE AS SHOWN.
If/ 2024
I,/ /,..-//1
'#"~·
P.L.S. 6500
CITY ENGINEER'S STATEMENT
I HEREBY STA TE THAT I HAVE EXAMINED TH£ WITHIN MAP OF TRACT MAP NO. 38526 CONSISTING OF 2 SHEETS; THAT TH£ SUBDIVISION SHOWN HEREON IS SUBSTANTIALLY TH£ SAME AS IT APPEARED ON TH£ TENTATIVE MAP OR ANY APPROVED AL TERA T/ONS THEREOF; THAT ALL PROVISIONS OF TH£ STA TE SUBDIVISION MAP ACT AND ANY LOCAL ORDINANCES APPLICABLE AT THE TIM£ OF APPROVAL OF TH£ TENTATIVE MAP HAVE BEEN COMPLIED WITH; --""'=-..
DATED:-----~ 2024
NO. 62624
BY: ____________ _
JOEL MONTALVO
R.C.£. NO. 62624
CITY SURVEYOR'S STATEMENT
I HEREBY STAT£ THAT I HAVE EXAMINED TH£ MAP, AND THAT I AM SATfSFIED THAT SAID MAP IS TECHNICALLY CORRECT.
DA TED: Z.v • .J v~'( ~~4 "!
~;;K~RD~' ~~- .__,/\
P.L.S. 7648
£NG/NEERING RESOURCES OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA, INC.
CITY CLERK'S STATEMENT
/, BRENDA PREE, CITY CLERK OF TH£ CITY COUNCIL OF TH£ CITY OF PALM SPRINGS,
STA TE OF CALIFORNIA, HEREBY STA TE THAT SAID CITY COUNCIL AT ITS REGULAR M££TfNG HELD ON THE __ DAY OF ---~ 2024, DULY APPROVED THE FINAL MAP NO. 38526, AND DID ACCEPT ON BEHALF OF TH£ PUBLIC. THE DEDICATION
OF THE EASEMENT FOR PUBLIC UTILITY AND SEWER PURPOSES TOGETHER WITH THE
RIGHT OF INGRESS AND EGRESS FOR SERVICE AND EMERGENCY VEHICLES AS SHOWN WITHIN THIS MAP.
THE TEN TA TfVE MAP FOR SAID TRACT MAP WAS APPROVED BY TH£ PLANNING COMMISSION AT ITS REGULAR M££TfNG HELD ON TH£ 13TH DAY OF SEPTEMBER, 2023.
DATED:-----~ 2024
BY: _______________ _
BRENDA PR££, MC, CERA
,cJTY CLERK OF THE
CITY COUNCIL OF TH£ CITY OF PALM SPRINGS, CAL/FOR/NA w.o. 22-129 Item 1G - Page 11
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S.F.N.
IN THE CITY OF PALM SPRINGS,
COUNTY OF RIVERSIDE, STATE OF CALIFORNIA
PARCEL MAP NO. 38526
FD. 3/4" I.P. W/ PLASTIC PLUG
STAMPED LS 4146, UP 0.6'
PER P.M.B. 237 /'.33-35
ACCEPTANCE AS THE NW
ALLOTMENT
33A
A SUBDIVISION OF PARCEL 1 OF PARCEL MAP 36431, P.MB. 237/33-35 SECTION 35, TOWNSHIP 4 SOUTH, RANGE 4 EAST, S.B.&M
VAN SURVEYING INC. JANUARY 2024
EST. BY PRORATION BE~EN
FD. POINTS EAST & WEST CORNER OF PARCEL 1 OF
SAID, P.M.8. 237 /33-35 EST. NO. BOUNDARY BETWEEN
FD. POINTS EAST & WEST N 89"34'37E 659.37' (66Q/l'l
EST. W. BOUNDARY BE~EN
FD. POINTS NORTH & SOUTH
164.84'
PARCEL I
0.56 ACRES
24,358 S.F.
164.87'
N 89"36'46'E
PARCEL 4
0.56 ACRES
24,362 S.F.
329.68' (329. 711
11.00'
I
I
I
I
11.00'
I
& i
§I --_.~~I§
~I I~
I @ I
~ I ~ I~
~ 'SI--
~ ,· ,-£? £2
8 i i 8
< i i <
I I
I 1
S. W. CORNER OF PARCEL 2 OF P.M.B. 237 /33-35 I I
SFN, EST. POINT BY INT. OF EST. NO. LINE OF
/64.84'
PARCEL 2
0.56 ACRES
24,375 S.F.
164.87'
329.74'
PARCEL 3
0.56 ACRES
24,379 S.F.
EST. BY PRORATION BETWEEN
ESTABLISHED SW CORNER OF
PARCEL 1 & ESTABLISHED
SE CORNER OF PARCEL 2 OF
P.M.8. 237 /33-35
PARCEL 2
PM 36431
P.MB. 237 /033-035
W. BOUNDARY PCL 2 EST.
BE~EN ESTABLISHED POINT
NORTH AND FD. POINTS
NORTH & SOUTH
~
;!,
~
I •
18 FD. 3/4" J.P. TAGGED
LS 4146, ON 0.2' PER
P.M.B. 237 /33-35
ACCEPTED AS THE NE
CORNER OF PARCEL 2
OF SAID P.M.B 237 /33-35
E. BOtJNDARY PCL 2 EST.
BETWEEN FD. POINTS
NORTH & SOUTH
SURVEYOR'S NO TES
INDICATES SET 1" I.P. TAGGED LS. 6500
FLUSH UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED
SHEET 2 OF 3 SHEETS
0 • ()
IND/CA TES MONUMENTS FOUND AS SHOWN
[]
IND/CA TES RECORD DA TA PER P.M.B. 237 /33-35
INDICATES RECORD DATA PER M.8 340/51-55
C/L IND/CA TES CENTERLINE
R/W IND/CA TES RIGHT OF WAY
THIS PARCEL MAP CONTAINS 2.24 ACRES
WITHIN THE DISTINCTIVE BORDER.
BASIS OF BEARINGS·
CENTERLINE OF ACANTO DRIVE
BEING N 89°38'54" E PER TRACT MAP NO. 29632,
MB 340 AT PAGES 51 THRU 55, RECORDS OF RIVERSIDE
COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
EASEMENT NO TES·
I>:.. IND/CA TES EASEMENT FOR DRAINAGE, STORM DRAIN
~ AND RECIPROCAL ACCESS PURPOSES RETAINED HEREON.
A IND/CA TES EASEMENT FOR PUBLIC UTILITY AND SEWER
/.E::,. PURPOSES OED/CA TED HEREON.
LOT A AND ESTABLISHED w. BOUNDARY LINE \ I I
164.90' I 30~ 1/4.oo- 164.90'
R /W DEDIC~ON frEC. 02 '23 '2024
INST. NO. ~O 4-0050269
EST. NO. LINE OF LOT A
PARALLEL TO & 34' NORTH
OF C/L PER INST. NO.
2024-0050269 SHOWN
HEREON
S.£. CORNER OF PARCEL 2 OF P.M.8. 237 /33-35
_,,,,.-- SFN, EST. POINT BY INT. OF £STAB LISHEb NO. LINE ---'~¥' OF LOT A AND ESTABLISHED £. LINE OF PARCEL 2
329.80' (329.787
L_. _. _. _ ~ Q_T_ 'A -:__ __ . _. _. _. N 89"38'54'E _. _. _. _. __ . _. -L_ :::~:::787 1 8 p M :~3~/iJJj_035 EST. C/L BETWEEN PM 36431
\
: 'I' · · · FD. POINTS EAST & WEST) P.M.B. 237/033-035
C,
- LOT 'A,,
PM 36431
P.M.B. 237 /033-035
'J-~- -CITY OF PALM SPRl!y__GS--·~·-_-f'!Y~ 8'§!I_!§!!. 6%.._r6J!i5!.J.:___ -·-· -----,a=-- - COUNTY OF RIVERSIDE <t_ ACANTO DRIVE~
FD. 3/4" I.P. W/ PLASTIC PLUG
STAMPED LS 4146, FLUSH PER
M.B. 340/51-55
EQUESTRIA~ASEMENT REC. 03 15 '2024
INST. NK 024-0077541 FD. 2" BRASS CAP STAMPED RCFC & WCD "1997" DOWN 0.2 ACCEPTED AS S 1/4 COR. SEC 35 ROAD EASEMENT
REC. DEC. 5, 1983
INST. NO. 251340 0. PER P.M.B. 237 /33-35
30 15
I 1
GRAPHIC SCALE
o----io 6,°
90 I
SCALE 1 "=30'
w.o. 22-129
Item 1G - Page 12
IN THE CITY OF PALM SPRINGS, COUNTY OF RIVERSIDE, STATE OF CALIFORNIA IMPROVEMENT STATEMENT:
PURSUANT TO SECTION 66411.1 (a} OF THE CALIFORNIA SUBDIVISION
MAP ACT, THE REQUIRED PUBLIC IMPROVEMENTS WILL BE THE MINIMUM
DEVELOPMENT REQUIREMENTS FOR ANY PARCEL DEVELOPED OF TENTA T/VE
STREETS
PARCEL MAP NO. 38526 SHALL BE COMPLETED PRIOR TO ISSUANCE OF A BUILDING PERMIT ON THE PARCEL, UNLESS OTHERWISE DEFERRED BY COVENANT.
ENG 1. ANY IMPROVEMENTS WITHIN THE PUBLIC RIGHT-OF-WAY REQUIRE A CITY OF PALM SPRINGS ENCROACHMENT PERMIT.
ALL IMPROVEMENTS ARE SUBJECT TO INSPECT/ON AND A 48-HOUR INSPECT/ON NOTIFICATION IS REQUIRED.
ENG 2. SUBMIT STREET IMPROVEMENT PLANS PREPARED BY A REGISTERED CALIFORNIA CIVIL ENGINEER TO THE ENGINEER/NG SERVICES DEPARTMENT. THE PLAN(S) SHALL BE APPROVED BY THE CITY ENGINEER PRIOR TO ISSUANCE OF ANY ENCROACHMENT OR BUILDING PERMITS.
ACANTO DRIVE
ENG 3. CONSTRUCT A 40 FEET WIDE DRIVEWAY APPROACH IN ACCORDANCE WITH CITY OF PALM SPRINGS STANDARD DRAWING NO. 201.
ENG 4. CONSTRUCT PAVEMENT WITH A MINIMUM PAVEMENT SECTION OF 3 INCHES ASPHALT CONCRETE PAVEMENT OVER 6 INCHES CRUSHED MISCELLANEOUS BASE WITH A MINIMUM SUBGRADE OF 24 INCHES AT 95% RELATIVE COMPACT/ON,
OR EQUAL, FROM EDGE OF PROPOSED/EXIST/NG GUTTER/CLEAN SAWCUT EDGE OF PAVEMENT TO CLEAN SAWCUT EDGE
OF PAVEMENT/CENTERLINE ALONG THE ENTIRE FRONTAGE IN ACCORDANCE WITH CITY OF PALM SPRINGS STANDARD DRAWING NO. 110. (ADDITIONAL PAVEMENT REMOVAL AND REPLACEMENT MAY BE REQUIRED UPON REVIEW OF
EXISTING PAVEMENT CROSS-SECTIONS, AND TO ENSURE GRADE BREAKS OF THE PAVEMENT CROSS-SECTION DO NOT OCCUR WITHIN A TRAVEL LANE.) IF AN AL TERNA T/VE PAVEMENT SECTION IS PROPOSED, THE PROPOSED PAVEMENT SECT/ON SHALL BE DESIGNED BY A CALIFORNIA REGISTERED GEOTECHNICAL ENGINEER USING "R" VALUES FROM THE PROJECT SITE AND SUBMITTED TO THE CITY ENGINEER FOR APPROVAL.
ENG 5. REMOVE AND REPLACE EXISTING ASPHALT CONCRETE PAVEMENT WHERE REQUIRED, IN ACCORDANCE WITH APPLICABLE CITY STANDARDS.
ON-SITE
ENG 6. ALL BROKEN OR OFF GRADE STREET IMPROVEMENTS ALONG THE PROJECT FRONTAGE SHALL BE REPAIRED OR REPLACED.
ENG 7. CONSTRUCT A 40 WIDE DRIVE ISLE AND HAMMERHEAD TURN AROUND FOR EMERGENCY VEHICLES, UT/LIT/ES AND RECIPROCAL ACCESS AS INDICATED ON THE APPROVED TENTATIVE PARCEL MAP 38526, CONSTRUCT A MINIMUM PAVEMENT SECTION OF 3 INCHES ASPHALT OVER 4 INCHES CRUSHED MISCELLANEOUS BASE WITH A MINIMUM SUBGRADE OF 24 INCHES AT 95% RELA T/VE COMPACT/ON, OR EQUAL, WITHIN ALL ON-SITE PR/VA TE STREETS IN ACCORDANCE WITH CITY OF PALM SPRINGS STANDARD DRAWING NO. 110 AND 106A. IF AN ALTERNATIVE PAVEMENT
SECTION IS PROPOSED, THE PROPOSED PAVEMENT SECTION SHALL BE DESIGNED BY A CALIFORNIA REGISTERED GEOTECHNICAL ENGINEER USING "R" VALUES FROM THE PROJECT SITE AND SUBMITTED TO THE CITY ENGINEER FOR APPROVAL.
ENG 8. THE GA TED ENTRY IS SUBJECT TO REVIEW AND APPROVAL BY THE CITY ENGINEER AND FIRE MARSHALL. THE
APPLICANT SHALL PROVIDE AN EXHIBIT SHOWING TRUCK TURNING MOVEMENTS AROUND THE ENTRY, DEMONSTRATING
THE ABILITY OF STANDARD SIZE VEHICLES TO MANEUVER THROUGH THE ENTRY (WITHOUT REVERSING) IF UNABLE TO ENTER THE PROJECT. A MINIMUM OF 50 FEET SHALL BE PROVIDED BETWEEN THE BACK OF SIDEWALK ON THE
ADJACENT STREET AND THE GATED ENTRY DIRECTORY/CONTROL PANEL, WITH AN APPROVED MANEUVERING AREA PROVIDED BETWEEN THE DIRECTORY/CONTROL PANEL AND THE ENTRY GATES. THE INGRESS AND EGRESS LANES SHALL BE A MINIMUM OF 20 FEET WIDE, UNLESS OTHERWISE APPROVED BY THE FIRE MARSHALL. A KNOX KEY OPERA TED SWITCH SHALL BE INSTALLED AT EVERY AUTOMATIC GA TE. SECURED AUTOMATED VEHICLE GA TES OR
ENTRIES SHALL UTILIZE A COMB/NAT/ON OF A TOMAR STROBESWITCH, OR APPROVED EQUAL, AND AN APPROVED KNOX KEY ELECTRIC SWITCH WHEN REQUIRED BY THE FIRE CODE omCIAL. SECURED NON-AUTOMATED VEHICLE
GA TES OR ENTRIES SHALL UTILIZE AN APPROVED PADLOCK OR CHAIN (MAXIMUM LINK OR LOCK SHACKLE SIZE OF INCH} WHEN REQUIRED BY THE FIRE CODE OFFICIAL. IN THE EVENT OF A POWER FAILURE, THE GA TES SHALL BE
DEFAULTED OR AUTOMATICALLY TRANSFERRED TO A FAIL-SAFE MODE ALLOWING THE GATE TO BE PUSHED OPEN WITHOUT THE USE OF SPECIAL KNOWLEDGE OR ANY EQUIPMENT. IF A TWO-GA TE SYSTEM IS USED, THE OVERRIDE SWITCH MUST OPEN BOTH GATES.
ENG 9. ON-SITE DRIVE AISLES SHALL BE CONSTRUCTED WITH CURBS, GUTTERS, AND CROSSGUTTERS, AS NECESSARY
TO ACCEPT AND CONVEY STREET SURFACE DRAINAGE OF THE ON-SITE STREETS TO THE ON-SITE DRAINAGE SYSTEM, IN ACCORDANCE WITH APPLICABLE CITY STANDARDS.
SANITARY SEWER
ENG 10. ALL SANITARY FACILITIES SHALL 8£ CONNECTED TO THE PUBLIC SEWER SYSTEM (VIA THE PROPOSED ON-SITE PRIVATE SEWER SYSTEM). NEW LATERALS SHALL NOT BE CONNECTED AT MANHOLES.
ENG 11. ALL ON-SITE SEWER SYSTEMS SHALL 8£ PR/VA TELY MAINTAINED BY A HOMEOWNERS ASSOC/AT/ON (HOA).
PROVISIONS FOR MAINTENANCE OF THE ON-SITE SEWER SYSTEM ACCEPTABLE TO THE CITY ENGINEER SHALL BE
INCLUDED IN THE
COVENANTS, CONDITIONS AND RESTRICTIONS (CC&RS) REQUIRED FOR THIS PROJECT.
ENG 12. IF AN ON-SITE PR/VA TE SEWER SYSTEM IS PROPOSED TO COLLECT SEWAGE FROM THE DEVELOPMENT AND CONNECT TO
THE EXISTING PUBLIC SEWER SYSTEM, SEWER PLANS SHALL BE SUBMITTED TO THE ENGINEERING SERVICES DEPARTMENT FOR REVIEW AND APPROVAL. PRIVATE ON-SITE SEWER MAINS FOR RESIDENT/AL PROJECTS SHALL CONFORM TO CITY SEWER DESIGN STANDARDS, INCLUDING CONSTRUCT/ON OF 8/NCH V.C.P. SEWER MAIN AND STANDARD SEWER MANHOLES. SEWER MANHOLE COVERS SHALL BE IDENTIFIED AS PR/VA TE SEWER. A PROFILE VIEW
OF THE ON-SITE PR/VA TE SEWER MAINS IS NOT NECESSARY IF SUFFICIENT INVERT INFORMA T/ON IS PROVIDED IN THE PLAN VIEW, INCLUDING ELEVA T/ONS WITH CONFLICT/NG UTILITY LINES. PLANS FOR SEWERS OTHER THAN THE PRIVATE ON-SITE SEWER MAINS, I.E. BUILDING SEWERS AND LATERALS FROM THE BUILDINGS TO THE ON-SITE PRIVATE SEWER MAINS, ARE SUBJECT TO SEPARATE REVIEW AND APPROVAL BY THE BUILDING DIVISION.
ENG 13. UPON COMPLETION OF THE CONSTRUCT/ON OF PUBLIC SEWER LINES, AN AS-BUILT DRAWING IN DIGITAL FORMAT
SHALL BE PROVIDED TO THE CITY AS REQUIRED BY THE
CITY ENGINEER, IF THE SEWER WAS NOT CONSTRUCTED IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE ORIGINAL APPROVED SEWER PLANS.
PARCEL MAP 38526
A SUBDIVISION OF PARCEL 1 OF PARCEL MAP 36431, P.MB. 237/33-35 SECTION 35, TOWNSHIP 4 SOUTH, RANGE 4 EAST, S.B.&M
VAN SURVEYING, INC. JANUARY 2024
GRADING
ENG 14. SUBMIT A ROUGH GRADING PLAN PREPARED BY A CALIFORNIA REGISTERED CIVIL ENGINEER TO THE ENGINEERING SERVICES DEPARTMENT FOR REVIEW AND APPROVAL. A FUGIT/VE DUST CONTROL PLAN SHALL BE PREPARED BY THE
APPLICANT AND/OR ITS GRADING CONTRACTOR AND SUBMITTED TO THE ENGINEERING SERVICES DEPARTMENT FOR REVIEW AND APPROVAL. THE APPLICANT AND/OR ITS GRADING CONTRACTOR SHALL BE REQUIRED TO COMPLY WITH CHAPTER 8.50 OF THE CITY OF PALM SPRINGS
MUNICIPAL CODE AND SHALL 8£ REQUIRED TO UTILIZE ONE OR MORE COACHELLA
VALLEY BEST AVAILABLE CONTROL MEASURES AS IDENTIFIED IN THE COACHELLA VALLEY FUGIT/VE DUST CONTROL HANDBOOK FOR EACH FUGITIVE DUST SOURCE SUCH THAT THE APPLICABLE PERFORMANCE STANDARDS ARE MET. THE
APPLICANTS OR ITS CONTRACTORS FUGITIVE DUST CONTROL PLAN SHALL BE PREPARED BY STAFF THAT HAS
COMPLETED THE SOUTH COAST AIR QUALITY MANAGEMENT DISTRICT (AQMD) COACHELLA VALLEY FUGIT/VE DUST CONTROL CLASS. THE APPLICANT AND/OR ITS GRADING CONTRACTOR SHALL PROVIDE THE ENGINEERING SERVICES DEPARTMENT WITH CURRENT AND VALID CERT/FICATE(S} OF COMPLETION FROM AQMD FOR STAFF THAT HAVE COMPLETED THE REQUIRED TRAINING. FOR INFORMA T/ON ON ATTEND/NG A FUGIT/VE DUST CONTROL CLASS AND INFORMATION ON THE COACHELLA VALLEY FUGITIVE DUST CONTROL HANDBOOK AND RELATED PM/0 DUST CONTROL ISSUES, PLEASE CONTACT AQMD AT (909} 396-3752, OR AT HTTP://WWW.AQMD.GOV. A FUGITIVE DUST CONTROL
PLAN, IN CONFORMANCE WITH THE COACHELLA VALLEY FUGIT/VE DUST CONTROL HANDBOOK, SHALL BE SUBMITTED TO AND APPROVED BY THE ENGINEERING SERVICES DEPARTMENT PRIOR TO APPROVAL OF THE GRADING PLAN. THE GRADING PLAN SHALL BE APPROVED BY THE CITY ENGINEER PRIOR TO ISSUANCE OF GRADING PERMIT.
A. THE FIRST SUBMITTAL OF THE ROUGH GRADING PLAN SHALL INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING INFORMA T/ON: A COPY OF FINAL APPROVED CONFORMED COPY OF CONDITIONS OF APPROVAL; A COPY OF A FINAL APPROVED CONFORMED COPY OF THE SITE PLAN; A COPY OF CURRENT TITLE REPORT; A COPY OF SOILS REPORT; AND A COPY OF THE ASSOC/A TED HYDROLOGY STUDY /REPORT; A COPY OF THE PROJECTSPECIFIC FINAL WATER QUALITY MANAGEMENT PLAN.
ENG 15. PRIOR TO APPROVAL OF A GRADING PLAN (OR ISSUANCE OF A GRADING PERMIT}, THE APPLICANT SHALL OBTAIN
WRITTEN APPROVAL TO PROCEED WITH CONSTRUCT/ON FROM THE AGUA CALIENTE BAND OF CAHUILLA IND/ANS
TRIBAL HISTORIC PRESERVATION OFFICER OR TRIBAL ARCHAEOLOGIST (A COPY OF THE WRITTEN APPROVAL MUST BE PROVIDED TO THE CITY} . THE APPLICANT SHALL CONTACT THE TRIBAL HISTORIC PRESERVA T/ON OFFICER OR THE TRIBAL ARCHAEOLOGIST AT [email protected] TO DETERMINE THEIR REQUIREMENTS, IF ANY, ASSOC/A TED WITH GRADING OR OTHER CONSTRUCT/ON. THE APPLICANT IS ADVISED TO CONTACT THE TRIBAL
HISTORIC PRESERVA T/ON OFFICER OR TRIBAL ARCHAEOLOGIST AS EARLY AS POSSIBLE. IF REQUIRED, IT IS THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE APPLICANT TO COORDINATE SCHEDULING
OF TRIBAL MONITORS DURING GRADING OR OTHER CONSTRUCT/ON, AND TO ARRANGE PAYMENT OF ANY REQUIRED FEES ASSOC/A TED WITH TRIBAL MONITORING.
ENG 16. IN ACCORDANCE WITH AN APPROVED PM-10 DUST CONTROL PLAN, TEMPORARY DUST CONTROL PERIMETER FENCING SHALL BE INSTALLED. FENCING SHALL HAVE SCREENING THAT IS TAN IN COLOR; GREEN SCREENING WILL NOT 8£ ALLOWED. TEMPORARY DUST CONTROL PERIMETER FENCING SHALL BE INSTALLED AFTER ISSUANCE OF GRADING PERMIT, AND IMMEDIATELY PRIOR TO COMMENCEMENT OF GRADING OPERA T/ONS.
ENG 17. TEMPORARY DUST CONTROL PERIMETER FENCE SCREENING SHALL BE APPROPRIATELY MAINTAINED, AS REQUIRED BY THE CITY ENGINEER. CUTS (VENTS} MADE INTO THE PERIMETER FENCE SCREENING SHALL NOT BE ALLOWED.
PERIMETER FENCING SHALL BE ADEQUATELY ANCHORED INTO THE GROUND TO RESIST WIND LOADING.
ENG 18. WITHIN 10 DAYS OF CEASING ALL CONSTRUCT/ON ACTIVITY AND WHEN CONSTRUCT/ON ACTIVITIES ARE NOT SCHEDULED TO OCCUR FOR AT LEAST 30 DAYS, THE DISTURBED AREAS ON-SITE SHALL BE PERMANENTLY STABILIZED, IN ACCORDANCE WITH PALM SPRINGS MUNICIPAL CODE SECTION 8.50.022. FOLLOWING
STAB/LIZA T/ON OF ALL DISTURBED AREAS, PERIMETER FENCING SHALL BE REMOVED AS REQUIRED BY THE CITY ENGINEER. '
ENG 19. PRIOR TO ISSUANCE OF GRADING PERMIT, THE APPLICANT SHALL PROVIDE VER/FICA T/ON TO THE CITY THAT THE
TRIBAL HABITAT CONSERVA T/ON PLAN (THCP) FEE HAS BEEN PAID TO THE AGUA CALIENTE BAND OF CAHUILLA IND/ANS IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE THCP.
ENG 20. A NOTICE OF INTENT (NOi) TO COMPLY WITH THE CALIFORNIA GENERAL CONSTRUCT/ON STORMWA TER PERMIT (WATER QUALITY ORDER 2009-0009-DWQ AS MODIFIED SEPTEMBER 2, 2009) IS REQUIRED FOR THE PROPOSED DEVELOPMENT VIA THE CALIFORNIA REGIONAL WATER QUALITY CONTROL BOARD ONLINE SMARTS SYSTEM. A COPY OF THE EXECUTED
LETTER ISSUING A WASTE DISCHARGE /DENT/FICA T/ON (WDID) NUMBER SHALL BE PROVIDED TO THE CITY ENGINEER PRIOR TO ISSUANCE OF A GRADING OR BUILDING PERMIT.
ENG 21. THIS PROJECT REQUIRES PREPARATION AND IMPLEMENTATION OF A STORMWATER POLLUTION PREVENT/ON PLAN (SWPPP). AS OF SEPTEMBER 4, 2012, ALL SWPPPS SHALL INCLUDE A POST-CONSTRUCT/ON MANAGEMENT PLAN (INCLUDING BEST MANAGEMENT PRACTICES) IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CURRENT CONSTRUCT/ON GENERAL PERMIT.
WHERE APPLICABLE, THE APPROVED FINAL PROJECT-SPECIFIC WATER QUALITY MANAGEMENT PLAN SHALL BE INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE OR ATTACHED TO THE SWPPP AS THE POST-CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT PLAN. A COPY OF THE UP-TO-DATE SWPPP SHALL BE KEPT AT THE PROJECT SITE AND BE AVAILABLE FOR REVIEW UPON REQUEST.
ENG 22. IN ACCORDANCE WITH CITY OF PALM SPRINGS MUNICIPAL CODE, SECTION 8.50.022 (H), THE APPLICANT SHALL POST WITH THE CITY A CASH BOND OF TWO THOUSAND DOLLARS ($2,000.00) PER DISTURBED ACRE (IF THERE IS DISTURBANCE OF 5,000 SQUARE FEET OR MORE) AT THE TIME OF ISSUANCE OF GRADING PERMIT FOR MITIGATION MEASURES FOR EROSION/BLOWSAND RELATING TO THIS PROPERTY AND DEVELOPMENT.
ENG 23. A GEOTECHNICAL/SO/LS REPORT PREPARED BY A CALIFORNIA REGISTERED GEOTECHNICAL ENGINEER SHALL BE REQUIRED FOR AND INCORPORATED AS AN INTEGRAL PART OF THE GRADING PLAN FOR THE PROPOSED DEVELOPMENT.
A COPY OF THE GEOTECHNICAL/SOILS REPORT SHALL BE SUBMITTED TO THE ENGINEERING SERVICES DEPARTMENT WITH THE FIRST SUBMITTAL OF A GRADING PLAN.
ENG 24. THE APPLICANT SHALL PROVIDE GRADING CERT/FICA T/ON FOR ALL BUILDING (OR STRUCTURE) PADS IN
CONFORMANCE WITH THE APPROVED GRADING PLAN TO THE ENGINEERING SERVICES DEPARTMENT FOR REVIEW AND APPROVAL PRIOR TO ISSUANCE OF BUILDING PERMITS.
ENG 25. IN COOPERATION WITH THE CALIFORNIA AGRICULTURAL COMMISSIONER AND THE CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF FOOD AND AGR/CUL TUR£ RED IMPORTED FIRE ANT PROJECT, APPLICANTS FOR GRADING PERMITS INVOLVING A GRADING
PLAN AND INVOLVING THE EXPORT OF SOIL WILL BE REQUIRED TO PRESENT A CLEARANCE DOCUMENT FROM A
DEPARTMENT OF FOOD AND AGRICULTURE REPRESENTATIVE IN THE FORM OF AN APPROVED NOTIFICATION OF INTENT
TO MOVE SOIL FROM OR WITHIN QUARANTINED AREAS OF ORANGE, RIVERSIDE, AND LOS ANGELES COUNT/ES (REVISED - RIFA FORM CA-1) PRIOR TO APPROVAL OF THE GRADING PLAN (IF REQUIRED). THE CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF FOOD AND AGRICULTURE OFFICE IS LOCATED AT 6819 EAST GAGE AVENUE, COMMERCE, CA 90040 (PHON£(760)782-3271,(562)505-6415),[email protected].
SHEET 3 OF 3 SHEETS
DRAINAGE
ENG 26. ALL STORMWATER RUNOFF PASSING THROUGH THE SITE SHALL BE ACCEPTED AND CONVEYED ACROSS THE PROPERTY IN A MANNER ACCEPTABLE TO THE CITY ENGINEER. FOR ALL STORMWATER RUNOFF FALLING ON THE SITE ON-SITE RETENTION OR OTHER FACILITIES APPROVED BY THE CITY ENGINEER SHALL BE REQUIRED TO CONTAIN THE.
INCREASED STORMWATER RUNOFF GENERATED BY THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE PROPERTY. PROVIDE A HYDROLOGY STUDY
TO DETERMINE THE VOLUME OF INCREASED STORMWA TER RUNOFF DUE TO DEVELOPMENT OF THE SITE, AND TO DETERMINE REQUIRED STORMWA TER RUNOFF MIT/GA T/ON MEASURES FOR THE PROPOSED DEVELOPMENT. FINAL RETENTION BASIN SIZING AND OTHER STORMWA TER RUNOFF MIT/GA T/ON MEASURES SHALL 8£ DETERMINED UPON
REVIEW AND APPROVAL OF THE HYDROLOGY STUDY BY THE CITY ENGINEER AND MAY REQUIRE REDESIGN OR CHANGES TO SITE CONFIGURA !ION OR LAYOUT CONSISTENT WITH THE FINDINGS OF THE FINAL HYDROLOGY STUDY. NO MORE THAN 40-50% OF THE STREET FRONTAGE PARKWAY/SETBACK AREAS SHOULD BE DESIGNED AS RETENTION BASINS.
ON-SITE OPEN SPACE, IN CONJUNCT/ON WITH DRY WELLS AND OTHER SUBSURFACE SOLUTIONS SHOULD BE CONSIDERED AS ALTERNATIVES TO USING LANDSCAPED PARKWAYS FOR ON-SITE RETENTION.
ENG 27. CONSTRUCT STORM DRAIN IMPROVEMENTS, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO CATCH BASINS, AND STORM
DRAIN LINES, FOR DRAINAGE OF ON-SITE STREETS INTO THE ONSITE UNDERGROUND RETENTION SYSTEM, AS DESCRIBED IN THE HYDROLOGY AND HYDRAULIC STUDY.
ENG 28. ALL ON-SITE STORM DRAIN SYSTEMS SHALL BE PRIVATELY MAINTAINED BY A HOMEOWNERS ASSOCIATION (HOA).
GENERAL
PROVISIONS FOR MAINTENANCE OF THE ONSITE STORM DRAIN SYSTEMS ACCEPTABLE TO THE CITY ENGINEER SHALL BE INCLUDED IN COVENANTS, CONDITIONS AND RESTRICTIONS (CC&RS) REQUIRED FOR THIS PROJECT.
ENG 29. ANY UTILITY TRENCHES OR OTHER EXCAVATIONS WITHIN EXISTING ASPHALT CONCRETE PAVEMENT OF OFF-SITE
STREETS REQUIRED BY THE PROPOSED DEVELOPMENT SHALL BE BACKFILLED AND REPAIRED IN ACCORDANCE WITH CITY OF PALM SPRINGS STANDARD DRAWING NO. 115.
ENG 30. ALL PROPOSED UTILITY LINES SHALL BE INSTALLED UNDERGROUND.
ENG 31. ALL EXISTING UT/LIT/ES SHALL BE SHOWN ON THE IMPROVEMENT PLANS IF REQUIRED FOR THE PROJECT. THE EXIST/NG AND PROPOSED SERVICE LATERALS SHALL BE SHOWN FROM THE MAIN LINE TO THE PROPERTY LINE.
ENG 32. UPON APPROVAL OF ANY IMPROVEMENT PLAN (IF REQUIRED) BY THE CITY ENGINEER, THE IMPROVEMENT PLAN SHALL
BE PROVIDED TO THE CITY IN DIGITAL FORMAT, CONSISTING OF A DWG ( AUTOCAD ORA WING FILETYPE) AND PDF (ADOBE ACROBAT DOCUMENT FILETYPE) FORMATS. VARIATION OF THE TYPE AND FORMAT OF THE DIGITAL DATA TO BE SUBMITTED TO THE CITY MAY BE AUTHORIZED, UPON PRIOR APPROVAL BY THE CITY ENGINEER.
MAP
ENG 33. THE ORIGINAL IMPROVEMENT PLANS PREPARED FOR THE PROPOSED DEVELOPMENT AND APPROVED BY THE CITY
ENGINEER (IF REQUIRED) SHALL BE DOCUMENTED WITH RECORD DRAWING AS-BUILT INFORMATION AND RETURNED TO THE ENGINEERING SERVICES DEPARTMENT PRIOR TO ISSUANCE OF A FINAL CERT/FICA TE OF OCCUPANCY. ANY
MOD/FICA T/ONS OR CHANGES TO APPROVED IMPROVEMENT PLANS SHALL BE SUBMITTED TO THE CITY ENGINEER FOR APPROVAL PRIOR TO CONSTRUCT/ON.
ENG 34. A PARCEL MAP SHALL BE PREPARED BY A CALIFORNIA REGISTERED LAND SURVEYOR OR QUALIFIED CIVIL ENGINEER AND SUBMITTED TO THE ENGINEERING SERVICES DEPARTMENT FOR REVIEW AND APPROVAL. A TITLE REPORT
PREPARED FOR SUBDIVISION GUARANTEE FOR THE SUBJECT PROPERTY, THE TRAVERSE CLOSURES FOR THE EXISTING
PARCEL AND ALL LOTS CREATED THEREFROM, AND COPIES OF RECORD
DOCUMENTS SHALL BE SUBMITTED WITH THE PARCEL MAP TO THE ENGINEERING SERVICES DEPARTMENT AS PART OF THE REVIEW OF THE MAP. THE PARCEL MAP SHALL BE APPROVED BY THE CITY COUNCIL PRIOR TO ISSUANCE OF BUILDING PERMITS.
ENG 35. IN ACCORDANCE WITH GOVERNMENT CODE 66411.1 (A), ALL REQUIRED PUBLIC IMPROVEMENTS SHALL BE LISTED IN
AN IMPROVEMENT CERTIFICATE ON THE PARCEL MAP AND CLEARLY NOTED THAT THE REQUIRED PUBLIC IMPROVEMENTS WILL BE THE MINIMUM DEVELOPMENT REQUIREMENTS FOR ANY PARCEL DEVELOPED OF TENTATIVE PARCEL MAP NO. 38526 SHALL BE COMPLETED PRIOR TO ISSUANCE OF A BUILDING PERMIT ON THE PARCEL, UNLESS OTHERWISE DEFERRED BY COVENANT.
ENG 36. THE APPLICANT SHALL PROVIDE A 40 FEET WIDE RECIPROCAL ACCESS EASEMENT WITH A HAMMERHEAD TURN AROUND AREA (EASEMENT SHALL BE FOR: ACCESS, EMERGENCY VEHICLES AND PERSONNEL AND UT/LIT/ES) FOR TENTA T/VE PARCEL MAP NO. 38526.
TRAmc
ENG 37. UPON APPROVAL OF A PARCEL MAP, THE PARCEL MAP SHALL BE PROVIDED TO THE CITY IN G./.S. DIGITAL FORMAT, CONSISTENT WITH THE GUIDELINES FOR G.I.S.
DIGITAL SUBMISSION FROM THE RIVERSIDE COUNTY TRANSPORTATION AND LAND MANAGEMENT AGENCY. G.I.S.
DIGITAL INFORMA T/ON SHALL CONSIST OF THE FOLLOWING DA TA: CALIFORNIA COORDINATE SYSTEM, CCS83 ZONE 6 (IN U.S. FEET}; MONUMENTS (ASCII DRAWING EXCHANGE FILE); LOT LINES, RIGHTS-OF-WAY, ANO CENTERLINES SHOWN AS CONTINUOUS LINES; FULL MAP ANNOTA T/ON CONSISTENT WITH ANNOTA T/ON SHOWN ON THE MAP; MAP NUMBER; AND MAP FILE NAME.
G.I.S. DATA FORMAT SHALL BE PROVIDED ON A CDROM/DVD CONTAINING THE FOLLOWING: ARCG/S GEODATABASE, ARCVIEW SHAPEFILE, ARCINFO COVERAGE OR EXCHANGE FILE, DWG (AUTOCAD 2004 DRAWING FILE), DGN (MICROSTAT/ON DRAWING FILE), DXF (AUTOCAD ASCII DRAWING EXCHANGE FILE), AND PDF (ADOBE ACROBAT 6.0 OR GREATER) FORMATS. VARIATIONS OF THE TYPE AND FORMAT OF G.I.S. DIGITAL DATA TO BE SUBMITTED TO THE CITY MAY BE AUTHORIZED, UPON PRIOR APPROVAL OF THE CITY ENGINEER.
ENG 38. CONSTRUCTION SIGNING, LIGHTING AND BARRICADING SHALL BE PROVIDED DURING ALL PHASES OF CONSTRUCT/ON AS REQUIRED BY CITY STANDARDS OR AS DIRECTED BY THE CITY ENGINEER. AS A MINIMUM, ALL CONSTRUCT/ON SIGNING, LIGHTING AND BARRICADING SHALL 8£ IN ACCORDANCE WITH PART 6 TEMPORARY TRAFFIC CONTROL OF THE CALIFORNIA MANUAL ON UNIFORM TRAmc CONTROL DEVICES (CAMUTCD), DATED NOVEMBER 7, 2014, OR SUBSEQUENT EDITIONS IN FORCE AT THE TIME OF CONSTRUCT/ON.
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Item 1G - Page 13
RESOLUTION NO. _____
A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF
PALM SPRINGS, CALIFORNIA, APPROVING PARCEL MAP
38526 WITH 0 WEST CIRCLE DRIVE, LLC, A CALIFORNIA
LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY, FOR PROPERTY
LOCATED AT THE NORTH SIDE OF ACANTO DRIVE
SOUTH (APN 512-220-014), IN SECTION 35, TOWNSHIP 4
SOUTH, RANGE 4 EAST.
WHEREAS, the Planning Commission of the City of Palm Springs, at its meeting of September 13, 2023, recommended approval of Tentative Parcel Map 38526, subject to conditions; and
WHEREAS, the Subdivider has filed with the City a final map for Tentative Parcel Map 38526, identified as Parcel Map 38526, in accordance with Section 66458 of the California Government Code; and
WHEREAS, the Subdivider, has offered dedication to the City of Palm Springs public use easements for public utility and sewer purposes together with the right of ingress and egress for service and emergency vehicles and personnel.
THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PALM SPRINGS DOES HEREBY RESOLVE AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1.
Parcel Map 38526 is in substantial conformance with the approved Tentative Parcel Map 38526.
SE
CTION 2. Parcel Map 38526 is in conformance with the General Plan SE
CTION 3. Parcel Map 38526 conforms to all requirements of the Subdivision Map Act of the State of California.
SE
CTION 4. In accordance with Section 66477.1 of the California Government Code, the offers to the public of public use easements for public utility and sewer purposes together with the right of ingress and egress for service and emergency vehicles and personnel on Parcel Map 38 526 shall be accepted by the City Clerk, subject to improvement, who shall certify acceptance by signature on the map thereof.
SE
CTION 5. Parcel Map 38526 is hereby approved for purposes therein defined.
ADO
PTED THIS 24TH DAY OF OCTOBER, 2024.
Item 1G - Page 14
Resolution No. _____
SCOTT C. STILES
CITY MANAGER, CITY OF PALM SPRINGS
ATTEST:
BRENDA PREE
CITY CLERK, CITY OF PALM SPRINGS
Item 1G - Page 15
Resolution No. _____
CERTIFICATION
STATE OF CALIFORNIA )
COUNTY OF RIVERSIDE ) ss.
CITY OF PALM SPRINGS )
I, Brenda Pree, City Clerk of the City of Palm Springs, hereby certify that Resolution No. ____ is a full, true and correct copy, and was duly adopted at a regular meeting of the City Council of the City of Palm Springs on October 24, 2024, by the following vote:
AYES:
NOES:
ABSENT:
ABSTAIN:
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand and affixed the official seal of the City of Palm Springs, California, this ______ day of ______________, _________.
BRENDA PREE
CITY CLERK, CITY OF PALM SPRINGS
Item 1G - Page 16
CITY COUNCIL STAFF REPORT
DATE: OCTOBER 24, 2024 CONSENT CALENDAR
SUBJECT: APPROVAL OF A COOPERATIVE AGREEMENT WITH RIVERSIDE
UNIVERSITY HEALTH SYSTEM FOR THE PROVISION OF
CRISIS/TRIAGE BEHAVIORAL HEALTH SERVICES
FROM: Scott C. Stiles, City Manager
BY: Flinn Fagg, Deputy City Manager
SUMMARY:
This is a request for approval of a cooperative agreement (Agreement) with Riverside University Health System (RUHS) for the provision of clinical therapist services as part of a Community Behavioral Assessment Team (CBAT). Per the proposed agreement, a clinical therapist provided by RUHS will be teamed with a sworn police officer to respond to substance abuse and mental health crisis calls for service. The City would pay for the clinical therapist with opioid settlement funds received from the State of California ; the cost for the therapist will be $140,795 per year for the initial period of the agreement.
RECOMMENDATION:
1. Approve a cooperative agreement with Riverside University Health System for crisis/triage behavioral health services in the amount of $140,795 per year for a period of up to three years.
2. Authorize the City Manager to execute all necessary documents.
BACKGROUND:
The State of California has received settlement funds as the result of a lawsuits with manufacturers, distributers, and pharmacies to resolve their liabilities in the opioid crisis.
The City of Palm Springs has received $324,256 in opioid settlement funds to date from the state, which are required to be used primarily for opioid abatement. The City will receive an additional $93,000 in settlement funds in 2025, and then will receive annual payments varying from approximately $47,400 to $68,800 between 2026 and 2038 based on the information currently available from the State.
At the City Council meeting of February 8, 2024, staff presented various options for use of the settlement funds. City Council directed staff to investigate additional options for Item 1H - Page 1
City Council Staff Report
October 24, 2024 -- Page 2
Riverside University Health System Agreement
consideration. A staff workgroup was formed to assist in vetting various program options, including representatives of the Police Department, Fire Department, Housing & Community Development Department, and the City Manager’s Office. GIS staff from the IT Department assisted the workgroup with data analysis and mapping to better understand the calls for service related to opioid use.
As part of the research, the workgroup identified three key areas of focus for potential use of the funding: Immediate harm reduction programs, education and prevention activities, and long-term support. The group then investigated and researched various programs implemented by other municipalities and activities related to each of the focus areas. In doing this research, the workgroup met with and interviewed representatives from area health organizations that provide services related to opioid use and addiction. These include DAP Health, Desert Healthcare District, OneFuture, Riverside County EMS Agency, Riverside University Health System, and others. Based on this research and investigation, the workgroup recommends entering into an agreement with R iverside University Health Sy stem (RUHS) to provide clinical therapist services as part of a Community Behavioral Assessment Team (CBAT). The workgroup may recommend additional programs for implementation at a future date based on the amount of opioid funding available.
STAFF ANALYSIS:
The proposed Agreement with RUHS will provide a clinical therapist, partnered with a sworn City police officer, to respond to substance abuse and associated mental health crisis calls. This particular crisis response model, referred to as a Clinical Behavioral Assessment Team (CBAT), was first implemented in Riverside County with the Riverside Police Department; the City of Hemet and City of Indio have since partnered with RUHS to provide CBAT services.
Per the Agreement, the City would be responsible for paying the costs of the clinical therapist position, with RUHS interviewing and hiring the therapist. The cost to the City would be $140,795 per year ; the term of the agreement is for a period of one year and may be renewed annually upon mutual consent by the City and RUHS. The Schedule of Reimbursement in the draft agreement guarantees the $140,795 salary cost for the first three years that the agreement is in force. Should the City wish to continue the agreement beyond three years, staff would need to enter into negotiations with RUHS regarding the future salary cost and bring an amended agreement back to the City Council for approval.
In terms of how the CBAT will function, the clinical therapist will be paired with a sworn City police officer for four 10- hour shifts per week. The shifts will be scheduled for the days of the week when the calls for service are the heaviest, based on the data that has been collected by the Fire Department and Police Department over the past four years.
The team will respond to opioid- related calls for service and may also be available to respond to related mental health crises. When not responding to calls, the team would perform follow-up case work with individuals who have previously received services. In Item 1H - Page 2
City Council Staff Report
October 24, 2024 -- Page 3
Riverside University Health System Agreement
addition, the clinical therapist would be available to provide consultation to other police officers responding to behavioral health c risis situations. The clinical therapist, as a County employee, would have access to County services that would benefit the individuals served by the CBAT, such as hospitalization, outpatient services, emergency housing, substance use treatment, and other supportive services. Other services provided by the clinical therapist and general duties are outlined in Attachment 1 to the Agreement.
In addition to outlining the clinical therapist responsibilities and scope of service, the Agreement includes standard provisions including insurance requirements, payment procedures, amendment and termination provisions, and indemnification requirements.
As previously noted, the agreement if for a period of one year, and may be extended in one-year increments if mutually agreeable to the City and RUHS.
If the Agreement with RUHS is approved, the staff workgroup will develop metrics to determine the effectiveness of the CBAT approach to combating opioid addiction.
Utilizing local data maintained by Riverside County and data that is tracked relative to calls for service by the Palm Springs Fire Department and Police Department , the workgroup is hopeful that this information will be helpful in demonstrating if the CBAT approach is reducing the impact of opioids on the community.
ALIGNMENT WITH STRATEGIC PLANNING:
The C
BAT program aligns with strategic goal “1B – Crime Reduction,” through providing services to address substance abuse and related mental health issues.
FISCAL IMPACT:
The C
ity of Palm Springs has received $324,256 in opioid settlement funds to date and will continue to receive annual funding through at least 2038. This funding will be sufficient to cover the costs of the clinical therapist through an initial three -year term of the agreement. Should staff determine that it is beneficial to continue the clinical therapist services beyond the initial period, an amendment to the agreement will be brought forward for consideration by the City Council.
REVIEWED BY:
Deputy City Manager: Flinn Fagg
City Manager: Scott Stiles
ATTACHMENTS:
A. Dra
ft Agreement with RUHS
Item 1H - Page 3
ATTACHMENT A
Item 1H - Page 4
55575.18110\42701593.1
COOPERATIVE AGREEMENT
BETWEEN
COUNTY OF RIVERSIDE
RIVERSIDE UNIVERSITY HEALTH SYSTEM - BEHAVIORAL HEALTH
AND
THE CITY OF PALM SPRINGS
FOR CRISIS/TRIAGE BEHAVIORAL HEALTH SERVICES
THIS COOPERATIVE AGREEMENT (“ AGREEMENT”) is entered into by and between the County of Riverside , Riverside University Health System - Behavioral Health (hereinafter “RUHS-BH”), the City of Palm Springs (hereinafter “CITY ”), a California charter city and municipal corporation, through the City of Palm Springs Police Department (hereinafter “PALM SPRINGS PD”) and is based on the following representations and statements of purpose (collectively “Parties” and each a “Party”).
WHEREAS, the purpose and intent of the Community Behavioral Assessment Team, is to allow Behavioral Health Service Staff to team with Law Enforcement and respond to 9-1-1 calls involving behavioral health issues; and
WHEREAS PALM SPRINGS PD provides all law enforcement services in the City of Palm Springs and has control of law enforcement operations;
WHEREAS, CITY and PALM SPRINGS PD desires to enter into a Cooperative Agreement for Community Behavioral Assessment Team;
WHEREAS, CITY and PALM SPRINGS PD desires to enter into this Community Behavioral Assessment Team program in order to decrease adverse incidents in volving behaviorally ill people;
WHEREAS, RUHS-BH, CITY and PALM SPRINGS PD desire to enter into the program detailed in this Cooperative Agreement;
WHEREAS, RUHS -BH is qualified to provide crisis/triage behavioral health service employees; and
WHEREAS, the AGREEMENT will serve as an understanding of the roles, responsibilities and services to be provided by CITY, PALM SPRINGS PD and RUHS-BH.
NOW, THEREFORE, Parties mutually agree as follows:
I.
SCOPE OF SERVICE
The purpose of the AGREEMENT between Parties is to outline the roles and duties of these agencies to provide crisis/triage behavioral health and homeless outreach services.
Item 1H - Page 5
Cooperative Agreement Between RUHS-BH and City of Palm Springs-PALM SPRINGS PD Crisis Triage Behavioral Health Services
FY 2024/25
II. PROGRAM GOALS
A. Provide alternatives to those at risk of injury or death without approp riate behavioral health/substance use crisis/triage services provided directly in the community in collaboration with local law enforcement.
B. Reduce jail incarcerations and involuntary Behavioral Health treatment/hospitalizations for individuals whose behavior is influenced by a behavioral health disorder/crisis and who are the subject of 9-1-1 calls.
C. Attempt to divert individuals with behavioral health ( behavioral health and/or substance use) problems into appropriate community services and supports.
D. Engage hard-to-reach homeless who suffer from a serious behavioral illness and/or substance use disorder and link them to all available RUHS -BH and community resources in a coordinated and effective manner.
III. DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
A. RUHS-BH RESPONSIBILITIES
The duties and responsibilities of RUHS-BH are set forth in Attachment 1, attached hereto and incorporated herein by reference.
B. PALM SPRINGS PD RESPONSIBILITIES
The duties and responsibilities of PALM SPRINGS PD are set forth in Attachment 1, attached hereto and incorporated herein by reference.
IV.
FISCAL PROVISIONS
A. MAXIMUM AMOUNT AND SOURCE OF FUNDS
Total payment to be funded by CITY under this AGREEMENT shall not exceed $140,795 for the program period of July 1, 2024 through June 30, 2025 as outlined in Attachment 1. This AGREEMENT shall be funded through funds identified in the annual City of Palm Springs and RUHS-BH budgets and is subject to change dependent on funding fluctuations.
B.
COMPENSATION
RUHS-BH shall bill CITY for one (1) Clinical Therapist II (CT II) position, but in no event shall compensation for the Clinical Therapist Position and services exceed the amounts as outlined under Attachment A- Schedule of Reimbursement for the relevant fiscal year during the term (“Compensation Cap”) of the agreement.
1. Salaries and Benefits
Salaries and benefits for the CT II position shall be billed based on the actual cost of filled position only.
C.
REIMBURSEMENT/PAYMENT/COMPENSATION
RUHS-BH shall compile all payments made to fund the CT II positions by quarter and shall include them in the quarterly billing to be received by CITY within forty-five (45) days following the end of the quarter in which the services were provided (i.e., First Quarter: July—September billing is due November 15th). If actuals are not available, an estimated billing if necessary will be submitted. Upon submission, CITY will pay Item 1H - Page 6
Cooperative Agreement Between RUHS-BH and City of Palm Springs-PALM SPRINGS PD Crisis Triage Behavioral Health Services
FY 2024/25
the estimated invoice and an adjustment will be made by RUHS-BH on the subsequent quarter’s billing for the difference. CITY will reimburse RUHS -BH within 30 days after receipt of the invoice.
Equipment purchased by either Party will remain that Party’s separate property and shall be returned to the owning Party upon termination of this AGREEMENT.
D. If in subsequent terms of this AGREEMENT, the Parties desire to provide for such reimbursement, it shall be done through an amendment to this AGREEMENT signed by both Parties.
V.
GENERAL PROVISIONS
A. EFFECTIVE PERIOD
This AGREEMENT shall be effectiv e for one (1 ) year beginning July 1, 2024 and ending June 30, 2025. This AGREEMENT may be renewed annually upon mutual consent by both parties in writing and upon availability of funding.
B. ALTERATION OF TERMS AND ENTIRE AGREEMENT
The body of this AGREEMENT fully expresses all understanding of the parties concerning all matters covered and shall constitute the total AGREEMENT. No addition to, or alteration of, the terms of this AGREEMENT, whether by written or verbal understanding of the parties, their officers, agents, or employees, shall be valid unless made in the form of a written amendment to this AGREEMENT , which is formally approved and executed by Parties.
C.
AMENDMENTS
In the event that either Party desires to amend the terms of this AGREEMENT, Parties will comply with the terms of this AGREEMENT until such time as the amendment is approved or formal action is taken by t he County of Riverside Board of Supervisors and the Palm Springs City Council.
D. TERMINATION
This AGREEMENT may be terminated by either Party by giving 30 days written notice by certified mail of intention to terminate, such period beginning upon receipt of notice, and may be terminated for cause, such as a willful and/or material breach of the AGREEMENT by either Party by giving five (5) days written notice of intention to terminate by certified mail.
E.
NOTICES
Unless the persons or addresses are otherwise identified by notice given in the manner specified by this paragraph, all notices shall be deemed effective when they are reduced to writing and deposited in the United States mail, postage prepaid, and address ed as above. Any notices, correspondences, reports, and/or statements authorized or required by this AGREEMENT addressed in any other fashion shall not be acceptable. All notices, claims correspondence, reports, and/or statements authorized or required by this AGREEMENT shall be addressed as follows:
Item 1H - Page 7
Cooperative Agreement Between RUHS-BH and City of Palm Springs-PALM SPRINGS PD Crisis Triage Behavioral Health Services
FY 2024/25
RUHS-BH: County of Riverside
Riverside University Health System - Behavioral Health
Program Support Unit
4095 County Circle Drive
Riverside, CA 92503
CITY: City of Palm Springs
Office of the City Manager
3200 E. Tahquitz Canyon Way
Palm Springs, CA 92262
F.
CONFIDENTIALITY
PALM SPRINGS PD and RUHS-BH agree to maintain the confidentiality of all behavioral health and substance use client information in accordance with all applicable Federal, State and local laws and regulations. PALM SPRINGS PD and RUHS-BH will ensure that names, addresses, phone numbers, and any other individually identifiable information concerning behavioral health and/or substance use clients and the services they may be receiving are kept confidential. PALM SPRINGS PD and RUHS-BH will not divulge any behavioral health and/or substance use client information to any unauthorized person.
PALM SPRINGS PD and RUHS-BH shall maintain the confidentiality of all behavioral health and substance use health records that it maintains, receives, or sends to RUHS-BH. Records include, but may not be limited to, claims that include individual identifying client information, individually identifiable health records and information, and/or Management Information System records. PALM SPRINGS PD and RUHS-BH shall have reasonable safeguards in place to prevent unauthorized access to records.
Applicable Confidentiality Laws include, but may not be limited to, California Welfare & Institutions Code, Sections 5328 through 5330, inclusive, 45 CFR Section 205.50, 42 CFR-Chapter 1-Part 2. PALM SPRINGS PD and RUHS-BH shall require all its officers, employees, and agents providing services hereunder to acknowledge the understanding of and agreement to fully comply with, such confidentiality provisions.
PALM SPRINGS PD and RUHS-BH shall indemnify and hold harmless RUHS -BH, its officers, employees, and agents, from and against any and all loss, damage, liability, and expense arising from any disclosure of such records and information by PALM SPRINGS PD and RUHS-BH, respectively, or their respective officers, employees, or agents.
RUHS-BH agrees to maintain the confidentiality of all criminal and law enforcement information in accordance with all applicable Federal, State and local laws and regulations. RUHS -BH will ensure that names, addresses, phone numbers, and any other individually identifiable information concerning criminal violations and related law enforcement activities they may be receiving are kept confidential. RUHS-BH will not divulge PALM SPRINGS PD confidential information to any unauthorized person.
Item 1H - Page 8
Cooperative Agreement Between RUHS-BH and City of Palm Springs-PALM SPRINGS PD Crisis Triage Behavioral Health Services
FY 2024/25
RUHS-BH shall maintain the confidentiality of all behavioral health and substance use health records that it maintains, receives, or sends to PALM SPRINGS PD. Records include, but may not be limited to, claims that include individual identifying client information, individually identifiable health records and information, and/or Management Information System records. RUHS-BH shall have reasonable safeguards in place to prevent unauthorized access to records.
VI.
MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS
A. SEVERABILITY:
If any provision in this AGREEMENT is held by a court of competent jurisdiction to be invalid, void or unenforceable, the remaining provisions will nevertheless continue in full force without being impaired or invalidated in any way.
B. HOLD HARMLESS-INDEPENDENT PARTNER
:
It is understood and agreed that all parties are independent entities and that no relationship of employer -employee exists between the parties hereto. PALM SPRINGS PD and its employees shall not be entitled to any benefits payable to employees of the County of Riverside or RUHS -BH, including County W orkers’ Compensation Benefits. RUHS-BH is not required to make any deductions from the compensation payable to PALM SPRINGS PD under the provisions of this AGREEMENT. BUHS -BH and its employees shall not be entitled to any benefits payable to employees of the CITY or PALM SPRINGS PD, including Workers’ Compensation Benefits. A s independent entit ies, CITY, PALM SPRINGS PD and RUHS-BH hereby hold one another and/or the County of Riverside harmless from any and all claims that may be made against RUHS-BH, PALM SPRINGS PD, the CITY, and/or County of Riverside, or any of their respective employees, based upon any contention that an employer -employee relationship exists by reason of this AGREEMENT.
C. INSURANCE-INDEMNIFICATION:
Each Party hereto agrees to indemnify and hold harmless the other Party , its agency, officers, agents and employees, free and harmless from any liability whatsoever, including wrongful death, based or asserted upon any acts or omission of such Indemnifying Party, relating to or in any way connected with or arising from the accomplishment of the work by the Indemnifying Party.
Each Party further agrees to protect, indemnify and defend at it expense including attorney fees, the other Party, its agency officers, agents and employees in any legal action(s) or claim(s) based upon such alleged acts or omissions whether the subject action(s) or claim(s) are well-founded, properly filed or pleaded, or not commenced in a court of competent jurisdiction.
Without limiting such indemnification, each Party shall maintain in force at all times during the performance of this AGREEMENT, insurance policies evidencing coverage during the entire term of the AGREEMENT as follows:
1. General liability insurance in the amount of not less than $1,000,000 per occurrence and aggregate.
Item 1H - Page 9
Cooperative Agreement Between RUHS-BH and City of Palm Springs-PALM SPRINGS PD Crisis Triage Behavioral Health Services
FY 2024/25
2. Workers’ Compensation insurance in accordance with statutory requirements.
3. If motor vehicles are used pursuant to this AGREEMENT, not less than $1,000,000 combined single limit for damage to property and injury to persons.
These requirements may be met by a program of self-insurance.
D. RECORD RETENTION
:
RUHS-BH agrees to retain all records pertaining to this AGREEMENT for a period of ten years after termination of this AGREEMENT, or such federal and state provisions in effect. If, at the end of three years, there is ongoing litigation or an audit involving those records, RUHS-BH shall retain the original records until the resolution o f such litigation or audit; PALM SPRINGS PD shall retain copies of the records until the resolution of such litigation or audit.
E. JURISDICTION, VENUE, ATTORNEY’S FEES
:
This AGREEMENT is to be construed under the laws of the State of California. The parties agree to the jurisdiction and venue of the appropriate courts in the County of Riverside, State of California. Should action be brought to enforce or interpret the provisions of this AGREEMENT, the prevailing Party shall be entitled to attorney’s fees in addition to whatever other relief is granted.
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/
Item 1H - Page 10
Cooperative Agreement Between RUHS-BH and City of Palm Springs-PALM SPRINGS PD Crisis Triage Behavioral Health Services
FY 2024/25
SIGNATORIES
RUHS-BH, CITY and PALM SPRINGS PD mutually agree to fully and faithfully perform all applications set forth in this AGREEMENT. Both parties agree to have their duly authorized signatories sign this AGREEMENT.
Signed:
Chairperson
Riverside County Board of Supervisors
Title:
Date: Date:
ATTORNEY:
COUNTY COUNSEL:
Approved as to Form Approved as to Form
By: By:
Attorney Deputy County Counsel
Item 1H - Page 11
Cooperative Agreement Between RUHS-BH and City of Palm Springs-PALM SPRINGS PD Crisis Triage Behavioral Health Services
FY 2024/25
ATTACHMENT 1
A. RUHS-BH RESPONSIBILITIES
1. RUHS-BH will provide one (1) full time Clinical Therapist to work with PALM SPRINGS PD.
2. RUHS-BH Staff will work directly with police officers on patrol and with police department administrators to bring direct knowledge and experience regarding behavioral health resources.
3. All assigned RUHS -BH Staff will be required to pass a basic civilian security background clearance as determined by PALM SPRINGS PD.
4. RUHS-BH Staff shall be required to adhere to dress code requirements as specified by PALM SPRINGS PD for Community Behavioral Assessment Team members.
5. RUHS-BH shall furnish polo shirts and light jackets with logos or insignia as approved by PALM SPRINGS PD.
6. RUHS-BH will provide Behavioral Health Staff with cell phones that have e-mail functionality.
7. RUHS-BH Information Technology (IT) Staff will coordinate IT installation of RUHS-BH Electronic Management of Records database and e- mail with PALM SPRINGS PD IT Staff.
8. RUHS-BH Staff will routinely attend PALM SPRINGS PD daily roll calls in order to provide consultation and brief training as it is identified and requested by PALM SPRINGS PD.
9. RUHS-BH Staff will routinely be assigned by PALM SPRINGS PD to ride with patrol officers in the field in order to respond to 9-1-1 calls as requested by PALM SPRINGS PD Dispatch.
10. RUHS-BH Staff will work to find alternatives to divert behavioral health consumers into BH services and supports including emergency housing, hospitalization, outpatient BH services and other BH support services.
11. RUHS-BH Staff will provide alternatives to incarceration and arrest through referral and linkage to other community based behavioral health, substance use (SU), and/or social services resources.
12. RUHS-BH Staff will provide alternatives to behavioral health involuntary treatment through referral and linkage to other community based BH/SU and social services resources.
Item 1H - Page 12
Cooperative Agreement Between RUHS-BH and City of Palm Springs-PALM SPRINGS PD Crisis Triage Behavioral Health Services
FY 2024/25
13. RUHS-BH Staff will provide crisis intervention service planning for individuals with behavioral health issues who are frequently the subject of 9-1-1 calls.
14. RUHS-BH Staff will work directly with police to improve the appropriateness and quality of behavioral health detentions.
15. RUHS-BH Staff will work with police to provide direct intervention from the perspective of behavioral health background and training.
16. RUHS-BH Staff will provide engagement and outreach services to homeless behaviorally ill persons who come in contact with police officers.
17. RUHS-BH Staff will provide assistance in dealing with calls involving domestic disturbances or violence that involve potent ial behaviorally ill or substance use consumers. RUHS -BH Staff will provide assistan ce and support to children and families in crisis, and linkage to appropriate community services.
18. RUHS-BH Staff working within the Police Department will have computer and telephone access, RUHS-BH enrollment, and service contact information to utilize and assist enrolled clients and police officers responding to 5150 calls.
19. When direct services with police patrol officers are not needed, RUHS -BH Staff will remain at the police department offices and will provide consultation in-person, by telephone or radio for police officers responding to behavioral health crisis situations.
20. Police officers often go to locations where homeless persons congregate. RUHS - BH Staff will go with police to work with homeless people where they congregate in order to identify and engage persons that may be eligible for RUHS-BH services and/or to facilitate referrals and linkage to community resources tha t may assist general population and homeless persons. RUHS-BH Staff will coordinate follow- up outreach with RUHS -BH Homeless Outreach Teams and/or City of Palm Springs Homeless Outreach Teams as needed. RUHS -BH Staff will work in the office to arrange social service supports and coordinate services with other agencies and programs.
21. RUHS-BH Staff will coordinate with jail incarceration diversion teams and programs including behavioral health and drug courts to intervene and help to divert persons with a serious behavioral health disorder into appropriate and recommended BH treatment services and supports, and per sons with impairing substance use disorders into substance abuse treatment services and supports.
22. RUHS-BH Staff may work directly with RUHS-BH Detention Behavioral Health Staff to coordinate BH /SU services and assist with issues involving inmates detained through PALM SPRINGS PD in post -booking, pre -trial diversion and linkage to community resources upon release from incarceration.
Item 1H - Page 13
Cooperative Agreement Between RUHS-BH and City of Palm Springs-PALM SPRINGS PD Crisis Triage Behavioral Health Services
FY 2024/25
23. RUHS-BH Staff may work with other behavioral health crisis response services involving 9-1- 1 calls, such as training and support to ambulance emergency medical technicians and Riverside Fire Department (RFD) paramedics Palm Springs Fire Department paramedics/emergency medical technicians.
24. RUHS-BH Staff will compile public information brochures regarding police/ BH collaboration, contact information and phone numbers for community resources and referrals, and Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs).
25. RUHS-BH staff shall perform other duties as agreed upon by both parties.
B. CITY RESPONSIBILITIES
CITY shall be responsible for payment of the amounts as outlined under Attachment A – Schedule of Reimbursement.
C. PALM SPRINGS PD RESPONSIBILITIES
1. PALM SPRINGS PD will assign law enforcement personnel and RUHS-BH Staff to respond to requests for assistance in the field.
2. Work stations at each of the PALM SPRINGS PD substations that RUHS-BH Staff will be assigned with computers and Internet access.
3. Each Staff member will need general access Honeywell cards into PALM SPRINGS PD Police Stations as identified by PALM SPRINGS PD.
4. PALM SPRINGS PD IT Staff will coordinate IT installations with RUHS -BH IT, this includes compliance with Federal HIPAA required level of security and providing RUHS-BH Staff with a City of Palm Springs e-mail account.
5. PALM SPRINGS PD will conduct security background investigations for designated RUHS-BH Staff and maintain the confidential records of the investigation outcomes.
6. PALM SPRINGS PD shall provide a ballistic vest to RUHS-BH liaison/Staff.
7. PALM SPRINGS PD will provide training, based on a curriculum developed and approved by RUHS-BH, regarding field operations and safety.
8. PALM SPRINGS PD staff shall perform other duties as agreed upon between by both parties.
Item 1H - Page 14
Cooperative Agreement Between RUHS-BH and City of Palm Springs-PALM SPRINGS PD Crisis Triage Behavioral Health Services
FY 2024/25
ATTACHMENT A
Schedule of Reimbursement from City of Palm Springs Payable to RUHS-BH:
FY24/25 FY25/26 FY26/27 Total
Palm Springs PD $140,795 $140,795 $140,795 $422,385
Total Costs $140,795 $140,795 $140,795 $422,385
Item 1H - Page 15
CITY COUNCIL STAFF REPORT
DATE: O CTOBER 24, 2024 PUBLIC HEARING
SUBJECT: A N APPLICATION BY SCOTT P. TIMBERLAKE AND ANNE KRIZMAN ,
REPRESENTED BY THE PALM SPRINGS PRESERVATION
FOUNDATION, FOR HISTORIC SITE DESIGNATION OF THE MERRILL LYNCH BUILDING LOCATED AT 415 SOUTH PALM CANYON (APN 513- 213-001), CASE HSPB #160
FROM: Scott C. Stiles, City Manager
BY: Department of Planning Services
SUMMARY:
Originally constructed as a financial institution for Merrill Lynch, the commercial property located at 415 South Palm Canyon has been the Eisenhower Health Center since 2014.
Constructed in 1971, the building was designed in the New Formalist style by master architect Donald Wexler. During this period, Palm Springs experienced a level of growth and prosperity that became evident in the built environment. This site is in close proximity to other prominent financial institutions of historic significance.
If designated as a historic resource, the property would be subject to the regulations outlined in Section 8.05 of the Palm Springs Municipal Code (PSMC).
The HSPB and staff evaluated the application in accordance with the historic designation ordinance and applicable state/federal regulations, and determined it qualifies as a Class 1 (Landmark) historic site.
RECOMMENDATION:
1. Open the public hearing and receive public testimony.
2. Close the public hearing and adopt Resolution No . _____, “A RESOLUTION OF
THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PALM SPRINGS, CALIFORNIA, DESIGNATING THE MERRILL LYNCH BUILDING LOCATED AT 415 SOUTH PALM CANYON, AS A CLASS 1 (LANDMARK) HISTORIC RESOURCE HSPB #160, SUBJECT TO CONDITIONS (APN 513-213-001).”
Item 2A - Page 1
City Council Staff Report
October 24, 2024 – Page 2
Historic Designation – The Merrill Lynch Building
BACKGROUND AND SETTING:
The attached historic resources report , prepared by Palm Springs Preservation Foundation (PSPF) (“the report”), and site visits are the basis of this staff report.
Related Relevant City Actions by HSPB, Planning, Fire, Building, etc.
August 2024 Site inspection by members of the HSPB and City Staff.
September 3, 2024 HSPB considered the application for designation at a public hearing recommending Class 1 designation.
Ownership Status
November 2021 Purchased by current owners.
415 S. PALM CANYON, EAST (FRONT) ELEVATION, 2024.
The historic designation request was initiated by the building owner and the historic resources report supports the reclassification of the site as a Class 1 landmark. Staff and the HSPB agree with the findings in the report and recommend Class 1 designation.
ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS:
The analysis of the application relative to the criteria for the designation of historic resources is detailed in the attached HSPB resolution and staff report dated September 3, 2024. In order to be designated a historic landmark, a resource must exhibit exceptional historic significance and meet one or more of the criteria listed in PSMC Section
8.05.070.C.1.a. The Board made findings in support of Class 1 ( Landmark) designation based on the following criteria:
Item 2A - Page 2
City Council Staff Report
October 24, 2024 – Page 3
Historic Designation – The Merrill Lynch Building
PSMC 8.05.070, (C,1,Part a). The site, structure, building, or object exhibits exceptional historic significance and meets one or more of the criteria listed below:
(Criterion iii) The resource reflects or exemplifies a particular period of national, state, or local history;
(Criterion v) The resource presents the work of a master builder, designer, artist, or architect whose individual genius influenced his age, or that possesses high artistic value;
The Board also made findings pursuant to PSMC 8.05.070, (5,C,1,Part b); “Historic Integrity” that the Merrill Lynch Building possesses sufficient historic integrity to qualify as a Class 1 (Landmark) historic site.
During the September 3, 2024 HSPB meeting, the Board discussed the application and made the finding for Class 1 historic site designation. Member Hansen and Member Herr presented questions regarding the existing trees on the site and in the right -of-way.
Steven Keylon responded to questions regarding the landscape design and commented on the successful adaptive reuse of the building, which was overseen by Wexler. Public comment by Michelle Johnson spoke in favor of the designation.
Member Hansen presented the motion with amendments to include the mature olive trees and California fan palms as character -defining features, to remove the palm trees in the right-of-way from the same list, and to include details regarding the significance of the financial district during the post-World War II period under criterion 3.
CONCLUSION:
The Merrill Lynch Building meets the definition of a historic resource based on Criterion 3 and 5 of the Palm Springs Historic Preservation Ordinance. The property possesses integrity to qualify as a Class 1 ( Landmark) site. The HSPB recommendation to the City Council reflects these findings which are outlined in the attached draft City Council resolution.
ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT:
The proposed historic resource designation is not subject to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) pursuant to Sections 15060(c)(2) (the activity will not result in a direct or reasonably foreseeable indirect physical change in the environment) and 15060(c)(3) (the activity is not a project as defined in Section 15378) of the CEQA Guidelines, California Code of Regulations, Title 14, Chapter 3, because it has no potential for resulting in physical changes to the environment, directly or indirectly.
Item 2A - Page 3
City Council Staff Report
October 24, 2024 – Page 4
Historic Designation – The Merrill Lynch Building
NOTIFICATION:
Pursuant to Section 94.09.00 (Public Hearing) of the Palm Springs Zoning Code, notice has been mailed to all property owners and residents within five hundred (500) feet of the subject property and notice was published in a newspaper of general circulation.
FISCAL IMPACT:
None.
REVIEWED BY:
Department Director: Christopher Hadwin
Deputy City Manager: Flinn Fagg
City Manager: Scott Stiles
ATTACHMENTS:
A. Vicinity Map.
B. Draft Resolution.
C. Application, related background materials, photos.
D. HSPB resolution, staff report, minute excerpt.
Item 2A - Page 4
ATTACHMENT A
Item 2A - Page 5
Department of Planning Services
Vicinity Map
CITY OF PALM SPRINGS
HSPB #160 – The Merrill Lynch Building
415 South Palm Canyon
Item 2A - Page 6
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ATTACHMENT B
Item 2A - Page 7
RESOLUTION NO._____
A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PALM
SPRINGS, CALIFORNIA, DESIGNATING THE MERRILL LYNCH
BUILDING, LOCATED AT 415 SOUTH PALM CANYON, AS A
CLASS 1 ( LANDMARK) HISTORIC RESOURCE HSPB #1 60,
SUBJECT TO CONDITIONS (APN 513-213-001).
THE CITY COUNCIL FINDS AND DETERMINES AS FOLLOWS:
A. WHEREAS, Chapter 8.05 of the Palm Springs Municipal Code allows for the designation of historic sites and districts; and
B. WHEREAS, the City of Palm Springs initiated an application, Case HSPB #160, seeking historic site designation of The Merrill Lynch Building located at 415 South Palm Canyon; and
C. WHEREAS, on August 22 and August 29, 2024, members of the Historic Site Preservation Board (HSPB) and City staff conducted site ins pections of the proposed historic resource; and
D. WHEREAS, on September 3, 2024, a noticed public hearing of the Palm Springs Historic Site Preservation Board to consider Case HSPB #160 was held in accordance with applicable law; and
E. WHEREAS, at said hearing, the HSPB carefully reviewed and considered all the evidence presented in connection with the hearing on the project, including, but not limited to, the staff report and all written and oral testimony and voted unanimously to recommend that the Council designate The Merrill Lynch Building a Class 1 (Landmark) historic resource; and
F. WHEREAS, on October 24, 202 4, a noticed public hearing of the Palm Springs City Council to consider Case HSPB #160 was held in accordance with applicable law; and
G. WHEREAS, at the said hearing, the City Council carefully reviewed and considered all the evidence presented in connection with the hearing on the project, including, but not limited to the staff report and all written and oral testimony.
THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PALM SPRINGS RESOLVES:
SECTION 1: FINDINGS – PART “A”, CRITERIA FOR HISTORIC RESOURCES.
Evaluation of the Application.
Pursuant to Municipal Code Section 8.05.070 (C,1,a), the City Council shall evaluate the application and make findings in conformance with the following criteria:
Criteria for the Designation of Class 1 Historic Resources. A site, structure, building or object may be designated as a Class 1 historic resource, provided both of the following findings (“a” and “b”) are met:
a. The site, structure, building, or object exhibits exceptional historic Item 2A - Page 8
Resolution No.____
October 24, 2024
significance and meets one or more of the criteria listed below:
415 South Palm Canyon Drive is a unique example of a commercial property designed in the New Formalist style. The building expresses a level of permanence and longevity, yet the modern materials allow it to fit into its contemporary context. While the interior was significantly rehabilitated to accommodate a new use, the exterior of the building remains relatively in- tact.
The following is a detailed analysis of the criterion and integrity findings.
(Criterion i) The resource is associated with events that have made a meaningful contribution to the nation, state, or community;
No meaningful event is associated with this site, thus does not qualify under Criterion i.
(Criterion ii) The resource is associated with the lives of persons who made a meaningful contribution to national, state or local history;
The building was constructed to address the financial needs of a growing community. The report did not reveal any individual of significance being associated to the site; therefore, Criterion ii is not met.
(Criterion iii) The resource reflects or exemplifies a particular period of national, state, or local history;
In the Post World War II period, the shifting economic climate created new opportunities for designers and architects to move to Palm Springs and explore and implement the latest design trends. In response to the International Style, New Formalism, which m ay be seen as the abstraction of Classical architecture, developed into a style of architecture that was often used for public and institutional buildings. The scale and symmetry of the buildings evoked a sense of permanence and stability. While there are limited examples of this style of architecture in Palm Springs, the Merrill Lynch Building would be an outstanding example of this form of architecture. This building is one of many iconic buildings along South Palm Canyon and Indian Drive that demonstrate the development of the financial district and the prosperity of finance during the post -war period. Criterion iii is met.
(Criterion iv) The resource embodies the distinctive characteristics of a type, period, or method of construction;
Unlike the National Register criterion concerning construction, the Palm Springs evaluation of construction addresses the type (of construction), the period (of construction) and the method (of construction). It appears that the building was constructed using standard construction methods and materials and does not qualify for this criterion.
(Criterion v) The resource presents the work of a master builder, designer, artist, or architect whose individual genius influenced his age, or that possesses high artistic value;
Item 2A - Page 9
Resolution No.____
October 24, 2024
Donald Wexler is a notable and well-respected architect that has influenced the field with his work. He trained under other master architects such as Richard Neutra and William F. Cody but quickly developed his own sense of design using materials like steel in a desert setting. His portfolio of work ranges from residential homes to large civic projects, and he explored a variety of architectural styles throughout his career. In addition, the architectural detailing of the columns and use of scale at the Merrill Lynch Building clearly shows Wexler’s design genius, thus Criterion v is met.
(Criterion vi) The resource represents a significant and distinguishable entity whose components may lack individual distinction, as used in evaluating applications for designation of historic districts, for parcels on which more than one entity exists; or
The resource is not within a historic district and does not qualify under Criterion vi.
(Criterion vii) The resource has yielded or may be likely to yield information important to national, state or local history or prehistory.
No information has been provided on any pre-historic significance of the site.
SECTION 2: PART “B” ANALYSIS OF HISTORIC INTEGRITY.
Analysis of Integrity. (PSMC 8.05.070 (C,1,b). The site, structure, building, or object retains one or more of the following aspects of integrity, as established in the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards: integrity of design, materials, workmanship, location, setting, feeling, or association.
The report provides an evaluation of the site relative to the seven aspects or qualities of historic integrity, as recognized by the National Register of Historic Places. The seven aspects or qualities include location, design, setting, materials, workmanship, feeling, and association. The report concludes that the site retains a high degree of integrity and is further analyzed below:
1. Location:
The location of the structure is in its original place of construction; therefore, the integrity of location is met.
2. Design:
The two- story, steel -framed building is situated on a podium (platform) elevated from the adjacent sidewalk and has free-standing columns and pilasters supporting the entablature. The columns in the front also create a portico around the main entrance making it a prominent feature. The building uses traditional design concepts yet uses a panelized system to clad the exterior. The concept of New Formalism focuses on scale and a sense of balance and simplifies decorative elements rather than strip them from the building completely. The integrity of the original design has been preserved.
Item 2A - Page 10
Resolution No.____
October 24, 2024
3. Setting:
The building remains in its original location on South Palm Canyon Drive and the concentration of buildings specifically designed for financial institutions are still in the general vicinity, even if many have been adaptively reused and serve a different function. The overall integrity of setting remains intact.
4. Materials:
The steel-framed building and the plaster cladded entablature and columns all have a textured finish, painted white. Some exterior walls are arranged with a split-face concrete block and high clerestory windows adorn the façade. The report specifies restoration work occurred in the mid- 2000s but the exterior materials, excluding the original front doors, were replaced to match the historic photos of the building. The integrity of materials remains.
5. Workmanship:
The attention to detail, particularly around the columns and pilasters showing the simple decorative aluminum channels and the reveals at the top and bottoms of each vertical element illustrates a design aesthetic that is clean and functional. The white- plaster and exterior wall surfaces appear to be in good condition with no visible damage. The integrity of workmanship is intact.
6. Feeling:
The overall mass, scale and design details of the building’s exterior remain unchanged and clearly demonstrates the sense of stability and authority associated with financial institutions of that era. The integrity of feeling is intact.
7. Association:
The property is associated with the architect Donald Wexler and his interpretation of Classical principles using modern materials and construction methods. The design was well -received by the community and recognized in 1972 with the “Desert Beautiful” award. The integrity of association is met.
SECTION 3: DEFINING HISTORIC CHARACTERISTICS
In considering a recommendation for historic resource designation it is important to distinguish those physical elements that are original or from the period of significance that contribute to the resource’s historic significance from alterations, additions or features that were added at a later time that may be sympathetic to the original character, but which may create a false sense of historicity. Distinguishing original character-defining features from non-original elements aids the HSPB when it is tasked with evaluating future alterations to the historic resource.
The following is a list of character-defining features identified by the City Council:
Item 2A - Page 11
Resolution No.____
October 24, 2024
Character-defining features of the resource are as follows:
• Monumental, flat -roofed two- story structure inspired by a more Classical style of architecture that includes freestanding columns in the front of the building, supporting a colonnade, with engaged columns surrounding the structure on the sides and back. • Squared, white-painted plaster columns with vertical “U” -shaped brushed aluminum decorative channels.
• Wide, white -painted plaster fascia emulating a simplified entablature. The fascia is embellished with vertical “U”-shaped brushed aluminum channels, in line with the same vertical channels in the columns directly below.
• Recessed lighting and anodized bronze can downlights on the ceiling of the colonnade. • Tan split-faced block walls and podium.
• Concrete paving with tiles arranged in a geometric pattern at the building entrances. • Solar glass panels and clerestories.
• Concrete-curbed planting beds in the rear parking lot. • Tan split-faced block walls enclose the property.
• Four mature olive trees specimens at the entrance to the parking lot, and a single mature olive at the southwest corner of the building.
• Mature California fan palms in the parking lot
Non-contributing elements:
• Bronze anodized aluminum and bronze-tinted solar glass entry doors, which replaced the Ackerman Panelcarve doors and transom.
• Large-scale bronze wall sculpture by artist Abbott Pattison, previously hung on the wall of the Spa Hotel.
• Replacement tiles embedded in the concrete of the podium surface. • Handrails on the main stairs leading to the front entrance. • Existing desert landscape design.
SECTION 4: ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT
The proposed historic resource designation is not subject to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) pursuant to Sections 15060(c)(2) (the activity will not result in a direct or reasonably foreseeable indirect physical change in the environment) and 15060(c)(3) (the activity is not a project as defined in Section 15378) of the CEQA Guidelines, California Code of Regulations, Title 14, Chapter 3, because it has no potential for resulting in physical changes to the environment, directly or indirectly.
SECTION 5: CONDITIONS THAT APPLY TO HISTORIC SITES:
According to Section 8.05 of the Municipal Code, the following shall apply to a Class 1 Historic Resource:
1. It shall meet the definition of a Class 1 historic site as outlined in Municipal Code Section
8.05.020.
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Resolution No.____
October 24, 2024
2. An archival file on the property shall be maintained by the City.
3. It may be qualified as ‘historic’ at the federal, state, and/or county level.
4. The structure/site may not be modified, nor objects removed without following the procedures outlined in Municipal Code Section 8.05.110 “Demolition or Alteration of Class 1 and Class 2 Historic Resources – Certificate of Appropriateness”.
5. A marker explaining the historic nature of the site may be installed at the site in a location viewable from the public way.
6. Compliance with all rules and regulations for Historic Sites and Historic Districts under Chapter 8.05 of the Municipal Code shall be required.
7. The site shall not be further subdivided.
8. The City Clerk shall submit the Council Resolution to the County recorder for recordation within 90 days of the effective date of the Council’s resolution.
Based upon the foregoing, the City Council hereby designates the Merrill Lynch Building located at 415 South Palm Canyon, a Class 1 (Landmark) Historic Resource (Case HSPB #160).
ADOPTED THIS TWENTY-FOURTH DAY OF OCTOBER, 2024.
SCOTT STILES
CITY MANAGER
ATTEST:
BRENDA PREE, MMC
CITY CLERK
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Resolution No.____
October 24, 2024
CERTIFICATION
STATE OF CALIFORNIA )
COUNTY OF RIVERSIDE ) ss.
CITY OF PALM SPRINGS )
I, BRENDA PREE, City Clerk of the City of Palm Springs, hereby certify that Resolution No. ____ is a full, true, and correct copy, and was duly adopted at a regular meeting of the City Council of the City of Palm Springs on _______________________, by the following vote:
AYES:
NOES:
ABSENT:
ABSTAIN:
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand and affixed the official seal of the City of Palm Springs, California, this ______ day of ______________, _________.
BRENDA PREE, MMC
CITY CLERK
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ATTACHMENT C
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Prepared by
Steven Keylon
For the
Palm Springs Preservation
Foundation
December 1, 2019
The Merrill Lynch Building, 1971
415 South Palm Canyon, Palm Springs, CA 92264
415 South Palm Canyon Drive
Palm Springs, CA 92264
Nomination Application For
City of Palm Springs
Class 1 Historic Resource
Prepared by
Steven Keylon
For the
Palm Springs Preservation
Foundation
FINAL August 27, 2023
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1 590ivrings, CA 92262
A C K N O W L E D G E M E N T S
The author would like to thank
the following individuals and organizations for
their professional expertise and/or editing assistance:
Tracy Conrad; Sydney Williams; Barbara Marshall; Gary Wexler; Lauren Bricker, and Robert Alexander, Donald Wexler Archives, Cal Poly Pomona.
C L A S S 1 H I S T O R I C R E S O U R C E N O M I N A T I O N
TABLE of CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION: PAGE 2
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: PAGE 2
CLASS 1 HISTORIC RESOURCE DESIGNATION APPLICATION FORM: PAGE 5 STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE: PAGE 7
BACKGROUND/HISTORIC CONTEXT: PAGE 31
EVALUATION: PAGE 31
INTEGRITY ANALYSIS: PAGE 33
APPENDIXES
I Owner’s Letter of Support: Page 36
II Assessor’s Map: Page 37
III Building Permits: Page 39
IV Historic Images: Page 41
V Contemporary Images: Page 46
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2 I N T R O D U C T I O N
The Palm Springs Preservation Foundation (PSPF) is a non-profit organization whose mission is “to educate and promote public awareness of the importance of preserving the historical resources and architecture of the city of Palm Springs and the Coachella V alley area.” In June 2021, the PSPF board of directors assigned the task of writing the Merrill Lynch Building Class 1 Historic Resource nomination to Steven Keylon.
E X E C U T I V E S U M M A R Y
SIGNIFICANCE:
The Merrill Lynch Building is a commercial building at 415 South Palm Canyon Drive , which master architect Donald Wexler designed. The structure is a prime example of one of his elegant modern designs, this time in the “New Formalist” style , which turned contemporary architecture into a temple of financial strength. The Merrill Lynch Building is an essential example of a custom modernist commercial structure. It exhibits numerous character-defining features that place it within the historical context of the Palm Springs Modern period.
DESIGNATION CRITERIA:
Criteria for the Designation of a Class 1 Historic Resource: According to the Palm Springs Municipal Code (PSMC) Section 8.05.070(C .1.): A site, structure, building, or object may be designated as a Class 1 Historic Resource or a Contributing Resource in a proposed historic district by the Palm Springs City Council, provided both of the following findings are met. For further information, refer to the U S Department of the Interior National Register Bulletin “How to Apply the National Register Criteria for Evaluation” of potentially historic resources.
The Merrill Lynch Building has not previously been evaluated for Class 1 Historic Resource eligibility. A summary of the evaluation contained in this nomination is as follows:
FINDING 1: The site, structure, building, or object exhibits exceptional historic significance and meets the below criteria.
8.05.070 (C.1.a.) paragraph (iii) - The resource reflects or exemplifies a particular period of national, state, or local history: The Merrill Lynch Building, completed in 1971, exhibits many stylistic markers which place it directly in the historical context of Palm Springs’ “Post-World War II Palm Springs” period. The custom- designed commercial structure represents a prime example of significant Post-war architecture for which Palm Item 2A - Page 18
3 Springs is internationally known. The Merrill Lynch Building may be considered an important component of the historical trends that have come to define Palm Springs’ image as a center of notable Modern architecture, i.e., a historical movement that exemplifies a particular period of the national, state , or local history. As a bank skillfully designed by Donald Wexler, it rises to the level of work by a master architect with high artistic values.
The structure qualifies for listing as a Class 1 Historic Resource on the local registry under Criterion 3.
8.05.070 (C.1.a.) paragraph (v) - High Artistic Value - The resource presents the work of a master builder, designer, artist, or architect whose individual genius influenced their age or that possesses high artistic value: High artistic values may be expressed in many ways, including areas as diverse as community design or planning, engineering, and sculpture. The structure designed by master architect Donald Wexler is eligible under the Modern architecture theme because it possesses numerous distinctive characteristics that make up the Midcentury Modern style, particularly the New Formalist style . These attributes include a two-story rigidly geometric structure set upon a plinth , with monumental double columns supporting the entablature - in this case, the flat roof. Materials such as brown split-face concrete block , plaster, brushed metal, and solar glass combine the impressive qualities of the New Formalist style. As a custom structure artfully designed by Wexler, this buil ding rises to a master architect's level with high artistic values. Therefore, for its distinctive characteristics representing the Midcentury Modern style, as a master architect's work, and its high artistic values, the Merrill Lynch qualifies as a Class 1 Historic Resource under Criterion 5.
SUMMARY: This evaluation finds The Merrill Lynch Building eligible for listing as a Palm Springs Historic Resource under 8.05.070 (C.1.a.) paragraphs (iii and v) of the local ordinance’s seven criteria.
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7 Statement of Significance
Summary
The Merrill Lynch Building, 1971, was designed by master architect Donald Wexler.
Location
The Merrill Lynch Building is located at 415 South Palm Canyon Drive.
BACKGROUND/HISTORIC CONTEXT
The Architect
Born in South Dakota, architect Donald Allen Wexler (1926-2015) grew up in Minneapolis. After graduation from high school, he served in the Navy during World War II, and upon discharge after the war, on the GI Bill, Wexler was educated at the University of Minnesota, getting his Bachelor of Architecture in 1950.
In Lauren Weiss Bricker’s essay on Donald Wexler in Shade and Steel: The Architecture of Donald Wexler , she observes, “Wexler was a member of the first generation of American architects trained along modern lines. So thoroughly engrained in modernism were the Minnesota graduates that in 1943, Walter Gropius, founder of the Bauhaus and later head of the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University, observed that graduates of Minnesota’s program coming to study at Harvard were among ‘the best we have.’”1 Upon graduation, Wexler moved to Los Angeles, where he worked as a draftsman for architect Richard Neutra, whose influence can be seen in Wexler’s work. Though Neutra rarely interacted with the younger members of his staff, this experience profoundly shaped the young architect. According to architectural critic Esther McCoy, Neutra was the perfect teacher. In watching him work, we learned in a few weeks w hat would have taken years if we had been left to fumble our way to it. This is the only quick way to learn and, I believe, the only effective way to teach.2
In Patrick McGrew’s 2011 P SPF book Donald Wexler: Architect, he writes that Wexler never experien ced the “sometimes demanding reputation for which Neutra was known” and that Wexler “continues to hold his first mentor in high esteem.” Quoting Donald Wexler, “I admire him as I do Frank Lloyd Wright, Mies van der Rohe, and the other truly great contribut ors to our built environment. Neutra would complement our good work, and it was there that I learned what a genius is.”3
Wexler worked in Neutra’s office for nine months, primarily on a public housing project, Elysian Park Heights, created by Neutra and his partner Robert Alexander in collaboration with landscape architect Garrett Eckbo.
In his apprenticeship with Richard Neutra, Wexler observed the general skills needed to run a private practice, which would serve him well in just a few years.
With the idea that he might spend six months in Palm Springs, Wexler began working as a designer in the office of architect William F. Cody in September 1952. There, he met architect Richard A. Harrison, who was working there as a draftsman. Harrison had graduated with a degree in architecture from USC in 1951 and began working for Cody that July.
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8 In February 1953, having completed the apprentice requirements, Wexler & Harrison formed a partnership and opened their own office with their pooled resources—$250.4 Over the years, Wexler & Harrison would design homes, residential subdivisions, schools, banks, and offices. In 1961, by mutual agreement, the partnership was amicably dissolved.
As a sole proprietorship, Donald A. Wexler, AIA, would go on to be known for pioneering the use of steel in residential design. Wexler’s designs for public buildings, including the dramatic Palm Springs Airport, served as soaring and practical models for other municipalities to emulate. His Steel Development House Number 2 and Palm Springs Airport are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Both Richard Harrison and Donald Wexler are the recipients of stars on the Palm Springs Walk of Stars in recognition of their architectural achievements. These stars are only one of many honors and awards received for their extraordinary work within the architectural profession.
Donald Wexler was inducted as a Fellow of the AIA in 2004. He died on June 25, 2015.
THE PALM SPRINGS FINANCIAL DISTRICT
Following World War II, Palm Springs experienced a building boom, coinciding with modernism's rising popularity. This unique convergence of events shaped the city's distinct commercial district, including financial institutions, upscale retail establishments, and civic landmarks that celebrated the city's prosperity and growth.
Architects of prominence were entrusted with designing a range of buildings, from small office and retail structures to large department stores, many of which have since been recognized as Class 1 Historic Resources or listed on the National Register of Historic Places. This collection represents Palm Springs’ version of Wall Street.
Dotting South Palm Canyon Drive between Baristo and Camino Parocela, a handful of elegant midcentury buildings stand as enduring finance icons. In their heyday, these structures represented the height of financial majesty, inspiring hope and prosperity during the post-war era.
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9 Coachella Valley Savings & Loan No. 1, 1956. E. Stewart Williams.
City National Bank, 1959. Rudi Baumfeld of Victor Gruen Associates.
Security First National Bank, 1959. Joseph B. Wong.
Santa Fe Federal Savings & Loan, 1960. E. Stewart Williams.
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10 Coachella Valley Savings & Loan No. 2, 1961. E. Stewart Williams.
E. F. Hutton, 1965. Architect unknown.
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11 Merrill Lynch, 1971. Donald Wexler.
Palm Springs' post-war civic architecture along South Palm Canyon and Indian Canyon Drives is a testament to the city's embrace of modernism, the prosperity of finance, and the enduring inspiration of good design.
These iconic buildings, with their distinctive architectural features, continue to captivate visitors and further enrich the architectural legacy of the desert oasis.
Graphic courtesy Susan Secoy-Jensen
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12 MAP LEGEND:
1. Santa Fe Federal Savings & Loan, E. Stewart Williams, 1961 Now the Architecture and Design Center, Palm Springs Art Museum Class 1 Historic Site, National Register of Historic Places
2. J. W. Robinson’s Department Store, Pereira & Luckman, 1958 Now various retail establishments
Class 1 Historic Site
3. Coachella Valley Savings & Loan #1, E. Stewart Williams, 1956 National Register of Historic Places
4. Merrill Lynch Building, Donald Wexler, 1971
Now Eisenhower medical offices
5. Coachella Valley Savings & Loan #2, E. Stewart Williams, 1961 Now Chase Bank
Class 1 Historic Site, National Register of Historic Places
6. Saks Fifth Avenue, Wurdeman & Becket,1958
Now vacant
7. Alan Ladd Hardware, Kaptur & Lapham, 1968
Now professional office building
8. E. F. Hutton, architect unknown, 1965.
Now heavily remodeled, its current use is retail and design services
9. City National Bank, Rudi Baumfeld, Victor Gruen Associates, 1959 Now Bank of America
Class 1 Historic Site
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13 10. Security First National Bank, Joseph B. Wong, 1959 Now Union Bank
Class 1 Historic Site
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14 THE MERRILL LYNCH BUILDING
Though one of Merrill Lynch’s founders, Charles E. Merrill of New York, often frequented the El Mirador Hotel in the 1930s, the firm had never had a presence in the desert.5 In 1969, Merrill Lynch announced that “to meet the growing needs of a growing community,” it would open a temporary branch until the new permanent Merrill Lynch Building could be built. Samuel L. Grodin was named the manager at the temporary offices at 167 North Indian Canyon.6 They found a site at 415 South Palm Canyon Drive and signed a twenty-five-year lease from Stanley A. Rosin, the property owner. It would have two floors, each nearly 7,000 square feet, with “the most modern investment facilities for twenty-five account executives, with additional space on the second floor to be available for selected tenants.”7 It would become one of several impressive architect-designed financial and retail structures in an area known as the Palm Springs Financial District.
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15 El Encanto Apartment Hotel, 1929. 415 S. Palm Canyon. Marshall P. Wilkinson, architect.
Before the impressive new building could be built, the site, containing a Monterey-Colonial Revival style hotel, “El Encanto,” had to be cleared. As reported in the Desert Sun,
An auction today signals the demise of the famed El Encanto Apartment Hotel, 415 S. Palm Canyon Dr., to make room for construction of an office building. El Encanto was built in the late 1920s by Mrs.
Ruth F. Sherman, Mrs. Myra Howell and Mrs. Mary Wilshire of Wilshire Boulevard fame. It was purchased by Mr. and Mrs. Stanley Rosin and Victor Rosin in 1943. Spacious landscaped grounds and Spanish-style structures emphasized the name of the 27-unit apartment hotel. The two-story structure, containing 7,000 sq. ft. on each floor, will house investment facilities for 25 account executives with additional office space on the second floor available for selected tenants. Completion of the building is expected to take eight months, with removal of existing structures set to begin in about two weeks. The architectural firm of Donald A. Wexler Associates is designing the facilities.
Announcement of the local real estate venture was made today by Stanley A. Rosin, owner of the property, and Samuel I. Grodin, senior vice president of the firm. The auction will conclude this evening. The site encompasses about 1.4 acres and construction of the office building provides for parking space for 70 cars.8
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16 The new Merrill Lynch Building would be built in the Palm Springs Financial District, a collection of financial institutions designed by Palm Springs's premier architects. The new Merrill Lynch Building won a “Desert Beautiful” award in 1972.9
The building was built by Coble & Wessman Construction.10 The Wexler designed Merrill Lynch Building opened in 1971.
In 1985, Wexler designed a second Coachella Valley location of Merrill Lynch at Wexler’s Hope Square Professional Centre in Palm Desert.11
ARCHITECTURE OF THE MERRILL LYNCH BUILDING
In designing Merrill Lynch’s first proprietary building, master architect Donald Wexler’s task was to create a large (over 13,000 square feet) structure akin to a "temple," which would signify permanence. With its dignified scale and majestic aura, the result was a commanding presence in the Palm Springs Financial District.
The first floor of the two-story building would be used for trading, with offices occupying the second floor.
New Formalist architecture, blending modernism and classicism, aimed to evoke a sense of gravity and formality, making it particularly suitable for financial institutions, projecting an air of stability and authority.
Wexler’s modernist interpretation of a Greek temple demonstrates a rigid use of symmetry and imposing columns but with contemporary materials ideal for the harsh climate of the desert.
As he would with most projects, Wexler worked with engineer Jack Zender, who had his office in the famed Bradbury Building in downtown Los Angeles.12
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17 THE SITE PLAN
The flag-shaped lot runs from South Palm Canyon through to South Belardo Road. The structure is situated on the northeast portion of the lot facing Palm Canyon. To the left of the building, a driveway runs along one side, leading to a large parking lot at the rear, facing Belardo. The parking lot featured raised concrete curbs with long ovoid dividers, landscaped with trees and shrubbery.
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18 This photograph taken during construction shows the steel-framed building’s structure. Courtesy Palm Springs Historical Society.
THE BUILDING
The Merrill Lynch Building is a large square, with relatively small bump-out entrances on the north and south sides, catering to those entering from the parking lot. Designed as a two-story steel-framed modernist temple, Wexler used Vitruvian principles to develop the program for the building.
Wexler designed the building in the style of a Pseudoperipteral temple. In classical architecture, a Pseudoperipteral temple design features freestanding columns (in the front only) and pilasters, or engaged columns (embedded), around the sides and back, giving the appearance of a Peripteral colonnade, which has freestanding columns all the way around.13
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19 A perfect example of a Pseudoperipteral temple is the Maison Carrée temple in Nimes, France, shown above. The photo shows clearly how though this temple has freestanding columns in front, most of the columns along the side are partially embedded in the wall or "engaged" with the wall.
Wexler’s Merrill Lynch Building was inspired by the Pseudoperipteral temples of classical Greek and Roman architecture. The primary structure has rows of embedded columns, or pilasters, encircling the building, with a portico of freestanding columns in front. Note the tan split-face block “podium” along Palm Canyon Drive.
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20 PODIUM
The building is raised slightly from Palm Canyon by a podium (platform) built using a split-face concrete block.
This deep tan block provided a rough texture, which was also harmonious with the view of Mt. San Jacinto in the background. The same block is used for most exterior walls. Three concrete steps lead to a slightly wider landing. Then three more concrete steps lead to the covered portico at the entrance of the building. Paving here was poured concrete, with large square tan tiles embedded in the concrete in a square geometric pattern.
The tan glazed tiles embedded in the concrete in this early photo can be seen. These are extant today. Photograph courtesy the Palm Springs Historical Society.
One of the building’s pilasters shows off-white-painted plaster, “U”-shaped brushed aluminum vertical embedded channel, and the smaller, recessed, dark-painted block on which each pilaster and column sits. Another dark-painted block is at the top, between the column or pilaster and the heavy entablature/fascia.
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21 COLUMNS AND PILASTERS
The Merrill Lynch Building is organized around a series of columns and pilasters (embedded columns) that encircle the building. The primary facade facing Palm Canyon features four columns (a colonnade) supporting an open portico in front of the building. Each squared column was covered in a relatively smooth, white- painted plaster and embedded by a vertical “U”-shaped brushed aluminum channel on all four sides. A series of squared, white-painted smooth plaster pilasters surround the structure, emphasizing the verticality while introducing an attractive metallic sheen to the materials palette.
Each column and pilaster terminate, top and bottom, on a smaller, squared block, painted dark so the columns and pilasters appear to float startingly free of what they support. These columns and pilasters define the boundary of the structure, which are not uniformly spaced: the north and south sides have five columns, while the east and west facades have four more widely spaced columns.
This circa 1980 photograph shows the Jerry and Evelyn Ackerman Panelcarve doors, which originally served as the entrance to the Merrill Lynch Building, but were removed at some unknown date. Glen Wexler photograph, from “Steel and Shade,” by Lauren Weiss Bricker and Sidney Williams.
WALLS:
Walls are built between each pilaster. Most are tan split-face concrete blocks laid three-quarters of the way up the wall, topped by a horizontal frieze of off-white plaster and a fixed bronze-tinted solar glass clerestory above that. On the primary facade facing Palm Canyon Drive, this arrangement bookends a central panel of bronze-tinted solar glass set in bronze anodized aluminum frames with double-door entry.
The original front doors were a pair of heavily carved wood doors and transom from Jerome (“Jerry,” 1920- 2019) and Evelyn (1924-2012) Ackerman's “Panelcarve” collection. According to Gary Wexler, Jerry Item 2A - Page 37
22 Ackerman visited Donald Wexler one day at Wexler’s office at 10 Professional Park and showed him their distinctive line of architectural Panelcarve doors and paneling. So, Wexler, intrigued, used them at the Merrill Lynch project.14
A horizontal plaster handrail is placed in front of the bronze solar glass on either side of the entry doors.
Above the entry doors is a much larger horizontal band of off-white plaster.
On the south elevation, the tan concrete block with a horizontal band of plaster and clerestory walls continues, apart from a bumped-out entry with bronze aluminum and tinted glass doors. This has a floor-to- ceiling tan split-face concrete block wall, now graced by a large bronze wall sculpture.
The rear elevation, facing the parking lot to the west, has a similar arrangement of tan split-face block with white plaster horizontal bands and tinted glass.
ENTABLATURE:
The columns and pilasters surrounding the structure hold up a wide entablature, in this case, a flat roof with a tall, precast concrete fascia painted off-white. Embellishing the entablature is a series of “U”-shaped brushed aluminum channels embedded in and in line with the similar channels in the columns and pilasters.
On the ceiling underneath, recessed lighting on the perimeter is mixed with Wexler’s signature aluminum can downlights, this time in a dark anodized bronze color, harmonizing with the window glazing.
LANDSCAPE:
Landscape architect David Hamilton possibly designed the landscape for the Merrill Lynch Building, though no records were found in researching this document to verify that. Hamilton was Wexler’s favorite landscape architect, and they worked together on many projects in the Coachella Valley. The landscape at Merrill Lynch has a similar Mediterranean climate plant palette and strong architectonic style as other projects Wexler and Hamilton collaborated on, notably the Palm Springs Airport.
The building was designed so that the four columns in front, supporting the open-air portico, would fall in rhythm (though not in line) with the four existing California fan palms (Washingtonia filifera) that had been planted as part of Ruth Hardy’s plan to plant an allée of fan palms down Palm Canyon Drive.
At the front of the structure, facing Palm Canyon Drive, a long line of juniper was planted in a bed at the top of the tan split-faced brick podium, enhancing this critical architectural feature with an architectural planting of a single species, which would be pruned into a long, low, uniform mass. Underneath the portico, on either side of the front doors, three large pots sat atop the podium, planted asymmetrically. On the right, three tall tree-like shrubs were planted, while on the left, three short shrubs were planted to not grow over the Merrill Lynch signage affixed to the block wall.
At the rear of the building, the parking lot’s distinctive concrete-curbed planting beds were planted with two pair of California fan palms at the center of the parking lot. Two more single California fan palms were placed at the western corners of the parking lot, facing the two Belardo exits.
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23 At the front of the building, four mature specimen olive trees were planted adjacent to the driveway as one accessed the parking lot. Another olive tree was planted adjacent to the southwest corner of the building.
The completed Merrill Lynch Building circa 1980. Glen Wexler photograph, from “Steel and Shade,” by Lauren Weiss Bricker and Sidney Williams.
ARCHITECTURAL CONTEXT: NEW FORMALISM
Stylistically, the Merrill Lynch Building falls under the category of New Formalism.
New Formalist architecture emerged from the twentieth-century modern movement as a reaction to both Brutalism’s use of concrete and the International Style’s use of glass and steel. Architects such as Edward Durrell Stone, Philip Johnson, Minoru Yamasaki, and Welton Becket were known for their mastery of the New Formalist style, which celebrated symmetry, Vitruvian proportions, and classical forms, often with rich materials. New Formalist structures featured minimalist geometries and massing, sometimes with more decorative elements than other modern offshoots. New Formalism was generally reserved for civic, institutional, or cultural buildings for their classic proportionality and form, monumental stature, and often luxurious materials.
Common features of the New Formalism style include:
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24 • Use of traditionally rich materials such as travertine, marble, and granite or man-made materials that mimic their luxurious qualities;
• Buildings are usually set on a podium;
• Designed to achieve modern monumentality;
• Embraces classical precedents, such as arches, colonnades, classical columns, and entablatures; • Smooth wall surfaces;
• Delicacy of details;
• Formal landscape; use of pools, fountains, and a sculpture within a central plaza.
CHARACTER-DEFINING FEATURES OF THE MERRILL LYNCH BUILDING
Contributing Elements
The Merrill Lynch Building is an exceptional example of a custom -designed modernist commercial structure designed in the New Formalist style. Very few exterior changes have occurred since it was completed in 1971.
It exhibits numerous extant character-defining features, including:
• Monumental, f lat-roofed two-story structure inspired by the classical style of the Pseudoperipteral temple. This style featured freestanding columns in the front of the building, supporting a colonnade, with engaged columns surrounding the structure on the sides and back. • Squared white -painted plaster columns (the steel posts are hidden inside), with vertical “U” -shaped brushed aluminum decorative channels. The columns have dark, much smaller blocks , top and bottom, giving the columns a startling effect of not supporting the roof. • Wide, white-painted plaster fascia emulating a classical but simplified and contemporary entablature. The fascia is embellished with vertical “U”-shaped brushed aluminum channels, in line with the same vertical channels in the columns directly below.
• Recessed lighting and anodized bronze can downlights on the ceiling of the colonnade. • Tan split-faced block walls and podium.
• Concrete paving embedded with tan tile arranged in a geometric pattern at building entrances. • Solar glass panels and clerestories.
• Four mature olive trees specimens at the entrance to the parking lot, and a single mature olive at the southwest corner of the building.
• Mature California fan palms in the parking lot.
• Concrete-curbed planting beds in the rear parking lot. • Tan split-face block walls enclose the property.
Non-Contributing Elements
• Bronze anodized aluminum and bronze -tinted solar glass entry doors, which replace the Ackerman Panelcarve doors and transom.
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25 • Large-scale bronze wall sculpture by artist Abbott Pattison, which previously hung on the wall of the Spa Hotel. Though it is an important work of art that must be preserved, it is not original to the period of significance of 1971.
• Desert landscaping which replaced the original palette of hardy, drought-tolerant Mediterranean climate shrubs and groundcovers.
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26 Changes Over Time
From the 1971 completion of the Merrill Lynch Building until the 2014 conversion to an Eisenhower facility, the only changes that took place (other than routine reroofing and the replacement of the entry doors) happened inside the building, with various reconfiguration projects to suit the needs of the tenants.
In this photograph taken at a round table discussion in early 2014, the rehabilitation architect, Joost Bende, AIA (standing), looks at Donald Wexler’s 1970 drawings of his Merrill Lynch Building. Looking on from left are Mary Wexler, Wexler’s daughter-in-law, Dr. Lauren Weiss Bricker, and Sidney Williams. Courtesy Desert Sun.
2014: RESTORATION/CONVERSION
Seeking to meet the growing needs of its patients and expand its reach into Palm S prings, Eisenhower Health embarked on a search for a location that would bring its specialized medical services closer to the Palm Springs community. Patients often found it inconvenient to travel to the main hospital in Rancho Mirage, mainly when their doctors were based in Palm Springs. Additionally, the demand for clinic services in Palm Springs increased.
According to Martin Massiello, who was executive vice president and chief operating officer at the time (he is now president and CEO), "When we started looking for a building, there were a couple of things that we had in our heads about creating a space for a multi -specialty clinic. One was that we wanted to be in a space that Item 2A - Page 42
27 was really a kind of iconic Palm Springs space. Because our campaign is all about the fact that we're here in your neighborhood. So we wanted a building that was familiar to people."15
Donald Wexler's classic former Merrill Lynch Building, then vacant, emerged as the ideal choice to fulfill Eisenhower Health's vi sion. The organization engaged in extensive negotiations, seeking Wexler's input and showing great respect for his iconic work , “one of my favorites,” he told Palm Springs Life in 2015.16 Once the building was secured, the Eisenhower team engage d architect Joost Bende, AIA, president of Pacific 33 Architects, based in San Diego. Collaborating with Wexler, the building would be wholly re-envisioned in this adaptive reuse. According to Bende, "It's an architectural masterpiece . We're recognizing the great historic stock of the architectural diamonds we have out there and it's important to preserve them."17 Massiello agreed, explaining, “You'd never know that the inside of this was ticker -tapes and a financial institution. But we kept the integrity of the building, and totally re -purposed it. And it can be done. That's the whole controversy in Palm Springs. Buyers buy these buildings, and then decide, 'Oh, my god, I have to tear this whole thing down. I can't re-purpose it. But you can."18
The planned rehabilitation and adaptive reuse of the Merrill Lynch Building garnered much positive attention and press, with articles in Palm Springs Life and the Desert Sun. After the interior of the building had been gutted and before work began, the public was invited for one last chance to see the stripped interior at a Modernism Week event in February of 2014 , a lecture “discussing the influence of Wexler's work and why the building is one of his most admired designs. "19 According to Sidney Williams, “the building had been completely gutted, but they carved out a space with black plastic sheeting, to create a sort of room, where Lauren Bricker and I did our presentation. Don was so humble, but so pleased with what was hap pening to the building. Marty and his partner were really keen that this was a Wexler building, and Don was really pleased about that.”20
The restoration and conversion of the Merrill Lynch Building into Eisenhower Health's Palm Springs clinic went beyond aesthetics. Joost Bende and his team at the architectural firm Pacific 33 in San Diego deeply understood how design could impact health, believing that their intentional approach to design aligned with evidence-based design, which recognizes the profound impact of the environment of designed spaces on patient outcomes and overall well-being.21
"We're trying to sort of bring it back to the way it was," said Eisenhower Medical Center's chief operating officer, Marty Massiello. "This space, because it's clean and modern, I think, lends itself well to the healing environment."22
After a significant $4.5 million restoration project, the transformation was complete. The once -vacant building now serves as Eisenhower Health's Palm Springs clinic, offering the community a comprehensive range of specialty services.
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28 Architect Donald Wexler, left, and artist Jerry Ackerman, right, in front of a pair of Ackerman Panelcarve doors, which were intended to replace a missing pair which had originally served as the entrance to the Merrill Lynch Building. Photo courtesy Gary and Mary Wexler.
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29 This large bronze wall sculpture by artist Abbott Photo from Desert Sun, April 22, 1963. See below Pattison once hung on the Spa Hotel, 1963, for caption information. designed by architect William Cody.
.
The photograph above right ran in the Desert Sun on April 22, 1963. At the time it was printed, the caption read:
DEDICATION of an original work of art symbolizing the role the American Indian played in the development of Palm Springs, Calif., has marked the opening, Sunday, April 21, 1963, of the Palm Springs Spa Hotel. The 14-foot bronze bas-relief of Indian totemic figures was executed for the hotel by noted sculptor Abbott Pattison, whose works are on view in such collections as the Phoenix Art Museum, La Jolla Museum, Art Institute of Chicago, Corcoran Art Gallery, Washington, D.C., Notre Dame University and other places. It adorns an exterior wall of the new hotel and mineral springs facility on the site of the original mineral springs which gave the community its name. Shown at the dedication are Pattison (left), Mrs. Aileen Miguel, chairman of the Agua Caliente Indian Council, and Samuel Banowit, president of National Properties, Inc., hotel owners.23
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30 Accompanying the photograph, the Desert Sun published this article about artist Abbott Pattison and his large bronze wall sculpture, which had been recently installed on the newly completed Spa Hotel.
Symbolic Art of Pattison Will Grace New Spa Hotel
Creation of an original work of art symbolizing the role the American Indian played in the development of Palm Springs by one of the world’s leading sculptors, may well make Palm Springs Spa Hotel, “the healthiest hotel in the world,” one of the most beautifu l as well. The art piece is a 14 -foot bronze bas- relief of Indian totemic figures by Abbott Pattison, a Chicago sculptor who has achieved international fame for his artistry. It adorns an exterior wall of the new $2,500,000 hotel, located in the heart of t he desert resort playground on the site of the original mineral springs which gave the community its name. ‘The design of my sculpture,” says Pattison, “is a fairly abstract one of two human figures, suggesting a certain amount of Indian lore. There are also several suggested animal figures in it.” Pattison said he has not yet decided on a name for the piece. “Much time and thought must be given to selecting just the proper name for such a creation,” he admitted. Pattison was commissioned to create the art work by Samuel W. Banowit, president of National Properties, Inc., developers of the Palm Springs Spa Hotel and Mineral Springs. National Properties is a real estate development firm with offices in New York, Chicago and Beverly Hills. After preliminary sk etches and designs were completed, Pattison spent six months in building the one -ton figure. He then shipped the molds to Florence , Italy, where it was cast in bronze. Why Italy? “Most of the world’s leading sculptors use Italian foundries to cast major pieces,” he answered. “They have old, established, experienced facilities and workmen there. In fact, Florence has one of the few foundries in the world where a project of this magnitude can be done.” Pattison, who resides in Chicago with his wife and four children, is recognized as one of the leading sculptors of our day. His creations are on view in the Phoenix Art Museum, the courtyard of the La Jolla Museum, the lobby of the LaSalle-Jackson Building in Chicago, the California Palace of the Legion of Honor Museum in San Francisco, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Corcoran Art Gallery, Washington, DC. His works are in collections at Notre Dame University, Brandeis University, and the University of Georgia.24
Other Sources Consulted
• Historic Resources Group. City of Palm Springs Citywide Historic Context Statement & Survey Findings .
Pasadena, 2015 (Final Draft, December 2018).
• Architectural Resources Group. City of Palm Springs Historic Resources Survey. San Francisco, 2004. • Historic Site Preservation Board. Inventory of Historic Structures. Palm Springs, 2001. • www.newspapers.com (Desert Sun and Los Angeles Times).
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31 • City of Palm Springs (Planning and Building Departments). • Ancestry.com.
• Palm Springs Historical Society.
• Riverside County Assessor’s Office.
BACKGROUND / HISTORIC CONTEXT
The relatively short history of Palm Springs can be organized into several distinct periods, as defined by the Historic Resources Group’s Citywide Historic Context Statement & Survey Findings. These include the following:
• Native American Settlement to 1969
• Early Development (1884-1918)
• Palm Springs between the Wars (1919-1941)
• Palm Springs During World War II (1939-1945)
• Post-World War II Palm Springs (1945-1969)
EVALUATION:
CRITERION 1 – Significant Events - The resource is associated with events that have made a meaningful contribution to the nation, state or community: The Merrill Lynch Building is not affiliated with significant events and does not qualify under Criterion 1.
CRITERION 2 – Significant Persons - The resource is associated with the lives of persons who made a meaningful contribution to national, state, or local history: The Merrill Lynch Building is not affiliated with significant persons and does not qualify under Criterion 2.
ARCHITECTURE (Criteria 3 – 6)
CRITERION 3 - The resource reflects or exemplifies a particular period of national, state or local history: The Merrill Lynch Building, completed in 1971, exhibits many stylistic markers which place it directly in the historic context of the “Post-World War II Palm Springs” period. The custom -designed commercial structure represents a prime example of significant Post -war architecture for which Palm Spring s is internationally known. As designed by master architect Donald Wexler, the structure is an excellent example of the Midcentury Modern style for which he had become highly respected and sought-after. Here, Wexler uses the New Formalist style to convey a financial institution's strength and stability . Examples of New Formalist architecture are rare in Palm Springs, and the Merrill Lynch Building is a n outstanding example. The Merrill Lynch Building is an early example of the Modern style of commercial architecture that defines the Palm Springs School. As such, the building may be viewed as an essential component of the historical trends that have come to define Palm Springs’ image as a center of important Modern architecture, i.e., a historical trend that exemplifies a particular period of the national, state or local history. The structure qualifies for listing as a Class 1 Historic Resource on the local registry under Criterion 3.
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32 CRITERION 4 - The resource embodies the distinctive characteristics of a type, period , or method of construction: The Merrill Lynch Building, built with a steel frame and with basic materials such as split-face block, plaster, aluminum, and glass, does not have anything so unique to elevate it to embody the distinctive characteristics of a type, period, or method of construction. Therefore, the Merrill Lynch Building does not qualify for listing as a Class 1 Historic Resource on the local registry under Criterion 4.
Criterion 5: (The resource presents the work of a master builder, designer, artist, or architect whose individual genius influenced his or her age; or that possesses high artistic value).
Master architect Donald Wexler was widely admired and respected by his peers, and his body of work, including his early partner Richard Harrison, is impressive. His architectural oeuvre has received scholarly attention with the publication of a book documenting his life, artistry, and career . Wexler was also the focus of an exhibition at the Palm Springs Art Museum.
High artistic values may be expressed in many ways, including community design or planning, engineering, and sculpture. The structure designed by Wexler is eligible under the modern architecture them e because it possesses numerous distinctive characteristics that make up the New Formalist style. These attributes include a two-story flat-roofed building inspired in form by the Pseudoperipteral Temple of Classical architecture. Raised on a podium, the wide plaster fascia emulates an entablature supported by s quared and embedded columns.
The walls are contemporary tan split -face block, the color and texture rooting the building to its site. As a custom structure artfully designed by Wexler, this building rises to a master architect's level with high artistic values. Therefore, for its distinctive characteristics representing the Midcentury Modern style and its high artistic values, the structure qualifies as a Class 1 Historic Resource under Criterion 5.
Criterion 6: (That represents a significant and distingui shable entity whose components may lack individual distinction). This Criterion was created to address the resources contained within a potential historic district and as such it does not apply to this nomination. Hence, the structure does not qualify under Criterion 6.
Criterion 7: (That has yielded or may be likely to yield information important to the national, state or local history or prehistory.) The Merrill Lynch Building is not expected to deliver information essential to the national, state or local history or prehistory. Hence, the structure does not qualify under Criterion 7.
SUMMARY: This evaluation finds The Merrill Lynch Building eligible for listing as a Palm Springs Historic Resource under 8.05.070 (C.1.a.) paragraphs (iii and v) of the local ordinance’s seven criteria.
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33 Integrity Analysis (using US Secretary of Interior Standards)
INTEGRITY
Integrity is the ability of a property to convey its significance. To be listed in the local registry, a property must not only be shown to be significant under the criteria, but it also must have integrity. The evaluation of integrity is sometimes a subjective judgment, but it must always be grounded in understanding a property's physical features and how they relate to its significance. Historic properties either retain integrity (convey their significance) or do not. The definition of integrity includes seven aspects or qualities. To maintain historic integrity, a property will always possess several aspects, and usually most. Retaining specific aspects of integrity is paramount for a property to convey its significance. Determining which of these aspects are most important to a particular property requires knowing why, where, and when the property is significant. The following sections define the seven aspects and explain how they combine to produce integrity.
DESIGN
Design is the combination of elements that create a property's form, plan, space, structure, and style. It results from conscious decisions made during the original conception and planning of a property and applies to activities as diverse as community planning, engineering, architecture, and landscape architecture. The design includes elements such as space organization, proportion, scale, technology, ornamentation, and materials. A property’s design reflects historical functions and technologies as well as aesthetics. It includes such considerations as the structural system; massing; the arrangement of spaces; the pattern of fenestration; textures and colors of surface materials; type, amount, and style of ornamental detailing. The Merrill Lynch Building’s essential elements of form, plan, space, structure, configuration, and style have remained almost entirely intact.
Similarly, the structural system; and the type, amount, and style of detailing have survived with a considerable portion intact. Donald Wexler’s Late Formalist architecture is a masterful contemporary interpretation of classical architecture. The restoration has only strengthened the integrity of the design.
MATERIALS
Materials are the physical elements combined or deposited during a period and in a particular pattern or configuration to form a historic property. The choice and combination of materials reveal the preferences of those who created the property and indicate the availability of materials and technologies. The Merrill Lynch Building’s materials successfully represent the best of Midcentury Modern design, with high-quality but simple split-face block, aluminum, solar glass, and plaster. All of Wexler’s original materials choices, except for the Ackerman Panelcarve front doors, remain intact and have been restored.
WORKMANSHIP
Workmanship is the physical evidence of the crafts of a culture or people during any given period in history or prehistory. It is the evidence of artisans’ labor and skill in constructing or altering a building, structure, object, or site. Workmanship can apply to the property as a whole or to its individual components. It can be expressed Item 2A - Page 49
34 in vernacular construction methods, plain finishes, or in highly sophisticated configurations and ornamen tal detailing. It can be based on common traditions or innovative period techniques. Workmanship is essential because it can furnish evidence of the technology of a craft, illustrate the aesthetic principles of a historic or prehistoric period, and reveal individual, local, regional, or national applications of both technological practices and aesthetic principles. Examples of workmanship in historic buildings include tooling, carving, painting, graining, turning, and joinery. The Merrill Lynch Building used relatively common building materials and artistry to create an uncommonly exceptional building. The Merrill Lynch Building does not qualify for the aspect of workmanship.
LOCATION
Location is the place where a historic property was constructed or the place where a historic event occurred.
The relationship between the property and its location is often essential to understand why it was created, or something happened. The actual location of a historic property, complemented by its setting, is particularly important in recapturing the sense of historic al events and persons. Except in rare cases, the relationship between a property and its historic al associations is destroyed if the property is moved. The Merrill Lynch Building remains in its original location, as part of the Palm Springs Financial and Commercial District, and therefore qualifies under this aspect.
SETTING
Setting is the physical environment of a historic property. Whereas location refers to the specific place where a property was built or an event occurred, setting refers to the character of the place in which the property played its historical role. It inv olves how, not just where the property is situated and its relationship to surrounding features and open space. Setting often reflects the primary physical conditions under which a property was built and its intended functions. In addition, how a property is positioned in its environment can reflect the designer’s concept of nature and aesthetic preferences. The Merrill Lynch Building was designed to conform to the existing character of Palm Springs’ commercial district, with its concentrated group of financial structures. Beginning in the 1950s, and continuing into the 1970s, some of the finest architects created a collection of Palm Springs’ most distinctive commercial buildings. That setting and context remain intact, and the Merrill Lynch Building is a significant contributor.
FEELING
Feeling is a property’s expression of a particular period's aesthetic or historical sense . It results from the presence of physical features that, taken together, convey the property’s historic character. For example, a rural historic district retaining original design, materials, workmanship, and setting will relate to the feeling of agricultural life in the nineteenth century. The Merrill Lynch Building is situated on a prominent block in the downtown commercial district of Palm Springs. The custom-designed contemporary commercial building conveys the feeling of the Midcentury Modern period for which Palm Springs is internationally known and is a rare and fine example of the New Formalist style . The Merrill Lynch Building has an imposing scale, and its presence still blends well into this unique neighborhood. Accordingly, the Merrill Lynch Building retains its original integrity of feeling.
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35 ASSOCIATION
Association is the direct link between an important historic al event or person and a historic property. A property retains association if it is the place where the event or activity occurred and is sufficiently intact to convey that relationship to an observer. Like feeling, association requires the presence of physical features that convey a property’s historic character. For example, a Revolutionary War battlefield whose natural and man - made elements have remained intact since the eighteenth century will retain its quality of association with the battle. Because feeling and association depend on individual perceptions, their retention alone is insufficient to support a property's eligibility for the National Register. The Merrill Lynch Building is not associated with important historic events or persons, and therefore does not qualify under association.
INTEGRITY SUMMARY: This integrity analysis confirms that the site and structures of the Merrill Lynch Building still possess five aspects of integrity. Donald Wexler’s masterful interpretation of the New Formalist style resulted in an imposing contemporary temple, conveying a sense of stability and strength appropriate for a financial institution. Wexler’s design has remained almost entirely unchanged since it was completed in 1971, its integrity strengthened by a thoughtful restoration and adaptive reuse, with the input of Donald Wexler himself. He was delighted with the outcome. The Merrill Lynch Building is an essential contributor to the historic Palm Springs Financial District and is worthy of designation as a Class 1 Historic Resource.
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36 A P P E N D I C E S
I Owner’s Letter of Support
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37 II Assessor’s Map and Aerial
General Information
Property ID Number
(PIN/APN)
513213001
Owner More Information
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38 Property Address 415 S PALM CANYON
DR
Property Type Office - General
Tax Rate Area (TRA) 011-008 PALM SPRINGS
Approximate Lot Size 40,075 SqFt / 0.920
acres
Legal Description LOT 5 BLK 18 MB
009/432 SD MAP OF
PALM SPRINGS AND
LOTS 7, 8 & 9 MB
012/100 H & W TR FOR
TOTAL DESCRIPTION
SEE ASSESSORS MAPS
Property Address 415 S PALM CANYON DR
PALM SPRINGS, CA 92264
APN 513213001
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39 III Building Permits
Building Permits
Date Owner Permit Type Description of Work
01-06-70 El Encanto n/a Remove gunite concrete swimming pool structure and fill cavity with earth fill (approx.
100 cu. Yds.) Remove all existing buildings
from site by means of demolition or hauling or
by moving under specified permit as required.
(Note on permit says site cleared 03-10-70)
04-24-70 Merrill Lynch,
Pierce, Fenner,
and Smith
Building Plan check commercial office building
05-05-70 Merrill Lynch,
Pierce, Fenner,
and Smith
Building Foundation Permit Only
05-08-70 Merrill Lynch,
Pierce, Fenner,
and Smith
Building Construct 2 story commercial office building.
Masonry, frame and steel constr. Compo.
Roof.
05-27-70 Merrill Lynch
Bldg
Electrical 1 temporary service.
06-16-70 Merrill Lynch Plumbing 7 lavatories, 8 toilets, 7 sinks, 2 drinking fountains, 1 water piping, 1 water heater, 5 gas
outlets, 7 rainwater drains.
08-10-81 Merrill Lynch
Bldg.
Building Reroof.
11-10-81 Merrill Lynch Building Install new water heater 01-19-84 Merrill Lynch Building Remodeling existing space; removing some of the existing partitions and adding new
partitions, including mechanical, electrical,
wallcovering, carpeting, etc., as required.
02-02-84 Merrill Lynch Building Interior remodel of office suite. Permit to include electrical, plumbing, and mechanical
work. Signage requires planning dept. approval
and a separate permit.
05-03-85 Merrill Lynch Building Re roof per city specs. 07-20-94 Howard Rosin Building Tenant improvement and remodel of restrooms. 54 existing fixtures being removed.
41 new fixture units being installed. No
connection fee due.
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40 02-03-97 Pacific
Commercial
Building Remove existing roof and reroof with class B
hot mop built up roof. 1 layer 28# fiberglass
base, hot mop 2 layers 11# fiberglass and one
72# fiberglass cap sheet.
01-16-14 Realty Trust Building Non structural demo to prepare for remodel.
Sewer fixture unit count required prior to
removal of any plumbing fixtures.
08-18-14 Realty Trust Building Remodel of existing office building for Eisenhower medical offices. Removing 46
fixtures units. New total will be 87 fixture
units. Charged for difference of: 41 fixture
units.
09-22-14 Realty Trust Building Clean and prepare existing roof and reroof with singly ply roof system.
04-07-15 Eisenhower
Medical
Building Relocate trash enclosure gates and infill
existing opening.
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41 IV Historic Images
The Merrill Lynch Building shortly after completion. Photograph from the book “Steel and Shade: The Architecture of Donald Wexler.”
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42 Merrill Lynch Building, circa 1980. Photo courtesy Cal Poly Pomona College of Environmental Design Archives.
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43 Merrill Lynch Building, circa 1980. Photo courtesy Cal Poly Pomona College of Environmental Design Archives.
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44 This early view shows the colonnade. Note the square glazed tile embedded in the concrete floor; the squared columns; the bronze-tinted anodized aluminum downlights. Photograph courtesy Palm Springs Historical Society.
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45 In this early photograph, the long line of juniper planted at the top of the podium creates a long, green, architectonic landscape feature. Courtesy Palm Springs Historical Society.
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46 V Contemporary Images
The east elevation of the Merrill Lynch Building faces Palm Canyon Drive. Photograph by the author, June 2022.
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47 Concrete steps lead up the podium from Palm Canyon Drive to the colonnade. Note the original downlights, a Wexler signature. Photograph by the author, June 2022.
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48 The ceiling of the colonnade has recessed lighting at the perimeter, with five bronze aluminum downlights between each column. Incised lines add decorative detail. Photograph by the author, June 2022.
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49 Squared columns with brushed aluminum “U”-channel trim, with matching trim on the fascia. The original juniper has been replaced with a spiky row of yucca plants. Photograph by author June 2022.
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50 The south façade, showing the tan split-face brick podium, the same brick on the walls, the embedded columns that encircle the structure, the columns supporting the colonnade. Note Abbott Pattison wall sculpture. Photograph by the author June 2022.
Tan split-face brick, off-white-painted plaster, brushed aluminum, and bronze-tinted solar glass were the materials chosen by Wexler for the Merrill Lynch Building. Photograph by the author June 2022.
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51 Bronze wall sculpture by artist Abbott Pattison once adorned the Spa Hotel. This is not an original feature and was added in the 2014 restoration. Photograph by the author June 2022.
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52 This portion of the building bumps out to the south of the main structure and has entry doors on the east and west sides. Note the tan glazed tiles embedded in the concrete. Photograph by the author June 2022.
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53 One of the squared embedded columns, created with off-white-painted plaster, embedded with a brushed aluminum “U”-channel. Note the dark-painted smaller blocks, which are at the top and bottom of the columns, giving the illusion of weightlessness. Photograph by the author June 2022.
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54 The rear (west) façade with embedded columns supporting entablature (fascia), with walls of tan block, off-white- painted plaster band with bronze-tinted solar glass clerestories. Photograph by the author, June 2022.
The west façade showing the parking lot with its two pair of California fan palms (original), and tan split-face block wall which encloses the site. Photograph courtesy Google Maps.
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55 The rear parking lot, with the original distinctive concrete curbs and planting beds. Photographs courtesy Google Maps.
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56 VI Biography of Abbott Pattison
Artist Abbott Pattison, 1960s. Photograph courtesy the University of Chicago.
Abbott Pattison, a renowned American artist, achieved international acclaim for his extraordinary talent as a sculptor. His preferred mediums included cast bronze, welded brass, and carved marble. Pattison's artistic journey began in his hometown of Chicago, where he gained recognition through representation by the Fairweather-Hardin Gallery. However, his reputation soon extended nationally, with multiple one-man exhibits in prominent galleries in New York City and, later, representation in Los Angeles and London.
Born on May 15, 1916, Abbott Pattison was the second of seven children born to William and Bonnie Pattison.
His father was a well -known real estate developer in the city. At the age of ten, Abbott began attending art classes at The Art Institute of Chicago while studying at the Francis Parker School. He chose to pursue a degree in art at Yale University due to the institution's distinguished art program. At Yale, Pattison received thorough training in classical drawing, fresco painting, and the Sienese egg tempera style . Eventually, he found his true calling in sculpture.
In 1937, Abbott graduated with a Liberal Arts Degree and continued his education by enrolling in the Master's program at Yale, completing it in 1939 with a Degree in Fine Arts. His exceptional talent earned him first prize among the fifty-two graduates from the art/architecture department, along with a traveling fellowship. He chose to embark on a six-month journey to Northern China and Japan, where he carved Twelve Stations of the Cross for a monastery in China and faced an incident of mistaken identity as a spy in Japan.
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57 With the outbre ak of World War II, Pattison returned to the United States and served as a captain in the United States Navy. He commanded various vessels, receiving accolades for his bravery and leadership. After the war, he resumed his artistic pursuits, and by 1946, he was a well-known figure in the art community, having received several awards and accolades for his work. He also joined the faculty of The Art Institute of Chicago as a sculpture instructor.
Abbott Pattison firmly believed that sculptors, irrespective of time and place, share a brotherhood of form and image makers. He drew inspiration from classical Greek and Etruscan forms, infusing elements of these traditions into his abstract bronzes, welded braised figures, and marble carvings. However, he was not limited to sculpture alone, often exhibiting his paintings, watercolors, and terra cotta sculptures alongside his bronze works.
Pattison's artistic journey was one of constant learning and growth. He acknowledged the complexity of being an artist in the modern era, where exposure to various art forms from different cultures challenged artists to incorporate diverse perspectives into their work. His experiences allowed him to embrace an eclectic approach to his art, drawing from the rich history of art forms from across the world.
In 1953, Pattison's work brought him to The University of Georgia as a visiting sculptor, and he returned the following year as a sculptor in residence. During his time there, he created the striking marble sculpture titled "Mother and Child" and a twelve-foot high abstract horse made of welded plate steel known as "The Iron Horse."
Despite his international success, Abbott Pattison remained a humble and dedicated artist. His summers were spent in his home and studio on the coast of Maine, occasionally teaching at The Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. Winters were dedicated to work in Florence, Italy, where his bronze works were cast, and the rest of the year, he worked in his Chicago studio, occasionally teaching at The Art Institute of Chicago.
Pattison's artistic legacy lives on through more than thirty of his sculptures displayed throughout Chicago and in collections of universities, corporations, and museums worldwide. His art can be found in prestigious institutions such as the Whitney Museum in New York City, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Corcoran Museum in Washington, DC, and many others, including embassies overseas and Buckingham Palace in London.
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58 ENDNOTES:
1 Steel and Shade: The Architecture of Donald Wexler, Lauren Weiss Bricker and Sidney Williams, Palm Springs Art Museum, 2011, 13. 2 Vienna to Los Angeles: Two Journeys, Esther McCoy, Arts + Architecture Press, 1979, 11. 3 Donald Wexler: Architect, Patrick McGrew, Palm Springs Preservation Foundation, 2011, 18-21. 4 Richard A. Harrison application for membership, AIA.
5 SOCIAL EVENTS AT EL MIRADOR, Desert Sun, January 31, 1936. 6 Merrill Lynch advertisement, Los Angeles Evening Citizen News, February 5, 1969. 7 “Merrill Lynch to Build Own Office Building,” Los Angeles Evening Citizen News, November 17, 1969. 8 Sale Signals Demise Of El Encanto Hotel, Desert Sun, November 6, 1969. 9 Desert Beautiful Gives Awards, Desert Sun, May 12, 1972. 10 Congratulatory ad from Coble & Wessman Construction, Desert Sun, December 18, 1970. 11 Merrill Lynch to open second desert office RM location to house 14 brokers, Desert Sun, March 2, 1985. 12 Telephone interview with Gary Wexler, July 29, 2023. 13 PERIPERTERAL VERSUS PSEUDOPERIPTERAL: When looking at a temple, if every column is freestanding and not touching any wall, then it is said that the temple is Peripteral. However, if even just a few of the columns are not freestanding and are making contact with a wall, then the temple is said to be Pseudoperipteral, as in the Merrill Lynch Building. 14 Telephone interview with Gary Wexler, July 29, 2023. More on Jerry and Evelyn Ackerman, from the Ackerman Modern website:
“Evelyn designed and Jerry produced their first group of carved wood bas-relief wall panels in 1959. These included St. George and the Dragon and Adam and Eve. Hand carving was time consuming, and the Ackermans recognized the need to increase production while maintaining a handcrafted feel. Turning to the furniture industry, they found Maurey Spinak, a master woodcarver who had a small business employing multiple spindle-carving machines. Each piece was roughed out by machine and finished by hand carvers, providing a very close match to the hand-carved original. Evelyn created a series of carved wood designs for architectural applications that became the basis for Panelcarve in the early 1960’s. The designs were executed as modular panels with tongu e-and- groove detail so they could be assembled easily for diverse architectural and interior design applications. The panels were used extensively in hotels, restaurants, office buildings, schools, and homes. The Ucello series designed by Evelyn was used on th e doors and transom of the landmark Alan Ladd building in Palm Springs in 1971. When Panelcarve later became Forms+Surfaces, the Ackermans continued designing for the company and became its distributor. In 1971 Evelyn designed a series of Animal Woodbloc ks that were carved in thick redwood. The 20 different designs, marketed by both ERA and Panelcarve, worked individually and grouped. The woodblocks were included in the “California Design XI” exhibition and the book California Design. The Ackermans later introduced a series of plaques with a blank lower portion for house numbers, plant holders, and the like, as well as carved wood gourmet accessories such as knife holders and spice racks. All were popular gift items for specialty stores, department stores, and catalogs.” (https://www.ackermanmodern.com/studio/wood-carvings/ - accessed August 6, 2023). 15 “Older Buildings Can Be Adapted For Second Life,” Desert Sun, May 23, 2015. 16 “A Healthy Restoration,” Palm Springs Life, accessed July 29, 2023 (https://www.palmspringslife.com/a-healthy-restoration/) 17 ““Merrill Lynch building conceived by Donald Wexler to undergo restoration,” Desert Sun, February 10, 2014. (accessed online:
https://www.desertsun.com/story/life/entertainment/events/modernism/2014/02/10/merrill -lynch-building-conceived-by-donald- wexler-to-undergo-restoration/5355883/).
18 Ibid.
19 Ibid.
20 Telephone interview with Sidney Williams, August 3, 2023. 21 “A Healthy Restoration,” Palm Springs Life, accessed July 29, 2023 (https://www.palmspringslife.com/a-healthy-restoration/) 22 Ibid.
23 Desert Sun, Volume 36, Number 232, 3 May 1963.
24 Ibid.
Item 2A - Page 74
ATT
ACHMENT D
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HISTORIC SITE PRESERVATION BOARD
STAFF REPORT
DATE: September 3, 2024 PUBLIC HEARING
SUBJECT: APPLICATION BY SCOTT P. TIMBERLAKE AND ANNE KRIZMAN
REPRESENTED BY THE PALM SPRINGS PRESERVATION
FOUNDATION FOR HISTORIC SITE DESIGNATION OF “ THE MERRILL LYNCH BUILDING” L OCATED AT 415 SOUTH PALM CANYON, CASE HSPB #160 (APN 513-213-001) (SY).
FROM: Department of Planning Services
SUMMARY
This request for Class 1 historic designation was submitted by the current owners of the commercial property. Formerly known as “The Merrill Lynch Building”, this building was designed by the master architect, Donald Wexler, and completed in 1971.
If designated as a historic resource, the property would be subject to the regulations outlined in Section 8.05 of the Palm Springs Municipal Code.
RECOMMENDATION:
1. Open the public hearing and receive public testimony.
2. Close the public hearing and adopt Resolution HSPB #160, “A RESOLUTION OF
THE HISTORIC SITE PRESERVATION BOARD OF THE CITY OF PALM
SPRINGS, CALIFORNIA, RECOMMENDING THAT THE CITY COUNCIL DESIGNATE “THE MERRILL LYNCH BUILDING” LOCATED AT 415 SOUTH PALM CANYON, AS A CLASS 1 (LANDMARK) HISTORIC RESOURCE HSPB #160, SUBJECT TO CONDITIONS (APN #513-213-001).”
BACKGROUND AND SETTING:
This building was designed for Merrill Lynch, a financial institution, in an area emerging as the Financial District of Palm Springs. The report indicates that the site originally contained a 27-unit apartment hotel from the late 1920s. Utilizing an architectural style to achieve a sense of monumentality, the building continues to display a sense of stability and permanence on South Palm Canyon. The lot is almost one-acre in size with parking concentrated to the south and west sides of the lot . The design is based on Classical principles using modern construction materials like steel . Architect, Donald Wexler collaborated with the design team to restore and rehabilitate the building in 2014 from its original use to its current use as the Eisenhower Health Center.
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Historic Site Preservation Board Staff Report September 3, 2024 HSPB-160 – The Merrill Lynch Building
AERIAL VIEW OF THE SUBJECT PARCEL.
EAST ELEVATION FROM SOUTH PALM CANYON, 2024.
Related Relevant City Actions by HSPB, Planning, Fire, Building, etc.
August, 2024 Site inspection by members of the HSPB and City Staff.
Ownership Status
November, 2021 Purchased by the current owner.
Item 2A - Page 83
Historic Site Preservation Board Staff Report September 3, 2024 HSPB-160 – The Merrill Lynch Building
Historic Context Statement “Post-World War II (1945-1969)” Palm Springs enters into a time of growing prosperity and population growth during the post-World War II period. Retail buildings, restaurants and banks started to line the streets of the commercial districts. F inancial institutions began to cluster along South Palm Canyon Drive between West Baristo Road and East Camino Parocela. (See page 11 of the report.) Some notable financial buildings in this area include the recently restored Bank of America (City National Bank from 1959) , the Architecture Design Center , Edwards Harris Pavilion (Santa Fe Federal Savings and Loan, 1960) and the Chase Bank (Coachella Valley Savings and Loan, 1961).
Context: Post-World War II Palm Springs (1945-1969)
Theme: Post World War II Commercial Development (1945-1969) Registration Requirements: To be eligible under this theme, a property must:
Date from the period of significance; and
Represent important patterns and trends in commercial development from this period; or
Represent an excellent or rare example of an architectural style or property type; or method of construction, or be associated with a significant architect or designer; and
Display most of the character-defining features of the property type or style; and
Retain the essential aspects of historic integrity.
Context: Architectural Styles & Local Practitioners
Theme: Modern Styles of the Post-World War II Era
Sub-theme: New Formalism
Registration Requirements: To be eligible under this theme as an excellent example of its architectural style, a property must:
Retain most – though not necessarily all – of the character-defining features of the style, and continue to exhibit its historic appearance If important for illustrating a particular architectural style or construction technique, must retain most of the physical features that constitute that style or technique.
ANALYSIS:
A historic resources report (“the report”), site visit, and city documents and forms are the basis of this staff report. The existing building retains many character -defining features such as the columns, entry portico, clean lines, and the original site design. The four palm trees in the foreground of the building are trees that were planted in the downtown area along Palm Canyon as part of the Ruth Hardy plan. There is an emphasis on the symmetrical plan and the scale and proportions of the building give it a monolithic presence when viewed from the street. The structure is also elevated from the sidewalk on a podium which adds to this effect.
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Historic Site Preservation Board Staff Report September 3, 2024 HSPB-160 – The Merrill Lynch Building
The building is an exceptional representation of New Formalism1 and retains a high level of design integrity.
Historic Preservation activities in Palm Springs are regulated under Municipal Code Section 8.05 (“ Historic Preservation” ). The purpose of the Historic Preservation Ordinance is:
“…to stabilize and improve buildings, structures or areas which are considered to be of historical, architectural, archaeological or ecological value, to foster civic beauty, to strengthen the local economy and to promote the use of historic resources for the education and welfare of the citizens.”
Conditions that apply t
o Class 1 historic sites or resources:
1. It shall meet the definition of a historic site as outlined in Municipal Code Section
8.05.020.
2. An archival file shall be maintained on the property by the City.
3. It may be qualified as ‘historic’ at the federal, state, and/or county level.
4. A marker explaining the historic nature of the site may be installed in a location viewable from the public way.
5. Compliance with all rules and regulations for Historic Resources and Historic Districts under Chapter 8.05 of the Municipal Code.
6. If designated, the findings in support of designation shall be stated in a resolution of the City Council that shall be recorded with the County Recorders’ office within 90 days of the effective date of the Council’s resolution.
Evaluation of the Application. P
ursuant to Municipal Code Section 8.05.070 (C,1,a), the HSPB shall evaluate the application and make findings in conformance with the following criteria:
C
riteria for the Designation of Class 1 Historic Resources. A site, structure, building or object may be designated as a Class 1 historic resource, provided both of the following findings (“a” and “b”) are met:
a. The site, structure, building or object exhibits exceptional historic significance and meets one or more of the criteria listed below:
415 South Palm Canyon Drive is a unique example of a commercial property designed in the New Formalist style. The building expresses a level of permanence and longevity, yet the modern materials allow it to fit into its contemporary context. While the interior was significantly rehabilitated to accommodate a new use, the exterior of the building remains relatively in-tact. The following is a detailed analysis of the criterion and integrity findings.
(Criterion i) The resource is associated with events that have made a meaningful contribution to the nation, state or community;
1 City of Palm Springs Historic Context Statement “Architectural Styles and Local Practitioners”.
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Historic Site Preservation Board Staff Report September 3, 2024 HSPB-160 – The Merrill Lynch Building
No meaningful event is associated with this site, thus does not qualify under Criterion i.
(Criterion ii) The resource is associated with the lives of persons who made a meaningful contribution to national, state or local history;
The building was constructed to address the financial needs of a growing community. The report did not reveal any individual of significance being associated with the site; therefore, Criterion ii is not met.
(Criterion iii) The resource reflects or exemplifies a particular period of national, state or local history;
In the Post World War II period, the shifting economic climate created new opportunities for designers and architects to move to P alm Springs and explore and implement the latest design trends. In response to the International Style, New Formalism , which may be seen as the abstraction of Classical architecture, developed into a style of architecture that was often used for public and institutional buildings. The scale and symmetry of the buildings evoked a sense of permanence and stability. While there are limited examples of this style of architecture in Palm Springs, the Merrill Lynch Building would be an outstanding example of this form of architecture. Criterion iii is met.
(Criterion iv) The resource embodies the distinctive characteristics of a type, period or method of construction;
Unlike the National Register criterion concerning construction, the Palm Springs evaluation of construction addresses the type (of construction), the period (of construction) and the method (of construction). It appears that the building was constructed using standard construction methods and materials and does not qualify for this criterion.
(Criterion v) The resource presents the work of a master builder, designer, artist, or architect whose individual genius influenced his age, or that possesses high artistic value;
Donald Wexler is a notable and well-respected architect that has influenced the field with his work. He trained under other master architects such as Richard Neutra and William F. Cody but quickly developed his own sense of design using materials like steel in a desert setting. His portfolio of work ranges from residential homes to large civic projects, and he explored a variety of architectural styles throughout his career. In addition, t he architectural detailing of the columns and use of scale at the Merrill Lynch Building clearly shows Wexler’s design genius, thus Criterion v is met.
(Criterion vi) The resource represents a significant and distinguishable entity whose components may lack individual distinction, as used in evaluating applications for designation of historic districts, for parcels on Item 2A - Page 86
Historic Site Preservation Board Staff Report September 3, 2024 HSPB-160 – The Merrill Lynch Building
which more than one entity exists; or
The resource is not within a historic district and does not qualify under Criterion vi.
(Criterion vii) The resource has yielded or may be likely to yield information important to national, state or local history or prehistory.
No information is available on any pre-historic significance of the site.
Analysis of Integrity. (PSMC 8.05.070 (C,1,b). T
he site, structure, building
or object retains one or more of the following aspects of integrity, as established in the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards: integrity of design, materials, workmanship, location, setting, feeling, or association.
T
he Merrill Lynch Building is evaluated based on the following topics of integrity based on the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards:
Location.
The location of the structure is in its original place of construction; therefore, the integrity of location is met.
Design.
The two-story, steel-framed building is situated on a podium (platform) elevated from the adjacent sidewalk and has free- standing columns and pilasters supporting the entablature. The columns in the front also create a portico around the main entrance making it a promi nent feature. The building uses traditional design concepts yet uses a panelized system to clad the exterior . The concept of New Formalism focuses on scale and a sense of balance and simplifies decorative elements rather than strip them from the building completely. The integrity of the original design has been preserved.
Setting.
The building remains in its original location on South Palm Canyon Drive and the concentration of buildings specifically designed for financial institutions are still in the general vicinity, even if many have been adaptively reused and serve a different function.
Staff finds that the overall integrity of setting remains intact.
Materials.
The steel-framed building and the plaster cladded entablature and columns all have a textured finish, painted white. Some exterior walls are arranged with a split-face concrete block and high clerestory windows adorn the façade. The report specifies restoration work occurred in the mid-2000s but the exterior materials, excluding the original front doors, were replaced to match the historic photos of the building. Staff finds the integrity of materials is met.
Item 2A - Page 87
Historic Site Preservation Board Staff Report September 3, 2024 HSPB-160 – The Merrill Lynch Building
Workmanship.
The attention to detail, particularly around the columns and pilasters showing the simple decorative aluminum channels and the reveals at the top and bottoms of each vertical element illustrates a design aesthetic that is clean and functional. The white-plaster and exterior wall surfaces appear to be in good condition with no visible damage. Staff finds the integrity of workmanship is intact.
Feeling.
The overall mass, scale and design details of the building’s exterior remain unchanged and clearly demonstrates the sense of stability and authority associated with financial institutions of that era. The integrity of feeling is intact.
Association.
The property is associated with the architect Donald Wexler and his interpretation of Classical principles using modern materials and construction methods . The design was well-received by the community and recognized in 1972 with the “Desert Beautiful” award.
The integrity of association is met.
DEFINING HISTORIC CHARACTERISTICS:
In considering a recommendation for historic resource designation it is important to distinguish those physical elements that are original or from the period of significance that contribute to the resource’s historic significance from alterations, additions or features that were added at a later time that may be sympathetic to the original character, but which may create a false sense of historicity. Distinguishing original character -defining features from non- original elements aids the HSPB when it is tas ked with evaluating future alterations to the historic resource.
On page 24, the report identifies the physical character -defining historic features of this site as follows:
• Monumental, flat-roofed two-story structure inspired by a more Classical style of architecture that includes freestanding columns in the front of the building, supporting a colonnade, with engaged columns surrounding the structure on the sides and back.
• Squared, white-painted plaster columns with vertical “U” -shaped brushed aluminum decorative channels.
• Wide, white-painted plaster fascia emulating a simplified entablature. The fascia is embellished with vertical “U”-shaped brushed aluminum channels, in line with the same vertical channels in the columns directly below.
• Recessed lighting and anodized bronze can downlights on the ceiling of the colonnade.
• Tan split-faced block walls and podium.
• Concrete paving with tiles arranged in a geometric pattern at the building entrances.
• Solar glass panels and clerestories.
Item 2A - Page 88
Historic Site Preservation Board Staff Report September 3, 2024 HSPB-160 – The Merrill Lynch Building
• Four existing California fan palms (Washingtonia filifera) from the Ruth Hardy plan down Palm Canyon Drive.
• Concrete-curbed planting beds in the rear parking lot. • Tan split-faced block walls enclose the property.
Non-c
ontributing elements:
• Bronze anodized aluminum and bronze-tinted solar glass entry doors, which replaced the Ackerman Panelcarve doors and transom.
• Large-scale bronze wall sculpture by artist Abbott Pattison, previously hung on the wall of the Spa Hotel.
• Replacement tiles embedded in the concrete of the podium surface. • Handrails on the main stairs leading to the front entrance. • Existing desert landscape design.
ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT:
The proposed historic resource designation is not subject to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) pursuant to Sections 15060(c)(2) (the activity will not result in a direct or reasonably foreseeable indirect physical change in the environment) and 15060(c)(3) (the activity is not a project as defined in Section 15378) of the CEQA Guidelines, California Code of Regulations, Title 14, Chapter 3, because it has no potential for resulting in physical changes to the environment, directly or indirectly.
NOTIFICATION:
Pursuant to section 8.05.140 of the Municipal Code of Palm Springs, all residents within five hundred (500) feet of the subject property have been notified and notice was published in a newspaper of general circulation.
CONCLUSION:
The Merrill Lynch Building meets the definition of a historic resource based on Criterion 3 and 5 of the Palm Springs Historic Preservation Ordinance and meets the necessary integrity findings to support its historic significance; therefore, staff recommends Class 1 Designation as a historic landmark property.
PREPARED BY: Sarah Yoon, Associate Planner/Historic Preservation Officer REVIEWED BY: David Newell, AICP, Assistant Director of Planning
Attachments:
A. Vicinity Map
B. Draft Resolution
C. A pplication, related background materials, photos.
Item 2A - Page 89
EXCERPTS OF MINUTES
At the Historic Site Preservation Board meeting of the City of Palm Springs, held September 3, 2024, the Historic Site Preservation Board took the following action:
2.B. APPLICATION BY SCOTT P. TIMBERLAKE AND ANNE KRIZMAN
REPRESENTED BY THE PALM SPRINGS PRESERVATION
FOUNDATION FOR HISTORIC SITE DESIGNATION OF “THE MERRILL LYNCH BUILDING” LOCATED AT 415 SOUTH PALM CANYON, (APN
513-213-001) CASE HSPB #160 (SY).
Associate Planner and Historic Preservation Officer Yoon presented the staff report and answered questions of the Board.
Steven Keylon, Architectural Historian, spoke on behalf of the applicant and answered questions of the Board.
Motion by Member Hansen, seconded by Member Moruzzi to adopt the amended findings for Criterion 3 to include the building’s contribution to the financial district during the post- war era and amend the list of contributing features to include landscape features located on the parcel and remove the right-of-way palm trees along Palm Canyon from the list on contributing elements, and recommend that the City Council designate “The Merrill Lynch Building” (HSPB 160) as a Class 1 historic landmark site, subject to conditions.
AYES: Nelson, Bachman, Hansen, Herr, Moruzzi.
NOES: None.
ABSENT: Rosenow, Mischka Hitchcock.
Item 2A - Page 90
CITY COUNCIL STAFF REPORT
DATE: O CTOBER 24, 2024 PUBLIC HEARING
SUBJECT: AN APPLICATION BY LARRY YARCHEVER, REPRESENTED BY THE
PALM SPRINGS PRESERVATION FOUNDATION , FOR HISTORIC SITE DESIGNATION OF THE RATNER RESIDENCE LOCATED AT 1633 VIA ROBERTO MIGUEL (APN 677-233-003), CASE HSPB #161
FROM: Scott C. Stiles, City Manager
BY: Department of Planning Services
SUMMARY:
1633 Via Roberto Miguel is a single-family home completed during the first phase of the “Barbara Tract” subdivision in 1960. Also known as the El Rancho Vista Estates neighborhood, the developer Roy Fey employed architects Donald Wexler and Richard Harrison to design the homes in a Mid-century Modern style with updated amenities like air conditioning and television and telephone cables. Similar to the approach utilized by the Alexander Construction Company, Wexler and Harrison designed three different floor plans with variations to the roofline, block walls and site placement giving each home a distinctive appearance.
If designated as a historic resource, the property would be subject to the regulations outlined in Section 8.05 of the Palm Springs Municipal Code (PSMC).
The HSPB and staff evaluated the application in accordance with the historic designation ordinance and applicable state/federal regulations, and determined it qualifies as a Class 1 (Landmark) historic site.
RECOMMENDATION:
1. Open the public hearing and receive public testimony.
2. Close the public hearing and adopt Resolution No. _____, “A RESOLUTION OF
THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PALM SPRINGS, CALIFORNIA, DESIGNATING THE RATNER RESIDENCE LOCATED AT1633 VIA ROBERTO MIGUEL, AS A CLASS 1 ( LANDMARK) HISTORIC RESOURCE HSPB #1 61, SUBJECT TO CONDITIONS (APN 677-233-003).”
Item 2B - Page 1
City Council Staff Report
October 24, 2024 – Page 2
Historic Designation – The Ratner Residence
BACKGROUND AND SETTING:
The attached historic resources report , prepared by Palm Springs Preservation Foundation (PSPF) (“the report”), and site visits are the basis of this staff report.
Related Relevant City Actions by HSPB, Planning, Fire, Building, etc.
September, 2024 Site inspection by members of the HSPB and City Staff.
October 1, 2024 HSPB considered the application for designation at a public hearing recommending Class 1 designation.
Ownership Status
June, 2020 Purchased by current owners.
1633 VIA ROBERTO MIGUEL, EAST (FRONT) ELEVATION, 2024.
The historic designation request was initiated by the building owner and the historic resources report supports the reclassification of the site as a Class 1 landmark. Staff and the HSPB made the findings to recommend Class 1 designation.
ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS:
The analysis of the application relative to the criteria for the designation of historic resources is detailed in the attached HSPB resolution and staff report dated October 1, 2024. In order to be designated a historic landmark, a resource must exhibit exceptional historic significance and meet one or more of the criteria listed in PSMC Section
8.05.070.C.1.a. The Board made findings in support of Class 1 ( Landmark) designation based on the following criteria:
Item 2B - Page 2
City Council Staff Report
October 24, 2024 – Page 3
Historic Designation – The Ratner Residence
PSMC 8.05.070, (C,1,Part a). The site, structure, building, or object exhibits exceptional historic significance and meets one or more of the criteria listed below:
(Criterion iii) The resource reflects or exemplifies a particular period of national, state, or local history;
(Criterion v) The resource presents the work of a master builder, designer, artist, or architect whose individual genius influenced his age, or that possesses high artistic value;
The Board also made findings pursuant to PSMC 8.05.070, (5,C,1,Part b); “Historic Integrity” that The Ratner Residence possesses sufficient historic integrity to qualify as a Class 1 (Landmark) historic site.
During the October 1 , 2024 HSPB meeting, the Board discussed the application and made the finding for Class 1 historic site designation. Member Maschka Hitchcock asked for clarification regarding the significance of the site design as a character -defining feature. Larry Yarchever and Steven Keylon spoke on the merits of the subdivision and the design elements of the home, including the cement block wall. Chair Nelson made a motion that included Member Hansen’s amendment to add the home’s location in the Barbara Tract as a character-defining feature.
CONCLUSION:
The Ratner Residence meets the definition of a historic resource based on Criterion 3, 4 and 5 of the Palm Springs Historic Preservation Ordinance. The property possesses integrity to qualify as a Class 1 ( Landmark) site. The HSPB recommendation to the City Council reflects these findings which are outlined in the attached draft City Council resolution.
ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT:
The proposed historic resource designation is not subject to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) pursuant to Sections 15060(c)(2) (the activity will not result in a direct or reasonably foreseeable indirect physical change in the environment) and 15060(c)(3) (the activity is not a project as defined in Section 15378) of the CEQA Guidelines, California Code of Regulations, Title 14, Chapter 3, because it has no potential for resulting in physical changes to the environment, directly or indirectly.
NOTIFICATION:
Pursuant to Section 94.09.00 (Public Hearing) of the Palm Springs Zoning Code, notice has been mailed to all property owners and residents within five hundred (500) feet of the subject property and notice was published in a newspaper of general circulation.
Item 2B - Page 3
City Council Staff Report
October 24, 2024 – Page 4
Historic Designation – The Ratner Residence
FISCAL IMPACT:
None.
REVIEWED BY:
Department Director: Christopher Hadwin
Deputy City Manager: Flinn Fagg
City Manager: Scott Stiles
ATTACHMENTS:
A. Vicinity Map.
B. Draft Resolution.
C. Application, related background materials, photos.
D. HSPB resolution, staff report, minute excerpt.
Item 2B - Page 4
ATTACHMENT A
Item 2B - Page 5
Department of Planning Services
Vicinity Map
CITY OF PALM SPRINGS
HSPB #161 – The Ratner Residence
1633 Via Roberto Miguel
Item 2B - Page 6
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ATTACHMENT B
Item 2B - Page 7
RESOLUTION NO._____
A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PALM
SPRINGS, CALIFORNIA, DESIGNATING THE RATNER
RESIDENCE, LOCATED AT 1633 VIA ROBERTO MIGUEL , AS A
CLASS 1 ( LANDMARK) HISTORIC RESOURCE HSPB #1 61,
SUBJECT TO CONDITIONS (APN 677-233-003).
THE CITY COUNCIL FINDS AND DETERMINES AS FOLLOWS:
A. WHEREAS, Chapter 8.05 of the Palm Springs Municipal Code allows for the designation of historic sites and districts; and
B. WHEREAS, the City of Palm Springs initiated an application, Case HSPB #161, seeking historic site designation of The Ratner Residence located at 1633 Via Roberto Miguel; and
C. WHEREAS, on September 19, 23, 24 and 30, 2024, members of the Historic Site Preservation Board (HSPB) and City staff conducted site ins pections of the proposed historic resource; and
D. WHEREAS, on October 1, 2024, a noticed public he aring of the Palm Springs Historic Site Preservation Board to consider Case HSPB #161 was held in accordance with applicable law; and
E. WHEREAS, at said hearing, the HSPB carefully reviewed and considered all the evidence presented in connection with the hearing on the project, including, but not limited to, the staff report and all written and oral testimony and voted unanimously to recommend that the Council designate The Ratner Residence a Class 1 (Landmark) historic resource; and
F. WHEREAS, on October 24, 202 4, a noticed public hearing of the Palm Springs City Council to consider Case HSPB #161 was held in accordance with applicable law; and
G. WHEREAS, at the said hearing, the City Council carefully reviewed and considered all the evidence presented in connection with the hearing on the project, including, but not limited to the staff report and all written and oral testimony.
THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PALM SPRINGS RESOLVES:
SECTION 1: FINDINGS – PART “A”, CRITERIA FOR HISTORIC RESOURCES.
Evaluation of the Application.
Pursuant to Municipal Code Section 8.05.070 (C,1,a), the City Council shall evaluate the application and make findings in conformance with the following criteria:
Criteria for the Designation of Class 1 Historic Resources. A site, structure, building or object may be designated as a Class 1 historic resource, provided both of the following findings (“a” and “b”) are met:
a. The site, structure, building, or object exhibits exceptional historic Item 2B - Page 8
Resolution No.____
October 24, 2024
significance and meets one or more of the criteria listed below:
1633 Via Roberto Miguel is a single- family home constructed in the Mid- century Modern architectural style with much of the exterior features intact. While interiors of privately owned properties are not subject to historic review, much of the original floor plan, including the kitchen area, remains. The following is a detailed analysis of the criterion and integrity findings.
(Criterion i) The resource is associated with events that have made a meaningful contribution to the nation, state, or community;
No meaningful event is associated with this site, thus does not qualify under Criterion i.
(Criterion ii) The resource is associated with the lives of persons who made a meaningful contribution to national, state or local history;
The first residents, Benjamin and Lee Ratner, owned the home for two years before they sold to Ronald and Jessie Knox. Based on the research in the Historic Resources Report (HRR), the Knox family provided valuable photographic documentation of the home showing its original conditions; however, none of the past owners qualify for this criterion.
(Criterion iii) The resource reflects or exemplifies a particular period of national, state, or local history;
Palm Spring in the Post -World War II was a period of substantial growth in population, and a time of prosperity and design experimentation. Developers turned to large residential tract development and often collaborated with designers and architects to give the homes a design identity and seamlessly integrate and promote new amenities. This home specifically embodies the concept of design experimentation by embracing the Mid- century Modern style of architecture to promote the desert lifestyle of that period. The “Barbara Tract” also reflects the planning and development patterns for mass -produced residential development for this period. Criterion iii is met.
(Criterion iv) The resource embodies the distinctive characteristics of a type, period, or method of construction;
Unlike the National Register criterion concerning construction, the Palm Springs evaluation of construction addresses the type (of construction), the period (of construction) and the method (of construction). According to the report, the concrete masonry unit (C.M.U) was invented in the 1900s but in 1950s, “Shadowal” and “Hi -Lite” was introduced and trademarked as a decorative building material. The revised design of this building material allowed designers to create a variety of distinctive patterns within a reasonable budget. This home retains the decorative block wall on the front façade and the use of this building material gives the home a sculptural accent. Based on the use of this distinctive material for construction, City Council finds Criterion iv is met under this analysis.
(Criterion v) The resource presents the work of a master builder, designer, artist, Item 2B - Page 9
Resolution No.____
October 24, 2024
or architect whose individual genius influenced his age, or that possesses high artistic value;
Both Donald Wexler and Richard Harrison are well -respected, notable architects that continue to influence the field of design and architecture through their work at the local and international level. The Wexler & Harrison partnership lasted from 1953-1962 and the practice designed many custom homes and residential tracts in Palm Springs. When designing the El Rancho Vista Estates, their first single- family subdivision project, it was an example of how to design a mass -produced residential development while providing a unique sense of style for each home. This specific residence is an example of that streamlined design process in a residential subdivision. Wexler later experiments with materials like steel for residential projects and gradually shifts to larg er civic and commercial projects while Harrison becomes more involved in housing development projects. Developers like Roy Fey and the Alexanders challenged the industry and designers to think at this suburban scale that eventually permeated throughout Palm Springs. City Council finds the home reflects the genius of the two architects and the developer and meets Criterion v for historic significance.
(Criterion vi) The resource represents a significant and distinguishable entity whose components may lack individual distinction, as used in evaluating applications for designation of historic districts, for parcels on which more than one entity exists; or
The resource is not within a historic district and does not qualify under Criterion vi.
(Criterion vii) The resource has yielded or may be likely to yield information important to national, state or local history or prehistory.
No information has been provided on any pre-historic significance of the site.
SECTION 2: PART “B” ANALYSIS OF HISTORIC INTEGRITY.
Analysis of Integrity. (PSMC 8.05.070 (C,1,b). The site, structure, building, or object retains one or more of the following aspects of integrity, as established in the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards: integrity of design, materials, workmanship, location, setting, feeling, or association.
The report provides an evaluation of the site relative to the seven aspects or qualities of historic integrity, as recognized by the National Register of Historic Places. The seven aspects or qualities include location, design, setting, materials, workmanship, feeling, and association. The report concludes that the site retains a high degree of integrity and is further analyzed below:
1. Location:
The home is in its original location on the lot and the building footprint remains intact; therefore, the integrity of location is met.
Item 2B - Page 10
Resolution No.____
October 24, 2024
2. Design:
The “mass-produced” approach to housing resulted in a unique design approach where the architects designed three floor plans and varied the appearance for each home by selecting different rooflines, decorative block wall designs, and site orientation. The Ratner Residence is a modest single-family home utilizing the “Bermuda” floor plan with a gabled roofline. All mechanical equipment and ductwork are internalized, allowing for the roof to remain clutter free. The site placement of the home created a generous front lawn which was later reduced with the addition of the swimming pool. The roof is a low-pitched gable with an extruded eave and downturned flaps on either end along the primary front façade. The clerestory windows and floor to ceiling fenestration bring light and air into the living space, and the decorative block wall consists of alternating reliefs on each masonry unit creating a simple pattern on the primary façade of the home. The fenestration openings appear original, and the sliding doors and windows on the front façade appear original. The integrity of design is intact with minor alterations.
3. Setting:
This residential tract was completed in phases and the names and layout of the streets are still extant. The overall neighborhood is still bounded by Vista Chino to the north and undeveloped Tribal land to the west. The setting around the home demonstrates the same conditions as when it was first built. City Council finds the integrity of setting remains.
4. Materials:
The building consists of wood- frame construction, stucco walls, floor to ceiling glazing and decorative CMU walls. The exterior is painted white with a dark trim color and the clerestory windows and sliding doors on the front façade appear original. The wooden facia and extruded rafter beams on the exterior have been repaired and maintained. The non- original decorative glazed block columns added under the extruded eave is reversible. While some fenestration at the rear of the residence has been replaced, City Council finds a majority of the existing materials are intact and in good condition.
5. Workmanship:
The homes within this development were constructed using conventional methods and materials with special attention to the decorative masonry walls. Each home is a combination of different plans and roof forms. Where some homes have underdone significant exterior changes, the Ratner Residence retains the original floor plan and exterior details with signs of repairs and minor alterations that are sensitive to the original design. City Council finds the integrity of workmanship is intact.
6. Feeling:
The feelings associated with a residential neighborhood and the aesthetic of the Mid-century Modern style remains unchanged. By retaining the materials, design, and setting from its period of significance, the building and the site retains its integrity of feeling.
Item 2B - Page 11
Resolution No.____
October 24, 2024
7. Association:
The property is associated with architects Donald Wexler and Richard Harrison and developer Roy Fey. The original neighborhood pattern and location of the tract, down to the street names have not changed. The integrity of association is met.
SECTION 3: DEFINING HISTORIC CHARACTERISTICS
In considering a recommendation for historic resource designation it is important to distinguish those physical elements that are original or from the period of significance that contribute to the resource’s historic significance from alterations, additions or features that were added at a later time that may be sympathetic to the original character, but which may create a false sense of historicity. Distinguishing original character-defining features from non-original elements aids the HSPB when it is tasked with evaluating future alterations to the historic resource.
The following is a list of character-defining features identified by the City Council:
Character-defining features of the resource are as follows:
• Site design of the property.
• Location within the “Barbara Tract”.
• “Bermuda” floor plan with a gabled roofline.
• Floor-to-ceiling fixed pane and aluminum -framed sliding glass doors with original hardware.
• Clerestory windows.
• Decorative “Shadowal” concrete block wall and stucco-finished walls. • Low-pitched gabled roof with turn-down flaps over the primary entrance of the home, with another volume with a gently sloping roofline to meet the gabled roof. • Open carport with adjacent storage closet and laundry room. • Enclosed, open-air patio between the carport and residence.
Non-contributing elements:
• Non-original vinyl-framed windows at the rear of the structure. • Swimming pool and pool decking in the front yard of the home. • Concrete block walls enclosing the front-loaded pool. • Hanging light fixture near the front entrance.
• Decorative glazed clay block column with biomorphic cutouts. • Glass-block bump out on the west elevation of the home. • Walls installed between the columns supporting the carport.
SECTION 4: ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT
The proposed historic resource designation is not subject to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) pursuant to Sections 15060(c)(2) (the activity will not result in a direct or reasonably foreseeable indirect physical change in the environment) and 15060(c)(3) (the activity is not a Item 2B - Page 12
Resolution No.____
October 24, 2024
project as defined in Section 15378) of the CEQA Guidelines, California Code of Regulations, Title 14, Chapter 3, because it has no potential for resulting in physical changes to the environment, directly or indirectly.
SECTION 5: CONDITIONS THAT APPLY TO HISTORIC SITES:
According to Section 8.05 of the Municipal Code, the following shall apply to a Class 1 Historic Resource:
1. It shall meet the definition of a Class 1 historic site as outlined in Municipal Code Section
8.05.020.
2. An archival file on the property shall be maintained by the City.
3. It may be qualified as ‘historic’ at the federal, state, and/or county level.
4. The structure/site may not be modified, nor objects removed without following the procedures outlined in Municipal Code Section 8.05.110 “Demolition or Alteration of Class 1 and Class 2 Historic Resources – Certificate of Appropriateness”.
5. A marker explaining the historic nature of the site may be installed at the site in a location viewable from the public way.
6. Compliance with all rules and regulations for Historic Sites and Historic Districts under Chapter 8.05 of the Municipal Code shall be required.
7. The site shall not be further subdivided.
8. The City Clerk shall submit the Council Resolution to the County recorder for recordation within 90 days of the effective date of the Council’s resolution.
Based upon the foregoing, the City Council hereby designates The Ratner Residence located at 1633 Via Roberto Miguel, a Class 1 (Landmark) Historic Resource (Case HSPB #161).
ADOPTED THIS TWENTY-FOURTH DAY OF OCTOBER, 2024.
SCOTT STILES
CITY MANAGER
ATTEST:
BRENDA PREE, MMC
CITY CLERK
Item 2B - Page 13
Resolution No.____
October 24, 2024
CERTIFICATION
STATE OF CALIFORNIA )
COUNTY OF RIVERSIDE ) ss.
CITY OF PALM SPRINGS )
I, BRENDA PREE, City Clerk of the City of Palm Springs, hereby certify that Resolution No. ____ is a full, true, and correct copy, and was duly adopted at a regular meeting of the City Council of the City of Palm Springs on _______________________, by the following vote:
AYES:
NOES:
ABSENT:
ABSTAIN:
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand and affixed the official seal of the City of Palm Springs, California, this ______ day of ______________, _________.
BRENDA PREE, MMC
CITY CLERK
Item 2B - Page 14
ATTACHMENT C
Item 2B - Page 15
Harper Goff Illustration
Prepared by
STEVEN KEYLON
For the
PALM SPRINGS PRESERVATION FOUNDATION
Final November 21, 2023
THE RATNER
RESIDENCE - 1960
Wexler and Harrison, AIA
Architects
1633 Via Roberto Miguel
Palm Springs, CA 92262
Item 2B - Page 16
1 590ivrings, CA 92262
A C K N O W L E D G E M E N T S
The author would like to thank
the following individuals and organizations for
their professional expertise and/or editing assistance:
Gary Wexler; Barbara Marshall; Frank Lopez, Palm Springs Art Museum Architecture & Design Center Archives, Erik Rosenow.
C L A S S 1 H I S T O R I C R E S O U R C E
N O M I N A T I O N
TABLE of CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION: PAGE 2
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: PAGE 2
CLASS 1 HISTORIC RESOURCE DESIGNATION APPLICATION FORM: PAGE 3 CHAIN OF TITLE: PAGE 6
BACKGROUND/HISTORIC CONTEXT: PAGE 27
EVALUATION: PAGE 31
STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE AND INTEGRITY ANALYSIS: PAGE 33
APPENDIXES
I Owner’s Letter of Support: Page 36
II Assessor’s Map: Page 37
III Building Permits: Page 38
IV Shadowal, Hi-Lite, and Screen Block: Page 40
V Harper Goff Brochure: Page 53
VI Contemporary Photographs: Page 56
VII Grant Deed: Page 68
VIII El Rancho Vista Estates Potential Historic District: Page 69 Item 2B - Page 17
2 I N T R O D U C T I O N
The Palm Springs Preservation Foundation (PSPF) is a non-profit organization whose mission is “to educate and promote public awareness of the importance of preserving the historical resources and architecture of the City of Palm Springs and the Coachella Valley area.” In January 2023, the PSPF board of directors assigned the task of writing the Ratner Residence Class 1 Historic Resource nomination to Steven Keylon.
E X E C U T I V E S U M M A R Y
The Ratner Residence is a residential tract home in the El Rancho Vista Estates neighborhood of Palm Springs.
The house was one of about seventy designed by architects Donald Wexler and Richard Harrison for builder Roy Fey and was built in 1960. The structure is a prime example of one of their elegant Midcentury Modern designs. It exhibits numerous character-defining features that place it within the historical context of the Post- World War II Palm Springs (1945-1969) period, specifically under the theme of Post-World War II Single-Family Residential Development (1945-1969)
.
Item 2B - Page 18
3 Item 2B - Page 19
4 Item 2B - Page 20
Original Owner: BENJAMIN AND LEE RATNER
Other notable past owners: ___________________________ _ Other Historic Associations: ___________________________ _ Common Name of Property: ___________________________ _
Historic Name of Property:_R_AT_N_E_R_R_Es_ID_E_N_c_E _____________________ _ Attach to this application any information, photos, drawings, newspaper articles, reports, studies, or other materials to fully describe the characteristics or conditions that support this application for historic designation.
Architectural Style: _MI_D_c_EN_T_u_RY_Mo_D_E_R_N __________________ _ (Refer to the Architectural Styles chapter of the Citywide Historic Context Statement, under Historic Resources on the Planning Home page (www.palmspringsca .gov).
Period of Significance :_1_96_0 ___________________________ _ (See the Citywide Historic Context Statement Document.) Please list any informational reference sources used to complete this application:
PSMC 8.05.070 (C, 1 ): Criteria for the Designation of Class 1 Historic Resources.
A site, structure, building or object may be designated as a Class 1 historic resource or a Contributing Resource in a proposed historic district by the Palm Springs City Council, provided both of the following findings are met.
Provide a written description of how the site qualifies as historic resource under one or more of the following criterion:
FINDING 1: The site, structure, building or object exhibits exceptional historic significance and meets one or more of the criteria listed below:
i. The resource is associated with events that have made a meaningful contribution to the nation, state or community. 1
ii. The resource is associated with the lives of persons who made a meaningful contribution to national, state or local history.
iii. The resource reflects or exemplifies a particular period of national, state or local history. iv. The resource embodies the distinctive characteristics of a type of construction, a period of construction or a method of construction .2
v. The resource presents the work of a master builder, designer, artist, or architect whose individual genius influenced his age, or that possesses high artistic value. vi. The resource represents a significant and distinguishable entity whose components may lack individual distinction, as used in evaluating applications for designation of historic districts, for parcels on which more than one entity exists.
vii. The resource has yielded or may be likely to yield information important to national, state or local history or prehistory.
1 NOTE: Unlike the National Register criteria, The City's criterion does not consider "patterns of events". For consideration of "patterns of events ", use Criterion "iii", reflecting a particular period 2 Unlike the National Register criteria "type, period of method of construction relates to constructi on only' For design theme or characteristics use Criterion "iii" (period) or Criterion v (high artistic value).
HISTORIC RESOURCE DESIGNATION APPLICATION (8-10-22) KL 5 of 6 5 Item 2B - Page 21
FINDING 2: The site, structure, building or object retains most if not all of the following aspects of Integrity, as established in the Secretary of the Interior's Standards 3: Design, Materials, Workmanship, Location, Setting, Feeling, Association .
PSMC 8.05.070 (C,2) Criteria for the Designation of Class 2 Historic Resources .
A site, structure, building or object may be designated as a Class 2 historic resource, or a Contributing Resource to a proposed historic district by the Palm Springs City Council provided the site, structure , building or object exhibits exceptional historic significance and meets one or more of the criteria listed in Finding 1 above. A Class 2 historic resource is not required to meet the findings for integrity as described in Finding 2 (above).
PSMC 8.05.090 (C) Criteria and Findings for Designation of Historic Districts.
In addition to the criteria listed in Finding 1, to be considered for designation as a Historic District, a defined area must:
a. Contain contributing resources on a majority of the sites within the proposed district which individually meet the criteria in Finding (1). The defined area may include other structures, buildings, or archaeological sites which contribute generally to the overall distinctive character of the area and are related historically or visually by plan or physical development. (Identify list by address and APN number each site / parcel that meets the criteria outlined in Finding 1 above and document how each meets the criteria . b. Identify non-contributing properties or vacant parcels to the extent necessary to establish appropriate, logical or convenient boundaries.
(Identify list by address and APN number each site / parcel within the proposed historic district that is considered non-contributing to the overall historic significance of the historic district.) Please attach any additional information related to the application as necessary.
Questions : Contact the Palm Springs Planning Department at 760 323 8245. 3 Refer to the U.S. Department of the Interior Bulletin for How to Evaluate the Integrity of a Property.
HISTORIC RESOURCE DESIGNATION APPLICATION (8-10-22) KL 6 of 6 6 Summary
The Ratner Residence was designed for developer Roy Fey in 1960 by master architect s Donald Wexler and Richard Harrison. As one of about seventy Wexler and Harrison mass-produced tract houses built in the El Rancho Vista Estates neighborhood, the residence is important as a highly intact contributor to the El Rancho Vista Estates housing tract, which has been identified on the Palm Springs Citywide Survey as a potential Historic District.
Location
The Ratner Residence is at 1633 Via Roberto Miguel, Palm Springs, California, 92262.
CHAIN OF TITLE
Primary sources show the chain of ownership for the Ratner Residence (LOT 14 MB 039/057 BARBARA TR UNIT 1 Lot 14 Subdivision Name BARBARA TR UNIT 1 Lot Type Lot Rec Map Type Map Book Map Plat B 039 Map Plat P 057):
04-28-1960 El Rancho Vista Estates, Inc, to Benjamin M. Ratner and Lee Ratner, husband and wife as joint tenants.
10-29-1962 Benjamin M. Ratner and Lee Ratner, husband and wife, to Ronald P. Knox and Jessie Louise Knox, husband and wife.
03-16-1970 American Savings and Loan Association to Gerald G. Burg and Barbara A. Burg, husband and wife.
01-27-1978 Lt. Col. Gerald G. Burg, quitclaim deed to Barbara Conaway Burg. 06-02-1983 Franklin M. Phillips and Barbara A. Phillips, husband and wife, to Thomas Winstanley and Mary Winstanley, husband and wife and Ann Winstanley, an unmarried woman, all as joint tenants.
04-02-1986 Thomas Winstanley and Mary Winstanley, husband and wife, and Ann Winstanley, an unmarried woman, to Douglas Darden, a single man. 06-02-1988 Douglas Darden, a single man, to Douglas A. Darden and Judith M. Darden, husband and wife, as community property.
09-12-1989 Douglas A. Darden and Judith M. Darden, husband and wife, to Theodore C.
Sandborg and Barbara C. Sandborg, husband and wife, as joint tenants. 07-07-2003 Theodore C. Sandborg and Barbara C. Sandborg, husband and wife, to Theodore Christian Sandorg and Barbara Curry Sandborg, Co-Trustees of the Sandborg Family Trust, dated January 02, 2001.
Item 2B - Page 22
7 06-07-2007 Theodore C. Sandborg, a widower, to The Sandborg Family Trust, dated January 02, 2001, Sole Trustee/Successor Trustee.
08-07-2007 Kerry Jo McBride, Successor Trustee, of the Sandborg Family Trust, dated January 02, 2001, to John O. Woitas and Renee H. Woitas, husband and wife as joint tenants.
03-04-2010 John O. Woitas and Renee H. Woitas, husband and wife as joint tenants, to Peter James Moore, an unmarried man.
11-23-2012 Peter James Moore, an unmarried man, to Moore-Marchant Investments, L.L.C. 11-14-2013 Moore-Marchant Investments, L.L.C., to Crystal S. Strode, a single woman, and Kevin G. McCandless, a single man, as joint tenants.
04-30-2020 Crystal S. Strode, a single woman, and Kevin G. McCandless, a single man, to Caitlin G. Freeman, Trustee of The Living Trust of Desert Silence Family Trust, dated June 22, 2020.
02-28-2023 Catilin G. Freeman, Trustee of The Living Trust of the Desert Silence Family Trust, to Larry C. Yarchever, Trustee of The Living Trust of the Desert Silence Family Trust.
Item 2B - Page 23
PICTURE
OWNING YOUR OWN
LUXURY HOME IN PALM SPRINGS
ADJACENT TO, AND INCLUDING
A MEMBERSHIP IN
A FAMOUS GOLF CLUB,
FOR LESS THAN $20,000 .
COME OUT TO 3200 EAST VISTA CHINO
AND LET ROY FEY SHOW YOU
HIS EXCITING MODEL RESORT HOME
IN El RANCHO VISTA ESTA TES
AND TELL YOU HOW ONLY $950 DOWN
LAUNCHES YOU ON THE
GOOD PALM SPRINGS LIFE.
Roy Fey's
GENERAL OFFICE: 2290 South Polm Con yon D,;v• Palm Springs, California FA;,v;ew 5-2082 8 When this photo ran in the “Desert Sun” on August 16, 1960, the caption read “CHECKING FROM THE GROUND UP is a literal approach for Roy Fey, owner-builder, and Dick Ranspot, sales manager, who are shown inspecting the site preparation for the El Rancho Vista Estates model home now under construction at the corner of North Palm Canyon Drive and Hermosa Drive.
Opening for the model is planned for September 15. The model will be identical with El Rancho Vista Estates homes now being sold for $19,950. with $950 down. The houses feature three bedrooms, two baths, wall-to-wall carpeting, closed kitchens and family room, refrigerated cooling, and forced air heat. The present furnished model for the project may be seen daily at 3200 Vista Chino. (Waltz Photo).”
EL RANCHO VISTA ESTATES
THE DEVELOPER – ROY FEY
The prolific developer of El Rancho Vista Estates, Roy Fey (1915 -2000), has been credited with creating over 1,200 homes in the Coachella Valley.
Roy Fey was born October 12, 1915, in Chicago to Samuel (born in Russia, 1888 -1973) and Pearl (born in Ukraine, 1891-1948) Fey. Roy was the middle child of three – sister Celia (1908 -1967) and brother Albert (1907-1989) rounded out the family. Samuel and Pearl immigrated to the United States in 1910, settling in Chicago, where Samuel worked as a baker.
Item 2B - Page 24
9 Roy Fey majored in accounting at Northwestern University, where he was president of the Alpha Gamma Pi accounting fraternity. In college, he met Ethel Winograd, a journalism major, and in 1939, they were married in Chicago. They would have two children, Robert “Bob” (1942-2022) and Barbara (b. 1945).
He graduated in 1942, became a certified public accountant, and was elected to the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. He began earning more than “$100 per week at 22 (good money in those days).”1
After establishing his own accounting firm, Fey became a leader in Chicago’s construction industry by developing two home construction companies. At the same time, he started the manufacture of Brentwood Trailers, with two factories in Chicago and Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. They were soon making over 3,000 house trailers a year.
Simultaneously, he began to build his reputation as a man with great social conscience by serving as treasurer and a board of directors member at Chicago’s Temple Menorah, in addition to being active in various other community affairs.
In the middle 1950s, Fey was planning the construction of a third Brentwood Trailers 45,000 square -foot manufacturing facility, this time in Banning. In 1956, Fey built the Desert Skies Apartment Hotel, designed by architectural designer Claude Powell, his first project in the desert. However, this project led him to many others for which he developed the reputation of being one of the best-known builders in the Coachella Valley.
In a 1957 profile in the Desert Sun, writer Bill Rashall observed,
Now in any man’s language, trailers are certainly a long way from the accounting business, and by the way, he is a certified public accountant. He has erected more than 1,500 homes in Chicago, and presently under construction are 150 homes in West Chicago. And that isn’t all—
He is also the owner of a women’s wear business in Chicago and in the manufacture of leather and suede cloths for both men and women. And that isn’t all either. He is the owner of the American Condensor Corporation selling those products to manufacturers of television sets and to the U.S. Government.
And wade through just a bit more if you please. He is the owner of the Desert Skies apartment hotel here in Palm Springs and he also plans to erect a swanky bowling alley in Palm Springs.
“It’s a sport which I like very much,” he said. He also loves to fence with foils.
1 “Bill Rashall Unedited,” Desert Sun, March 2, 1957, 4.
Item 2B - Page 25
10 When I asked him how much he has invested in this Desert Skies apartment hotel, a plush hostelry if you want to know he answered about $500,000 and then added: “I’d like to correct that amount. I just spent $8,000 more for a total of $508,000,” and he smiled.
“I’m thinking of liquidating all of my affairs back East and investing right here in California,” said Fey. “My wife and I have been coming to California for 16 years now and and we are delighted with all Palm Springs has to offer.”2
Rashall described Fey at the time as “mild -mannered, soft of voice and with a smile constantly playing around the corners of his eyes and mouth, one would never believe on first meeting Roy Fey that he had that drive, that aggressive push usually associated with young men who make their mark early in life.”3
In 1957, Fey told the Desert Sun “I’m sold right down to the marrow of my bones on this Palm Springs.”4 After building the Desert Skies, Fey’s first subdivision was at Caballeros Estates. Announcing the “new $1 million resort home tract” in November 1959, the Desert Sun reported that architects Donald Wexler and Richard Harrison and decorator Tony Dalu had been hired to design twenty -seven speculative custom homes in the new tract.
At the same time, perhaps inspired by the success of the Alexanders, Fey was busy with work on the “Barbara Tract,” his first foray into large-scale tract subdivision. It would become known as El Rancho Vista Estates, and the firm Wexler and Harrison would also design the homes . It would also be their entry into the design of a tract development.
2 Ibid.
3 Ibid.
4 Ibid.
Item 2B - Page 26
11 An advertisement that ran in the “Desert Sun” showed the three floor plans, as well as the various roof lines which lent variety to the tract houses.
Item 2B - Page 27
Look at these home styles to choose from!
3 DIFFERENT PLANS 9 DIFFERENT ARCHITECTURAL DESIGNS 4 0 UNIQUE lj)UALITY FEATURES THESEEXTRASUNQUESTION ABLYMAKERO YFEY 'S El RANCHO VISTA ESTATES The OUTSTANDING YALUE IN NEW HOMES IN PALM SPRINGS
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12 This 1965 aerial photograph shows the proximity of El Rancho Vista Estates to the open desert surrounding the airport.
Courtesy Geospatial Collection, UCSB Library, University of California, Santa Barbara.
THE TRACT - EL RANCHO VISTA ESTATES, 1960
Situated in the northeastern corner of Palm Springs, the Barbara Tract (soon to be known as El Rancho Vista Estates) was nearly isolated from the rest of the city at the time of development. Historical aerial photos taken before ground was broken show acres and acres of open desert surrounding the airport, with the beginnings of the developer Noel Clarke’s Desert Park Estates tract adjacent to the Ranch Club, directly northwest of the Barbara Tract across Vista Chino.
This tract comprised ninety -two parcels, with boundaries encompassing Vista Chino to the north, Chia Road to the south, North Gene Autry Trail to the east, and Avenida Fey to the west. The area was developed in three consecutive phases, progressing north t o south. Barbara Tract Unit 1 (February 23, 1960) was a thirty - two-parcel tract, followed by the thirty-eight-parcel Unit 2 (filed July 13, 1960) and finally Unit 3 (July 19, 1960), which had twenty-two parcels. Each parcel was, at a minimum, at least 10,000 square feet (100 feet by 100 feet), Item 2B - Page 28
13 but because of the meandering street layout, some lots were larger and more irregular. The tract would have only one through road, Via Roberto Miguel, which gently curved from Vista Chino southward and eventually connected to Chia Road at the south. The re st of the tract was created using cul -de-sacs in varying lengths, crossing Via Roberto Miguel, or sprouting from it. The longest of these was Avenida Fey Norte, named for the developer.
Newspaper ads showcased the “Bermuda” and “Capri” floorplans and some of the various rooflines available to give the tract houses an individual character. G – Gabled; B = Butterfly; F = Flat; S = Slant.
Item 2B - Page 29
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14 The “Casablanca” floorplan.
Item 2B - Page 30
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15 Recognizing the potential of the Alexander Construction Company's innovative approach and economies of scale to “mass-produced” modern architecture in housing developments, Fey enlisted the services of the local architecture firm Wexler and Harrison to design the residences in El Rancho Vista Estates. This subdivision marked the inaugural venture into single-family tract residential development for Fey and Wexler and Harrison.5
In line with the Alexander's projects, the architects created three different floor plans, consisting of three- bedroom, two -bathroom layouts, complete with family rooms . The plans were named the “Bermuda,” the “Casablanca,” and the “Capri.” And, like the Alexanders, a variety would be achieved by how houses were sited on the lots, but most importantly, by using a diverse range of roofline styles. These roofline styles inc luded gable, butterfly, slant, and flat roofs, collectively contributing to an engaging and dynamic architectural rhythm throughout the neighborhood. The same roofline could look drastically different by shifting how houses were sited on lots. Additionally, variations in concrete block and shadow block patterns were skillfully employed to imbue each house's unique and distinctive appearance. Wexler and Harrison were always eager to experiment with new building materia ls, and at El Rancho Vista Estates, they used newly developed Shadowal and Hi -Lite decorative concrete blocks, as well as creating unique patterns of their own by using standard concrete blocks in novel ways. (See “Shadowal and Shadow Block” section in the Appendixes, on page 39 for further detail).
Presumably because Fey came from Chicago, where the weather was more of a concern, the houses were fully insulated, rather than the typical open post-and-beam houses Wexler and Harrison had been designing,
MARKETING
Fey hired famed artist and Disney Imagineer Harper Goff to create a marketing plan for the new tract .6 Goff created whimsical and engaging illustrations, which were used in newspaper and magazine advertising, and a handsome brochure. Fey made sure to use his impressive track record as a developer in the Chicago area as a sales feature, stating, “ Roy Fey has constructed your El Rancho Vista Estates home with scrupulous attention
5 Fey’s earlier tract with Wexler and Harrison, Caballeros Estates (1959), had homes that were individually designed. So did We xler and Harrison’s earlier Sunmor tract for Sands Realty (1955). 6Biography of Harper Goff (March 16, 1911 – March 3, 1993). Harper Goff, originally known as Ralph Harper Goff, was a multi- talented American artist, musician, and actor. He left an indelible mark on the worlds of art, film, and entertainment, mainl y through his association with The Walt Disney Company, where he made significant contributions to major films and the planning of Disney theme parks. Additionally, during World War II, he played a crucial role as an advisor to the U.S. Army in camouflage. Born i n Fort Collins, Colorado, his early passion for art led him to study at the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles and began working as an illustrator in New York. Following the war, Goff returned to California and embarked on a career as a set designer at Warner Bros. He was responsible for crafting the memorable sets in films like "Sergeant York," "Charge of the Light Brigade," and "Captain Bl ood." Goff was also a lifelong enthusiast of model trains, and it was during a visit to a London model -making shop in 1951, he crossed paths with Walt Disney, leading to a collaboration that would span several decades. Notably, he played a pivotal role in shap ing the visual identity of Disney's groundbreaking live-action film, "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea," where he art-directed the exterior of the iconic Nautilus submarine and designed sets for every compartment within it. In subsequent years, Goff continued to make his mark in the film industry, creating the submarine "Proteus" for the film "Fantastic Voyage" and contributing to the highly acclaim ed "Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory." Goff also significantly contributed to the early renderings and concept art for Disney's original theme park, Disneyland. In recognition of his lifetime of accomplishments, Harper Goff was posthumously named a Disney Legend.
He passed away at the age of 81 at his home in Palm Springs .
Item 2B - Page 31
16 to details of quality utilizing his hard-won experience in building over 8,000 homes of superior worth. Each home is designed with the desert in mind. As a beautiful machine for living on the desert, your El Rancho Vista home will provide unparalleled leisure and comfort. Truly a home to bring pride of ownership and prestige to the community.” The advertising copy went on to extol the many virtues of the fairly remote and open site he had chosen, while boasting of its close proximity to conveniences: “ In a setting of desert and mountain magnificence, less than five minutes from the very heart of glamorous Palm Springs, Roy Fey has planned a new life for you. Starting with 100 x 100 ft. view lots, he first added curbs, sidewalks, and gutters. The sewers are in and paid for. Each home has been painstakingly oriented on its lot to welcome winter sun and shun summer heat. Next were added costly luxury features to ensure your comfort , such as Chrysler Refrigerated Air Conditioning, 4-inch rockwool insulation, complete fencing for privacy, and the highest quality building materials.
No other community offers so much gracious and dramatic desert living.”
The highest quality architecture and site planning were described this way: “Roy Fey and his Architectural firm have gone to great expense to make sure that the exciting homes that they have designed for you are placed properly on the large 100 x 100 ft. plus lots so that you are assured of maximum privacy as well as climate-wise use of your space. The relation of your bedrooms, window walls, and leisure areas to sun and shadow patterns is called orientation and El Rancho Vista Estates are the first to eliminate hit-and-miss plot planning and employ careful study in this vital field.”
The advertising used bullet points to convey the many features of the El Rancho Vista Estates homes:
• Inviting entrées
• 3 & 4 Bedrooms, 2 & 3 Baths
• Large 14 x 23 Living Room
• Family Room and Patio
• 9 different front elevations featuring molded design concrete block facades. • Five-foot plastered climate control overhangs.
• Wall-to-wall carpeting in living rooms, bedrooms, and halls. • Tile floors in kitchen and family room.
• Utilities underground from pole to house.
• Sunken Roman Tub and Shower in master bath.
• All baths with tiled shower area. Showers enclosed.
• T.V. and telephone cables installed.
• Extra-large two-car carport. Separate laundry room.
• KITCHEN HIGH-LIGHTS
• Oven, range, and hood in matched colors.
• Birch cabinets.
• Garbage Disposal.
• Pass-thru bar seating four between Kitchen and Family Room.
Item 2B - Page 32
17 To further entice would-be homebuyers, the homes could be equipped with swimming pools starting at $3,500, which included “high-capacity filter and heater, and 2 feet of paved marginal patio surrounding the pool. All of this can be included in your mortgage. Also, smart native stone or block fireplaces can be added to your living room for low cost, starting at $500.” As an added incentive, Fey advertised that “the proud purchaser of a home in El Rancho Vista Estates, is, if qualified, automatically and at n o charge, entitled to a (golfing) membership in the world-famous Palm Springs Ranch Club. He will be living less than two minutes away from this club’s unmatched facilities for outdoor recreation , including the tennis club, Olympic swimming pool, riding stables, restaurant, and shops. Schools, churches, and supermarkets are nearby. Discover the delights of country club living surrounded by clean air, desert beauty, and relaxed people at play.” A model home was built off-site at the corner of North Palm Canyon and Hermosa Drives in 1960.
By 1961, four-bedroom, three-bath houses were also being offered.
LATER PHASES
After Fey built around seventy of the Wexler and Harrison -designed houses, Fey teamed up with Joe Koch to form Fey and Koch Construction. They pivoted from the Wexler and Harrison -designed houses. By late 1961, they built cheaper, more traditional homes in El Rancho Vista Estates , advertised as the only F.H.A. houses available in Palm Springs. The two- ($16,975) and three-bedroom ($19,775) two-bathroom houses had gabled, pitched roofs over simple, rectangular forms with a symmetrical, recessed front door entry. Variety was achieved with minor variations in detailing on the rather spare facades. About twenty-one homes were built before Fey’s involvement with El Rancho Vista Estates was through.
Most of the remaining lots were developed between 1978 and 1980 in a quasi-Spanish ranch house design.
“Los Angeles Times” advertisement, March 11, 1962, showing the style of the second phase, non-Wexler and Harrison homes.
Item 2B - Page 33
PALM SPRINGS-EL RANCHO VISTA ESTATES
Selective site location, proper insulation, &:
white rock reflective roofs hlep give built-in
comfort to these modern homes with 2 & 3
bdrma., 2 baths, large living rm., laundry rm.;
air conditioning, wall-to-wall carpets, built-in
Hardwick gas 1·anges, disposers. From $16,795,
with $895 down· FHA. Open 9-5 at 3200 E.
Viata Chino. Bfdrs.: Roy Fey & Joe Koch.
Sales Office phone: 324-3381.
18 A 1965 aerial photo shows both the 1960-1961 Wexler and Harrison-designed houses, as well as the non-Wexler and Harrison houses from 1961-62, grouped more toward the bottom of the photo. Courtesy Geospatial Collection, UCSB Library, University of California, Santa Barbara.
Item 2B - Page 34
19 The model home for the El Rancho Vista Estates tract was at 3200 East Vista Chino (the address has since changed to 3390 E.
Paseo Barbara). From the “Desert Sun,” May 7, 1960).
Item 2B - Page 35
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FOR INFORMATION CALL FA 5-.201.2 OR FA 4-4111 ••• ALL lltOKEltS WILCOMI 20 THE ARCHITECTS – WEXLER AND HARRISON
Wexler and Harrison Architects (1952-1961) was established following the completion of their apprenticeship with architect William Cody. They secured office space on the second floor of the Town & Country Center located at 174 North Palm Canyon Drive. As a result, they were tasked with designing a building for E.F.
Hutton at the Town & Country Center in 1955. One of the firm's earliest significant projects was the Palm Springs Spa and Bathhouse, situated at the prominent intersection of Tahquitz-McCallum Way and Indian Canyon Drive. Over the years, Wexler and Harrison Architects would take on various projects, including residences, residential communities, educational facilities, financial institutions, and office spaces.
Through mutual agreement, the partners decided to go their separate ways, and their partnership ended amicably in 1961.
Richard A. Harrison (1921-1993) received his education at U.S.C. He and his wife raised three children in Palm Springs at their residence in Deepwell Estates. Harrison was deeply involved in housing and development projects and established his own office in 1961, located at 577 Sunny Dunes, a building designed by Howard Lapham. Harrison's notable solo projects are the Patencio Building, Seven Lakes Country Club development, Frances Stevens Park and Art Center modifications, Bermuda Dunes Cooperative Apartments, and the Julius Corsini School in Desert Hot Springs.
Donald Wexler (1926-2015) completed his education at the University of Minnesota. After graduating, he moved to Los Angeles and gained experience working for Richard Neutra, whose influence is evident in Wexler's architectural style. He and his wife raised three children in their Palm Springs residence, which Wexler himself designed on East Verbena Drive. Wexler is renowned for his pioneering use of steel in residential architecture. His designs for public buildings, including the striking Palm Springs Airport, served as inspirational and practical models for other municipalities. His Steel Development House Number 2 is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Both Richard Harrison and Donald Wexler have received stars on the Palm Springs Walk of Stars in recognition of their outstanding contributions to architecture. These stars represent just one of many accolades and honors they received for their exceptional work in the architectural profession.
THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE RATNER RESIDENCE
The Ratner Residence used Wexler and Harrison’s “Bermuda” floorplan. The Bermuda was a three-bedroom, two-bathroom home with a large living room and separate family room. The house was sited so that it was pushed back toward the rear of the parcel, creating a very large front yard space. An entry door was placed in the middle of the primary facade, opening onto a large living room and relatively small kitchen. The living room featured floor-to-ceiling walls of both fixed panes and aluminum-framed sliding glass doors on two walls.
The kitchen opened onto the family room with a counter-height bar. More sliding glass doors opened from Item 2B - Page 36
21 the family room into an enclosed, open-air patio, which led to the open carport. One could access a locked storage closet and a laundry room from the carport.
A hallway, accessed from either the living room or family room, led to the three bedrooms. The primary bedroom had a private bathroom, while the other two bedrooms used a shared bathroom accessed from the hallway.
The roofline on the Ratner Residence is the “G” (for gabled) roofline. A long, gently gabled roof covers most of the structure, while a gently upsloping volume meets it on one side. On each end of the gabled roof are downturned flaps. This feature would be adapted and used by architect Richard Harrison multiple times on commercial structures, usually as a repeated motif.
Most walls were either stucco, some punched with aluminum-framed sliding windows or floor-to-ceiling walls of fixed pane or aluminum-framed sliding glass doors. On the primary facade, a long feature wall was designed with Shadowal block, each block embossed with a single recessed and angled portion (Shadowal also produced a block with two angled indentations), creating a pattern of opposing triangles in a regular rhythm.
A private enclosed yard was created at the front of the house using large plywood panels, staggered to make alternating indentations. This fence was painted the same off-white as the house. The color palette for the home was originally off-white paint, with a light blue front door as an accent. A poured concrete path runs parallel to the house, from the front door to the driveway. A relatively small opening along the house’s foundation was left open for planting along the length of the pathway.
Initially, the house was landscaped simply, with a large grass panel within the fence enclosure. From early aerials and the few historical images available, it is unclear whether the existing mature palm trees or olive trees are from when the house was built in 1960, though it is likely.
CHANGES OVER TIME
There have been remarkably few changes to the Ratner Residence since it was built. In 1970, the swimming pool was added at the front of the house. In 1973, an eighty-foot long, six-foot-high concrete block wall was built in the rear yard along the north side of the parcel. The following year, another 110-foot concrete block wall replaced the plywood fence in about the same location. The only other permitted change was a re-roof in 1979.
At the rear of the house, a few of the original aluminum-framed windows have been replaced with vinyl- framed windows, and a glass block section was added to the exterior wall in the shower of one of the bathrooms at the rear of the house.
At the front of the house, a narrow column of vintage glazed ceramic blocks was added, each one pierced with a biomorphic shape. This reversible decorative feature runs from the ground to the bottom of the gable roof’s downturned left-hand flap.
Item 2B - Page 37
22 This 1965 aerial photograph shows the configuration of the plywood fence enclosing the grassy front yard area. Courtesy Geospatial Collection, UCSB Library, University of California, Santa Barbara.
Item 2B - Page 38
23 The top photograph shows how architect Richard Harrison adapted the long gabled roofline with downturned flaps into a long single roofline with multiple downturned flaps. This example is from a commercial structure on Arenas Road. The bottom photograph is a gabled roofline at El Rancho Vista Estates.
Item 2B - Page 39
24 Character-Defining Features of the Ratner Residence
Contributing Elements
The Ratner Residence is an exceptional example of a Midcentury Modern residential tract structure. It exhibits numerous extant character-defining features from its period of significance (1960), including:
• “Bermuda” floor plan
• Shadowal concrete block and stucco walls
• Floor-to-ceiling fixed pane and aluminum-framed sliding glass doors • Gabled roofline with turned -down flaps over the primary portion of the home, with another volume with a gently sloping roofline to meet the gabled roof
• Clerestory windows
• Open carport with adjacent storage closet
• Enclosed, open-air patio between carport and residence
Non-Contributing Elements
• Non-original vinyl-framed windows at the rear of the structure • Swimming pool
• Concrete block walls enclosing the front-loaded pool
• Light over the front door
• Decorative glazed clay block column with biomorphic cutouts
ORIGINAL OWNERS OF RATNER RESIDENCE
The first owners of the Ratner Residence were Benjamin Maximilian Ratner (1901-1981) and his wife Lee (1902-1991). Benjamin Ratner was born to Jacob and Ettie Ratner in Newark, New Jersey. He attended the New Jersey School of Law, graduating in 1924. Ratner would practice law until he retired around 1970 and was a New Jersey Bar Association member. He married Lee Weiner, and the couple had two sons, George and Edward. The Ratners were members of the Millburn B’nai B’rith and lived in Irvington, New Jersey. Very little biographical information could be found on the Ratner family. They owned the home relatively briefly, from 1960 to 1962.
Item 2B - Page 40
25 Jessie Knox was a stewardess for T.W.A. Courtesy Stephanie Knox Levesque.
SUBSEQUENT LONGTIME OWNERS
After the Ratners sold the house, only a few people lived there for over a few years.
RONALD AND JESSIE KNOX (1962-1970)
The Ratners sold the house to Ronald and Jessie Knox on October 29, 1962. Ronald Palmer Knox was born in Dayton, Ohio, on January 24, 1935, to Herbert and Velma Knox. After college, he was a Petty Officer in the Navy, stationed at the Long Beach Naval Station. He then embarked on a long career in ticketing sales for Trans World Airlines (T.W.A.). On April 24, 1962, Knox married Jessie Louise Jones, born in Hopkins, Kentucky, on April 11, 1938.
Jones was a stewardess for T.W.A. According to daughter Stephanie, “Mom was a very social person, travel was in her blood. Dad was sociable, too, had an easygoing personality, a dry sense of humor, and enjoyed get- togethers with people. He went to college in California and had an art background. I believe that was why he was interested in architecture.”7 The couple lived briefly in Topanga Canyon in Los Angeles after marriage, but when T.W.A. transferred Ronald Knox to the Palm Springs Airport, they bought the house in El Rancho Vista Estates. While living there, the couple would have three children: Andrew, born in 1963; Tracy, born in 1965; and Stephanie, born in 1967. When Knox was transferred to Derry, New Hampshire, in 1970, they sold the house to Gerald and Barbara Burg.
7 Telephone interview with Stephanie Knox Levesque, May 17, 2023.
Item 2B - Page 41
26 Kodacolor photographs from the 1960s show original details of the Ratner Residence. The top photo shows the original off-white paint with light blue accent door, Shadowal concrete block, and the original light fixture. The other photos show the white- painted plywood fence and original landscape in the front yard. Photographs courtesy Stephanie Knox Levesque.
Item 2B - Page 42
27 GERALD AND BARBARA BURG (1970-1978)
Gerald Glen Burg was born around 1931 in Washington state. Very little biographical information could be found about the Burgs. He married Barbara A. Conoway in 1953 in Washington. The Burgs added the swimming pool and concrete block walls before selling the house at the time of their divorce in 1978.
The only other long-term owners were Kevin McCandless and Crystal Strode, who owned the house from 2013-2020.
Other Sources Consulted
• Historic Resources Group. City of Palm Springs Citywide Historic Context Statement & Survey Findings .
Pasadena, 2015 (Final Draft, December 2018).
• Architectural Resources Group. City of Palm Springs Historic Resources Survey. San Francisco, 2004. • Historic Site Preservation Board. Inventory of Historic Structures. Palm Springs, 2001. • www.newspapers.com (Desert Sun and Los Angeles Times). • City of Palm Springs (Planning and Building Departments). • Ancestry.com.
• Palm Springs Historical Society.
• Riverside County Assessor’s Office.
BACKGROUND/HISTORIC CONTEXT
From the Historic Resources Group’s Citywide Survey:
The relatively short history of Palm Springs can be organized into several distinct periods, as defined by the Historic Resources Group’s Citywide Historic Context Statement & Survey Findings. These include the following:
• Native American Settlement to 1969
• Early Development (1884-1918)
• Palm Springs between the Wars (1919-1941)
• Palm Springs During World War II (1939-1945)
• Post-World War II Palm Springs (1945-1969)
POST-WORLD WAR II PALM SPRINGS (1945-1969)
This context explores the post-World War II boom and related development that left Palm Springs with what many consider the largest and finest concentration of mid -twentieth century modern architecture in the United States. Hollywood film stars and Eastern industrialists were joined in the postwar decades by ever- increasing numbers of tourists. The growing prosperity of the postwar years and the rise of the car culture created a leisured, mobile middle class that sought, in Palm Springs, the “good life” that had previously been Item 2B - Page 43
28 available only to the wealthy. This surge of visitors and seasonal residents - by 1951 the city’s winter population swelled to almost 30,000 from a permanent population of 7,660 – coincided with the peak of modernism’s popularity.
The population growth accelerated in the 1950s, bringing a demand for civic necessities such as schools, libraries, museums, a city hall and police headquarters, as well as offices, stores, and housing. Palm Springs' growth as a tourist destination brought a demand for inns, resorts, and tourist attractions. Tourism also introduced a demand for affordable second homes for a growing middle class; the construction and financing methods for building such mass-produced housing tracts were already developing in suburban areas of larger cities, including nearby Los Angeles, and found a ready market in Palm Springs. Though Palm Springs was a smaller municipality, this economic climate provided many opportunities for locally based architects, as well as several Los Angeles architects, to explore and develop a wide range of architectural types and ideas, sometimes influenced by sophisticated global design trends. These conditions and the architects' talents lead to the development of an exceptional group of modern buildings which later came to be identified as “Palm Springs Modernism” or “The Palm Springs School.”
The desert climate and casual lifestyle all but demanded unconventional design, and clients were more accepting of, even sought out, a more adventurous style in the resort atmosphere of Palm Springs than they would have in their primary residences. In the two decades after the war, Palm Springs was transformed with new commercial and institutional buildings, custom homes, and many housing tracts.
THEME: POST-WORLD WAR II SINGLE-FAMILY RESIDENTIAL DEVELOPMENT (1945-1969)
Postwar Residential Architecture in Palm Springs (1945-1969)
The exuberance and optimism from the war victory, the population explosion, and the creation of automobile- centric suburbia in the building boom that followed meant great changes for the way Americans lived in the post-World War II era. Southern California was at the forefront of this new era, and its tradition of experimentation in architecture placed it in an ideal position to lead the exploration of suburban residential architecture after World War II. This sub-theme explores the important role of architecture in the development of Palm Springs after the war, and discusses buildings that are important as examples of particular architectural styles or as the work of significant architects or designers. Following precedents started in the 1930s, the decade of the 1940s further reinforced the prominence of modern architecture in defining the growth of Palm Springs after World War II. This paralleled the trend throughout California; as prosperity returned with the war, and as the peacetime return of soldiers brought a demand for new development, a young generation of architects exposed to modernism in their training or travels before and during the war wanted to put those ideas into practice. This new generation of architects combined a concern for landscape and site relationships, the use of natural materials, and innovative building technologies to create a new regional architecture. This was also a period of exuberance and optimism that was directly reflected in the architecture. According to historian Kevin Item 2B - Page 44
29 Starr, the theory that domestic architecture would not take up where it had left off before the war was fundamental.
In the 1950s, with the town's expansive growth, Palm Springs architects were able to explore a wide range of residential architectural ideas with willing clients interested in modern design. These respond in various ways to the demands of the location: controlling the sun's heat, respecting the natural landscape, and creating homes of pleasure and recreation. Palm Springs’ residential architecture of this period included affordable, mass - produced housing, along with custom homes designed with sizable budgets. The distinctive solutions of several local architects show a high quality of concept and execution that matches the quality of the more widely publicized Los Angeles Modern architects of the same period.
Donald Wexler and Richard Harrison formed a partnership in 1952 after meeting at the office of William Cody, where both worked. Wexler, a graduate of the University of Minnesota architecture school, had worked for Richard Neutra in Los Angeles before moving to Palm Springs. Wexler and Harrison's early house designs show the influence of both Neutra and Cody, but also the beginning of a distinctive approach to design. Wexler's interest in engineering led to simple designs expressing their wood post -and-beam and steel frame structure.
This is seen in three particular houses: for developer Sam Martin Zalud, Wexler and Harrison designed two houses as part of a small planned neighborhood around a communal park, named Lilliana Gardens. The floor plans of these two houses were the same, featuring a central open atrium next to the living room; the two houses were differentiated by their front walls, one faced in rubble stone, and one with slump block, which William Cody often used. At the same time, Wexler built a house (1955, 1272 E. Verbena Drive) for his family.
It is also wood post-and-beam, but smaller and simpler, and designed to be expanded as his family grew.
Sub-theme: Single-Family Residential Development (1945-1969)
The postwar boom, a prosperity beyond imagination, combined with surging population growth and the democratization of privilege, would change Palm Springs forever.
In the immediate post-World War II era, California in general experienced a period of unprecedented growth.
Many individuals who came west to participate in the war effort, including former military personnel, decided to settle permanently. Between 1940 and 1950, California’s population increased by 53 percent, which was partially accounted for by the 850,000 veterans who took up residence after the war. As a result, the construction of residential properties became a major focus of development in the post-World War II era. The immediate and widespread need for housing inspired a variety of responses. For communities that were largely built out, land previously considered “unbuildable” became more attractive. For newer communities, large new tracts were developed.
Development in Palm Springs during this period reflected these wider trends. The permanent population of Palm Springs rose 292 percent between 1940 and 1960, from 3,434 to 13,468 people. Charting the local population shows this steep growth lasted in Palm Springs for decades after the war. Even as full-time residency Item 2B - Page 45
30 increased in Palm Springs, the seasonal visitor population outpaced these increases. Whereas seasonal visitation in 1940 was estimated to be 100,000 people, by 1953 it was 250,000, and 500,000 by 1960.
In Palm Springs, postwar single-family residential development followed several patterns. First, expansion/tract development occurred eastward, and then southward into the flat exposed parcels of the desert floor with the creation of homes for middle class and upper middle class residents. Second, empty parcels within existing developments were subject to in-fill development. Third, previously “unbuildable” parcels in the foothills were now economically viable for the development of luxury homes. Fourth, after 1959, new laws permitted the lease and development of the checkerboard of open parcels owned by the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians.
This offered developers a wide variety of opportunities previously denied within the city.
Immediately after the war, between 1945 and 1949, some twenty new tracts were recorded in and around Palm Springs. The developers involved in these ventures tended to be early citizens of the city who saw potential in Palm Springs. An example of this was the Chino Mesa Estates tract (1945) developed by Ernest Off (1901-1993).
Off had been instrumental in pre war housing development in the city. After leaving Palm Springs in 1937 and moving to Brentwood and Beverly Hills, he returned to purchase and develop the 22½ acres north of Las Palmas for the development of high -end homes. The home sites were marketed as “Exclusive, Restricted, Sheltered” and noted for their proximity to Las Palmas Estates.
Prior to World War II, Palm Springs had been a tourist and vacation home destination for the wealthy. Postwar prosperity brought a new group of tourists and second home-owners to the city: the upper middle and middle classes. This gradual democratization of Palm Springs would irrevocably change the city during the 1950s and 1960s, first with expansive single -family residential development and ultimately through the creation of innovative forms of multi-family residential development and ownership options. The creation of new tracts and subdivisions also resulted in a less concentrated, more scattered development pattern.
A more practical, yet important factor in residential development in Palm Springs and the entire southwest was the accessibility of air conditioning. Although individual residential air conditioning units were available as early as 1939, widespread acquisition and use was delayed by the war. In 1947, British scholar S.F. Markham wrote, “the greatest contribution to civilization in this century may well be air conditioning – and America leads the way.” In the 1950s, residential air conditioning became another way to keep up with the Joneses. More than one million units were sold in 1953 alone. For communities like Palm Springs, air condition ing meant the “season” could be extended and year-round living was practically viable for the first time.
During the 1950s, residential development in Palm Springs continued to expand eastward and southward. Like other locations in Southern California, it was a period in which large developers dominated the scene; among them were William Grant, Noel B. Clarke, A. R. Simon, George and Robert Alexander, Roy Fey, and Jack Meiselman. However, a series of small developers still flourished. Examples included Roy W. Burton’s Burton Tract (1957); auto salesman-turned-real estate developer Sam Janis who subdivided Janis’ Hilltop Estates (1958); Item 2B - Page 46
31 and David M. Benjamin (1894-1987), who developed the El Mirador Park tract (1946) and Mountain View Estates (1956).
By the close of the 1950s great changes were afoot for Palm Springs residential development. New communities to the south and east including Palm Desert, Indian Wells, and Rancho Mirage were beginning to encroach on Palm Springs as the chic desert destination for home ownership. Another important factor was the 1959 Equalization Law signed by President Eisenhower that equalized allotted Indian lands, thereby setting the stage for development of Reservation lands within the City of Palm Springs. The Equalization Act was intended to provide for a reasonable degree of equalization of the value of allotments made to tribal members and was enacted in response to litigation in Federal court in Segundo et al. v. United States et al.468 The tribe and tribe members (allottees) could now realize profits from their lands and developed the 99 -year lease. This allowed for longer agreements, encouraging development that had previously been hindered by short -term leases. For developers, this represented new opportunities for projects throughout the city. From large (Canyon Country Club) to small (Smoke Canyon Estates), residential projects on leased land were often attractive for their location and lower sales prices (made possible because the purchase of land was not involved). With increased demand, economic prosperity, air conditioning, and availability of new land for development, Palm Springs became home to a number of custom and tract home developments by prominent Southern California developers and wealthy speculators. From early on, many of these subdivisions emphasized architecture and/or the glamour associated with Palm Springs.
EVALUATION:
CRITERION 1 – Significant Events - The resource is associated with events that have made a meaningful contribution to the nation, state or community: The Ratner Residence is not affiliated with significant events and does not qualify under Criterion 1.
CRITERION 2 – Significant Persons - The resource is associated with the lives of persons who made a meaningful contribution to national, state or local history : The Ratner Residence is not affiliated with significant persons and does not qualify under Criterion 2.
ARCHITECTURE (Criteria 3 – 6)
CRITERION 3 - The resource reflects or exemplifies a particular period of national, state or local history: The Ratner Residence, completed in 1960, exhibits many stylistic markers that place it directly in the historic context of the “Post-World War II Palm Springs” period ; of the theme of Postwar Residential Architecture in Palm Springs (1945 -1969), and the s ub-theme Single-Family Residential Development (1945 - 1969). The structure is a fine example of the mass-produced, architect-designed, single-family residences built in large tracts by developers throughout the Coachella Valley in this period. Before World War II, Palm Springs primarily attracted affluent tourists and vacation home buyers. However, after the war, a surge in prosperity led to a different demographic of visitors and second home purchasers: the upper middle class and middle class Item 2B - Page 47
32 individuals. This shift toward a broader and more diverse group of residents impacted Palm Springs in the 1950s and 1960s. Initially, it manifested through the extensive construction of single-family homes, eventually evolving into introducing innovative multi-family residential developments and ownership choices.
Furthermore, the development of new neighborhoods and subdivisions contributed to a more dispersed and less concentrated urban growth pattern in the city. This growth was further enhanced with the widespread availability of more affordable central air conditioning, making the homes inhabitable year -round. Roy Fey’s El Rancho Vista Estates used mass-production building techniques to provide stylish architect-designed residences with affordable , luxurious amenities. The highly intact Ratner Residence may be considered an essential component of the historic al trends that have come to define Palm Springs’ image as a center of important modern architecture, i.e., a historic al movement that exemplifies a particular period of the national, state , or local history. The structure qualifies for listing as a Class 1 Historic Resource on the local registry under Criterion 3.
CRITERION 4 - The resource embodies the distinctive characteristics of a type, period , or method of construction: The Ratner Residence is a highly intact contributing resource to the potential El Rancho Vista Estates Historic District, which Historic Resources Group identified in their 2015 Citywide Survey . As a fine example of the use of mass -production building processes for postwar tract housing, the Ratner Residence is noteworthy for its type or method of construction. It qualifies for listing as a Class 1 Historic Resource on the local registry under Criterion 4.
Criterion 5: (The resource presents the work of a master builder, designer, artist, or architect whose individual genius influenced his or her age; or that possesses high artistic value).
As designed by m aster architects Donald Wexler and Richard Harrison, the Ratner Residence possesses a mastery of the modernist design principles employed by the partners, using the most straightforward and humble materials. Extensive use of glass, both fixed and sliding/opening, protects from the sun by deep overhangs, provides shelter from the harsh desert climate and allows for cross-ventilation. This convergence of the interior and exterior spaces was a hallmark of the midcentury modern period. As a residential tract structure artfully designed by Wexler and Harrison, this building rises to a master architect's level with high artistic values.
Therefore, the structure qualifies as a Class 1 Historic Resource under Criterion 5 for its distinctive characteristics representing the Midcentury Modern style and high artistic values.
Criterion 6: (That represents a significant and distinguishable entity whose components may lack individual distinction). This Criterion was created to address the resources contained within a potential Historic District. The resource represents a significant and distinguishable entity whose components may lack individual distinction, as used in evaluating applications for designation of historic districts, for parcels on which more than one entity exists.
Item 2B - Page 48
33 The Ratner Residence's historic significance does not rely on other properties or associated developments.
Also, the H.R.G. Citywide Survey has identified El Rancho Vista Estates as potentially eligible to be a Historic District, but because the district has not been nominated to date, it does not apply to this nomination. Hence, the structure does not qualify under Criterion 6.
Criterion 7: (That has yielded or may be likely to yield information important to the national, state or local history or prehistory.) The Ratner Residence is not expected to yield information critical to the national, state, or local history or prehistory. Hence, the structure does not qualify under Criterion 7.
SUMMARY: This evaluation finds The Ratner Residence eligible for listing as a Palm Springs Historic Resource under
8.05.070 (C.1.a.) paragraphs (iii, iv, and v) of the local ordinance’s seven criteria.
STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE
Integrity Analysis (using U.S. Secretary of Interior Standards)
INTEGRITY
Integrity is the ability of a property to convey its significance. To be listed in the local registry, a property must not only be shown to be significant under the criteria, but it also must have integrity. The evaluation of integrity is sometimes a subjective judgment, but it must always be grounded in an understanding of a property's physical features and how they relate to its significance. Historic properties either retain in tegrity (that is, convey their significance) or they do not. The definition of integrity includes seven aspects or qualities. To retain historic integrity a property will always possess several, and usually most, of the aspects. The retention of specific aspects of integrity is paramount for a property to convey its significance. Determining which of these aspects are most important to a particular property requires knowing why, where, and when the property is significant. The following sections define the seven aspects and explain how they combine to produce integrity.
DESIGN
Design is the combination of elements that create the form, plan, space, structure, and style of a property. It results from conscious decisions made during the original conception and planning of a property and applies to activities as diverse as communit y planning, engineering, architecture, and landscape architecture. Design includes such elements as organization of space, proportion, scale, technology, ornamentation, and materials. A property’s design reflects historic functions and technologies as well as aesthetics. It includes such considerations as the structural system; massing; arrangement of spaces; pattern of fenestration; textures and colors of surface materials; type, amount, and style of ornamental detailing. The Ratner Residence’s essential elements of form, plan, space, structures, configuration , and style have remain ed intact. Similarly, the structural system, massing, the arrangement of spaces, and the type, amount, and style of detailing have survived almost entirely intact.
Item 2B - Page 49
34 MATERIALS
Materials are the physical elements that were combined or deposited during a period and in a particular pattern or configuration to form a historic property. The choice and combination of materials reveals the preferences of those who created the property and indicate the availability of types of materials and technologies. The Ratner Residence’s materials represent the best Midcentury Modern design, with high-quality but simple decorative concrete block, aluminum, wood, glass, and stucco.
WORKMANSHIP
Workmanship is the physical evidence of the crafts of a culture or people during any given period in history or prehistory. It is the evidence of artisans’ labor and skill in constructing or altering a building, structure, object, or site. Workmanship can apply to the property as a whole or to its individual components. It can be expressed in vernacular methods of construction and plain finishes or in highly sophisticated configurations and ornamental detailing. It can be based on common traditions or innov ative period techniques. Workmanship is important because it can furnish evidence of the technology of a craft, illustrate the aesthetic principles of a historic or prehistoric period, and reveal individual, local, regional, or national applications of bot h technological practices and aesthetic principles. Examples of workmanship in historic buildings include tooling, carving, painting, graining, turning, and joinery. The Ratner Residence was built as one of nearly seventy residences at the El Rancho Vista Estates tract using mass -production building techniques, providing affordability u tilizing an economy of scale. This innovation in building represents a breakthrough in the technological practice of the period.
LOCATION
Location is the place where a historic property was constructed or the place where a historic event occurred.
The relationship between the property and its location is often important to understand why the property was created or why something happened. The actual location of a historic property, complemented by its setting, is particularly important in recapturing the sense of historic events and persons. Except in rare cases, the relationship between a property and its historic associations is destroyed if the property is moved. The Ratner Residence remains in its original location, still adjacent to miles of open desert adjacent to the airport, and, therefore, qualifies under this aspect.
SETTING
Setting is the physical environment of a historic property. Whereas location refers to the specific place where a property was built or an event occurred, setting refers to the character of the place in which the property played its historical role. It involves how, not just where, the property is situated and its relationship to surrounding features and open space. Setting often reflects the basic physical conditions under which a property was built and the functions it was intended to serve. In addition, the way in which a property is positioned in its environment can reflect the designer’s concept of nature and aesthetic preferences. The Ratner Residence was designed as one of about seventy residences designed by architects Wexler and Harrison in a tract of mass-produced houses. The individual character was achieved by various ways of siting the homes, Item 2B - Page 50
35 and in their rooflines and detailing. This setting within El Rancho Vista Estates continues to reflect Wexler and Harrison’s originally designed relationship of site and structure.
FEELING
Feeling is a property’s expression of the aesthetic or historic sense of a particular period. It results from the presence of physical features that, taken together, convey the property’s historic character. For example, a rural Historic District retaining original design, materials, workmanship, and setting will relate the feeling of agricultural life in the nineteenth century. The Ratner Residence is situated within the potential Historic District of El Rancho Vista Estates. The single-family tract home conveys the feeling of the Midcentury Modern period for which Palm Springs is internationally known. The Ratner Residence still blends well into this unique neighborhood. Accordingly, the Ratner Residence retains its original integrity of feeling.
ASSOCIATION
Association is the direct link between an important historic event or person and a historic property. A property retains association if it is the place where the event or activity occurred and is sufficiently intact to convey that relationship to an observer. Like feeling, association requires the presence of physical features that convey a property’s historic character. For example, a Revolutio nary War battlefield whose natural and man -made elements have remained intact since the eighteenth century will retain its quality of association with the battle.
Because feeling and association depend on individual perceptions, their retention alone is never sufficient to support eligibility of a property for the National Register. The Ratner Residence is not associated with an important historic event.
INTEGRITY SUMMARY: This integrity analysis confirms that the site and structures of the Ratner Residence still possess six aspects of integrity.
Item 2B - Page 51
36 A P P E N D I C E S
I Owner’s Letter of Support
Item 2B - Page 52
City of Palm Springs
Historic Preservation Board
3200Tahquitz Canyon Way
Palm Springs, Ca 92262
Dear Honorable Preservation Board,
September 2, 2023
As the current owner of a Wexler Harrison home in El Rancho Vista Estates, designed by Donald A.
Wexler in Palm Springs, I am proud to support the Class 1 Historic Status site designation of my home and honored that the Board has recognized yet another significant example of the work of Donald A.
Wexler.
Under the Palm Springs Preservation Foundation , I have engaged the services of its Vice President Steven Keylon to assist and guide me through the process of achieving the Class 1 Historic Statu s including all required nomination paperwork.
I am looking forward to supporting Steven and the Board in helping secure this notable and celebrated achievement.
Respectfully submitted,
Larry Yarchever
cc: Steven Keylon
37 II Assessor’s Map and Aerial
Item 2B - Page 53
Riverside County, CA - Community: Property Search
Property ID Number (PIN/APN): 677233003
T
E Vista Chino
i_1T
{ E Peseo 8nrbnro £ Poseo Barbara
i
/
E Paseo Barbara
\
38 Property Address 1633 VIA ROBERTO MIGUEL
PALM SPRINGS, CA 92262
APN 677233003
III Building Permits
Date Owner Permit Type Description of Work
03-17-1960 El Rancho
Vista Estates
Electrical 54 outlets, including lights and switches; 10 light fixtures; 1 meter loop; 1 220 volt outlet.
04-14-1960 El Rancho
Vista Estates
Plumbing 2 bathtubs; 2 lavatories; 2 toilets; 1 sink; 1 automatic washer; 1 water piping; 1 water
heater; 2 gas outlets.
04-20-1960 El Rancho
Vista
Estates, Inc.
Building Construct 6 room frame and stucco dwelling
– compo roof. 100 x 100 lot size; R-1; 1400
sq. ft. house; 540 sq. ft. carport.
Item 2B - Page 54
I
8.5x11 _ Landscape
• •-,.=:::i,.--• .. ==:::::i,,.--•,.;
Selection(s)
D Parcels
Ttlls map Bild lhe data a>ntrnned herein IS for
demonslrauon purposes only
Aumontum Tochnologtes assumos no boblhty
whatsoever socia 1od w,lh the use or misuse
ol $OCh ct..11a MCI d1sd.llms MY rep1osentatoo
or warranty regarding the ~eness or
oocorocy of the 0010 I lol:e Aaeoge and SQuofe
Footage dam shewn are oppro•imate and
may nol be COOSISlenl Wl!h ,ecords
mEMnlalflOd !or appratSOI purposo5
mo20 AumonbJm lodvlobgies
Dal&IOUICH Aumer\1111'1'1 lecMologv ~I
OfOIP,llllllc:orr.nont (DASC) US cc-nws t9'I
39 05-22-1960 El Rancho
Vista Estates
Sewer Sewer inspection.
08-04-1970 Mrs. C. Burg Building Construct gunite conc. Swimming pool in rear yard area. Size: 14 x 16 x 32 ft.
02-21-1973 Mrs. T. Lee Building Construct 80 ft. of 6’ high conc. Block wall in rear yard along north side of property.
06-17-1974 Col. Burg Building Const 110 lin ft of 6 ft hi conc block wall, 25 ft back from front property line, across the
front of the dwelling.
05-12-79 B. Burg Building Compo re-roof.
Item 2B - Page 55
40 Shadowal decorative concrete block (“The block with 1000 faces”) was introduced in 1956 and trademarked by the National Concrete Masonry Association.
IV SHADOWAL, HI-LITE, AND SHADOW BLOCK
Now known as concrete masonry units (C .M.U.s), concrete blocks were introduced in the late nineteenth century with various patents for block designs. The industry expanded rapidly after Harmon Palmer invented the first commercially successful concrete block machine in 1900. Multiple manufacturers p roduced unique proprietary blocks using unique molds or special aggregates in the concrete mix. Although concrete blocks meant to emulate natural stone were popular for the first quarter of the twentieth century, they fell out of fashion following World War II.
Manufacturers marketed concrete blocks as an economical building material, ideal for industrial, agricultural, and residential projects. The block became associated with utilitarian structures but soon transitioned into a supporting role as a substrate for applied finishes, such as stucco. In a 1925 catalog for concrete block, artist Alfonso Lannelli said that “stucco becomes a sensitive medium through which the texture-and-tone qualities of each period can be expressed.”
Item 2B - Page 56
Announcing shadowal
concrete masonry
the block with 1000 faces
Sboodow•I block for the home Addt ~ d,....,,,._..,n • nd Shadow •lhto<-kfo r the-rtAhop on~u.-.d w,tho,quall ch•n,•tcr to • ,oum 'l'loe •l•ndard modv l•• Ii"• HI" l•c.., d.atin,,-ti<>n for 1nl<,rM>r •nd UIE'rior ...-1i.-l>J~r,cl• ~rl'..,tly ...._._ ... 11 u 1y 10 l•y•up ,nth,, .,.,JI ,.,lh othH buolchng m.atu,..I., l:lhadowal bloek for th• ~•tenor <>f ,nd..- tr• I t,.,,ld,n p Shad.,,.,al bloc~ for erhooll h<•k• up 1-,$e wi ll UP6- . ,.,.... the d'ttl of Hptl MIV. _ .. , .hapri ., Ollll ahih rl~ "'"" .11,11,,-1.-e p111te .... Sh1ufo,.. •l ....,...,..,,. .. ,.i.o "-h, more th.on the s· • B' • 16" unit. . """"" '-rb,n~ . r,equinol no 6 n ~ h,na:
Shadowal block available from NC MA members .....
National Concrete Masonry Association • 38 South Dearborn · Chicago I @~ I 41 By the 1950s, decorative new variations on the concrete block were introduced and quickly took off. One of these, "screen blocks," allowed the concrete block to assume a significant design role. These ornamental screen block designs created free-standing walls that served as partitions while allowing air circulation.
Another variation, shadow blocks, quickly became a defining architectural feature, both structural and decorative. Shadow block featured a shallow relief design that created shadow patterns when hit by light.
Two-page 1959 magazine advertisement showed the almost infinite ways variety could be achieved with Shadowal concrete blocks. Courtesy Ron and Barbara Marshall.
Item 2B - Page 57
yo ur pattern selector
w, "-•• -0!1'4 lo, you Oft 111, .. t•t P+fO Jt U•IIIY ltMP IU lt<le, S~•cl<l•oi 1>1 .. 11·, ~.c....,, coli.ttlO<I or 1,,1~•• ,..,. _.,..,.1o11t1 c~ .... 11,, Sn•H•.i lloloc.~ UMl,.,.n l t •PJM.c•W. lo ,c,,,, hot..,, '"'°Kl 0,, II Y"" llllt, ~ .. 1+~• O• n I ..... ~~, 1 ... CIHlt t ,tl!.,110, 1111,1~1• otft ... llt J O\,I '"' , , • ~ICC~- It NII tul!H It lflAHIHI ... UCIOII
I
1. ~
u - J -
I
u·-
42 Architect William Krisel used Shadowal concrete block at his Sandpiper condominiums in Palm Desert, starting in 1958, and was featured on the cover of this Shadowal brochure. Courtesy Ron and Barbara Marshall.
Shadowal patterns by Wexler and Harrison at El Rancho Vista Estates.
Item 2B - Page 58
43 Shadowal diamond patterns by Wexler and Harrison at El Rancho Vista Estates.
Shadowal was previewed at the National Concrete Masonry Association of Chicago’s annual conference in New Orleans in 1956. The first blocks put into production were by the Best Block company, which began producing them in August of 1956. Shortly after that, the molds were purchased by block manufacturers around the country, and the Shadowal product was put to use throughout the United States. Reporting on the first structures built using Shadowal, Concrete Magazine reported in October 1957, “You notice a Shadowal exterior! Whether you’re driving along a highway, or going up a winding driveway overhung with trees, the moment you see a use of this block with “one thousand” faces, it strikes you as something different.”8
8 “Shadowal in Use . . . in Milwaukee,” Concrete Magazine, October 1957, 20.
Item 2B - Page 59
44 “Hi-Lite” decorative concrete block, with triangulated bas -relief designs, was introduced by the Besser Company of Alpena, Michigan, who also produced molds so local suppliers could make them on-site. From “Concrete” Magazine, April 1958.
Item 2B - Page 60
All Producers Can Make
Besser Hi-Lite Block
Iii -I.iii· ltlrn I... uu .tllnu ti\t' Je~ip11
l,lo,-1. fur l,olh c·,h'rior a11d interior
\htlk h,1, lwc-11 i11trod111nl l,y Br,,(•r
I :ump,111, . \lpc•11a. \fi, ·h. Ha~<l on
llw 11111" 111io11.1l H" , fl" , 16" ma
•rHII, unit. I Ii-Lilt• lilcwk fcaturr•
-i11!!ic- .11111 clouhl,• rai,,.d p) ramid
f.wi11µ 1lt•-iµrl'• I h.11 l'ttahlr arrhilecls
11r l,11ild,·1- to, rc•alf' a m) ria,1 of pat
tnn• ,111cl tlr.imati r· a11 hitl'r·tural ef
fc·,·1-..
lli -l.i1r· l,lrn k \,ill 1?i,1' hlO(kmak
,.,, " Ill'\\ rompt•liliH' blod, for 1hr
l,11ildi11µ inclti-tn. It, ~l'ulpturc<l ap
fWt11it111t• udcl, J?lamour to ordinar)
hlod.. ar11I .,Jiould greatly stimulate
tlw clrmaml for Hmc•rf'l1• masonry
1111ih. Iii-Litt• ltlo<'k can be made
from liµhl\H·ight or dP11-.e aggregate
a .. fast as :-Landurcl blo<'k. With only
a fpw ad,litional mol,1 part-. hlor·k
makt-r" will br ahlc· Lo gai11 full pro•
1l1wlin11 or Iii-I.ill' lilm k i11 a mallrr
of minutes, the company states. And
the same set of mold parts fits all
~,andard wall "idths.
Hi -Lill' hlt'l('k mold rmr1-. are avail
ab l" to all hl01·k plant~. Literature
and romplt·h' in£orma1io11 is avail
ahle from Bl','-t•r Compan).
Enter D42 on Inquiry Cord
How to Figure Color for
Ready Mixed Concrete
Frank D. Dinis Co .. 2704 Santa
Ff' Ave., Lo~ Angeles 58. Calif.. ha!,
r<>crntJy produced a folder. "Colors
for Rrady Mixe(I Concrete", that is
APRIL, 1958 For more information use postcard facing pa9e 45 Wexler and Harrison’s variations using Hi-Lite shadow blocks at El Rancho Vista Estates.
Item 2B - Page 61
46 From “Brick and Clay Record,” May 1958.
Besides the Shadowal and Hi-Lite patterns, architects invented standard concrete blocks to create shadow effects by placing blocks on their sides or using different-sized blocks that would protrude from the wall. One use of shadow block is formed when standard concrete masonry units are placed in a manner that projects the block from the face of the home.
One of the most recognizable forms of shadow block is the projecting H-block, including the open-ended eight-inch block.
PACE SETTER PAVILION, 1959
To illustrate what the new shadow block and screen block patterns could do, the National Concrete Masonry Association built a very novel Pavilion for the 1959 Concrete Industries Exposition in Cleveland. They hired nine leading architects to use their imagination and create new patterns using both shadow and screen blocks.
The architects included Marcel Breuer, Paul Rudolph, A. Quincy Jones and Frederick E. Emmons.
A twenty-two-page brochure was produced, describing the project this way:
Item 2B - Page 62
"
~Um a d e on t h e
VIBRAPAC --t
Ym- every unit shown in the above illustration ...
in fact, many more unit.a not shown ... are made on a
1t&ldanl Beetier Vibrapoc. '!be veraatility or the Vibrapoc maJu,. it poosible !or the blockmaker to 1upply ALL
unit.Ill used in building a complete concrete maeoruy
1tructure. Beetier originated the Plain P8lJet Stripper principle and only ONE aet ol Plain PaJleu is required
!or ALL..,.. ol unitl ... a tnmendous t.ime-aaving,
COBt-reducing feature. Now we also have
patio block, t!plit-block, Shadowal Block
and the new 8-er HI-LITE Block.
Write today !or literature.
BESSER Comp a ny
°"""SN , M,,Na.MWl.. U.LA.
FIRST IN CONOETE l lOCIC IMOilN ES
47 And now-the fabulous Pavilion-showplace of the most imaginative uses of concrete block ever seen anywhere!
From the imagination and talent of nine leading American architectural firms comes new evidence of the inherent beauty and versatility of concrete masonry. The project was commissioned by William P.
Markert, director of promotion of the National Concrete Masonry Association and was fashioned completely from concrete masonry units available to the industry today. Also associated in the project were leading block machinery manufacturers.
The walls of fashion devised by the architects were coordinated in this glamorous Pavilion by Robert A. Little and George F. Dalton & Associates and were exhibited at the Concrete Industries Exposition in Cleveland
The cover of the Pavilion brochure.
Item 2B - Page 63
PICTORIAL
And 1luW- llk fa.l,u'.,,L~ l 'al' i .i1,n- ~1\,)1'·p [au~ t)f t Lc- lll<>St i:11.1_.:ill,11i ,,• ,1,..,~ ol ..:,~itt"I.' !<· bh11;k ''' l'T -<:<.:It :tll}\\it<cn ·! f rom the imas inat(o r, a,,d 1;;.l,;-i11. of 11 i11f' le,1dlq1" Amcric::.n ;1r dutcd 11ral i rill' C\)!;l<•i w,, i•vidi•m·r (,f 1h ,• i11hrt t'nl l11•~111y :,n,11·,•r1:11iiity nf {'(11l ,;rctc m:m.>;1ri·. ' rl'le r,,c,je..:t was c=mii$~i0 ncd hy \\i :liun I'. :\ fark,·rr, .li ,t'uor ,,l p n nn,;1>(11, "f ti,,. :\",<1;,ma\ Concct c \ Lt,c·1<ry ,\,,.>< ·ia1:,,., a,u! w"' fa,h i1incJ U'mpktd y from c,,,1crc t..: ni:1~nn0· u nits .:iyaJah k le> thl· ·,ul,1s1c} ,,.,J,i y. \ l•c•;,~,;<,Ki,1tcd i11 l h1: pn.,j cn ,n·r, . .-Jc,,dim: blc .... -}; 11.;1, t,inn:, "'mu ,facwrc"
Tl: t" "..,r,, of fa,hi,n1 d,:,·h,<..xl by the ar,;nlt<.:cts wcr,· ,;oo rJL•rntcJ ill 11,ii ~fomorou, l'ni lirn1 hy K,X'<'n \ . 1.;111,- ,rn,l ( >,•,)ri-!•' F . D .,i,, ,,. ,\ \~;..,~ ,.,,.._ .c:1J woe «.,hiLikd "' t li~- C·-•u~r1:tc il1J,Hric~ Ex;-,:"'it'." u in ("Jcq:::,u:d I r yocor l ril' ,·,r.' u~h d:i i ,1ma:>i1'. )? h;il,'.i,1r . 11;,1 1hr f.l;•r ... welc01ne to
THE PAVILION
/m-l1fou gflfcway to the wu11derful 11ew u:orld of BLOCK ••
48 Architect Marcel Breuer's contribution: “Time was when a wall was just a wall. A flat, uninteresting surface, expensively covered and painfully lacking in depth, definition and texture. A new concept in wall fashions, however, is beginning to change all that.
And concrete block is leading the expressive wall by alternating hollowcore block and two 4"x 8"x 16" units. His rendition is a complete and relieving change from the silent, stereotyped walls of yesterday and is reserved only for those who wish to go modern ... and stay there. Choose from a palette of pastel or vivid colors-and splash on your own unique personality in paint.”
Item 2B - Page 64
-
• 1• CREATOR OF UNESCO PERMANENT HEAOQUARTERS BUILDING, PARIS, fRANCE, U.S. EMBASSY OFFICE BLIILDING. TH£ HAGUE, HOLLAND; EXHl81T10N 1-iOUSE 1 FOR MusrnM o, Moorn, ART. NEW , oRK; AND MA"' ornER PROJECTS - -1 n~.-.. ,
-- t.crestmg Sl1rfacc, expensively con:rcd and painfully lacking in depth, dcfinit ion and textu re. A m:w cun
ccpt in wall fashions, howC\'Cr, i~ beginning to
chani:,-c all thac And concrete block is leading the
merry way. J\.1'1rce1 Breuer, New York, crafte d thi&
• , • express ive wall br alternat ing hol!owoore block and two 4':x 8"x 16" unit&. His rt:n<lition it. a complete
and relieving change from the silt:nt, stt:n:otyped
'
11•
walls of ye!'>terday and is reserved only for tho&C who wish to go modern .. an<l stay thc:rt:.
Choose from a palette of pastel or
\'ivid colon; -:m d spl ash on you r own
unique persona lil y in paint.
CHARM I NG . __ RIGHT DOWN TOTHEVERYCOR£
£ -,ri' tlti"f nict i , fod::d ,i, itt i~. 1"lu bta~·:; i~, .,_ith ,:-,!~, r:-t•:,il-.i~, ~•" ,o,,,!,,i. j><JJJ·iblj' .-w,M ;" " .,_,,,J/_ ,l;,d a 1;1,i, n;~rr.' .\',ma Jiow ~ ,p.,i•I ,,.._ pit./1.<i, i, tiPr>; •~ 11, dn,t r, J,14if wlu" l,fhl ,-,.,_s,n IJu k<Jl{;,,,_,o,, ~~;,, _ .\'ov, t<», :ht ,,.,,..,,i, lt1;1i.,t "~d ;l,11.<t,1>: y t(ld,i,~" r,f :o•·r iii, i,o, i~;, /<fl knitt , xh ib-i:
49 “Architect Paul Rudolph, New Haven, Connecticut, has proved that Shadowal block not only has a handsome face but a smart and distinguished profile as well. Simply by turning the sculptured faces of the solid Shadowal units to the left and stacking them vertically, Rudolph hit upon an interesting notched effect which he found could be distinctively carried throughout the entire expanse of the wall. A wonderful relief from the staid walls of yesterday.” Item 2B - Page 65
CREATOR OF U.S. EMBASSY IN AMMAN_ JORDAN, SARASOTA BRADENTON AIRPORl, JUNIOR-S[HIOR HIGH SCHOOL SARASOTA FLORIDA;
Architect Paul Ru<lolpl1, 'Jew H aven,
prm.·t'd that Shadmnd b!ocL. not only ha~ a hand some fact' but a smart and diHingui~hcd pmfile a~ well. S[mpl r hy l urni ug 1hc sculpturuJ f.1<.:c, of the
solid Shadowa l units to the ldt and
stackin11: them nrtically, Rudolph hit
upon an intc1csting nt)tthcd dfcct
which h1: found ruuld he di,tincti\·cly
carried thmui;,:hout the c-ntirr cxpans1:
of the \•all. A wondcrfu; relief fmin
thl· .staid walls of H.'-tt:rday
SHADOWAL BtOCK WITH AN AODlO !WIST
,·J•~- .,,.,,, •• ,,.,, .. ·- "-:.:-:;,, ... , .. "·' .,ir; "" "J ,'•"" fO, W. ~ ;..,,,., N, ~ ,;,,v •~ ~ •~r ,:d ._.~ • .,,.., ,,,. :o ~""< ~ .,~.,., . ...-. _{,., ,, • .,...,, • ..,,~:e. .: :~~plll"l 1 50 “Here, in what has been described as "a chorus of frogs arranged in a series of totem poles and emitting a happy serenade," is a fancy screen design fashioned by Charles Walton of the architectural firm of A. Quincy Jones and Frederick E. Emmons, Los Angeles. Frilly, but far from frail, the ornate screen can be beautifully employed as a backyard fence to filter wind and sunlight, or as a patio wall to provide extra privacy. Grille designs of concrete block are ideal as an outside material. More than just being distinctive in appearance, block is a permanent material requiring almost no maintenance and is totally free from damage by rodents and vermin.”
Item 2B - Page 66
CREATORS OF SOUTH BAY SHOPPING CErHER. RCOONOO BEACH, CALIF. UNIHO STATES COt~SUlATE GENERAL omcr BUILOING. SINGAPORE; ROMANOffS PALM SPRINGS.
MANY OTHER ARCHITECTURAL ACHIMMENTS
H erc, in wha ha:; been dc$<:ribc<l a~ ".a 1.:horus of frog:- arnrngc<l iu a scric~ of rot e1n po les :i.nd e1nitti11g .l hap py scrcnridc," it:, a fancy screen design fash ioned br Charles W:. lton of tht' an:hirectur:.1 firm nf A. Quincy Jo nes and Frederick E. J::minons,Los Angele!'.. Frilly, but far from fra i11 the o rna te sc:rr"en (.-in be oc.,ntilully t'rnploycd a$ a ba(k ya rd fence to (i!rcr winrl anrl sunlight, or :.5 a patio Wiilll to ptn\'ide e:xtra privacy. Grillc<lesignsnf concrete block .lrC ideal as an outside materia l. :\fore tha n just being distinctive in
appearance, block is a pcnnanc ul
marcr-ial requiring almm,t no main
ten ance an<l is totally free from d;rn1-
ab>e by rode nts and vermin.
WE8OF ELOQUENCE WOVEN FROM WISDOM
c~,uu,r .U<:1,;••~· u '" ur~rJ/ lo• .,.1.J, •r /, .•• .,,. ,.,,, ,.J,,,,.,, "'"*'"~ ;, .,,,1v ,.,J ,·,,J ,,/,,, ·, ,,_, 11~111rr'; ,..~,,, ,,,,',. rlt.u ' "'"l ii 1iu ;,-.i,-,, """" I.(, ;t:t!lt.,uu,d ,..,.,.tit.a .i.i!rr1:t,r1. Jl'i•d.J ,~11'1 '"""t 1/ <.-Jt" . I <,, ·;,·•~f -,>I f•"'~Tl ./J JjO,t, [,o:lr,N, • ~,,u .,..,d r?ld 4U ,.,.,.,.,,;.;.,t, ,,u.-rd . • V~1Jc,,,, 1,.-,1, 4 rJou ;,. i1, :::11rr.b!, r~•n,,,,
51 Some inventive shadow block patterns devised by architects Wexler and Harrison at El Rancho Vista Estates.
Item 2B - Page 67
52 Architects Wexler and Harrison at El Rancho Vista Estates devised some inventive shadow block patterns.
Item 2B - Page 68
53 V Harper Goff Brochure
Item 2B - Page 69
SPB:J:NGS LXFE .
P L AN 2050
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54 Item 2B - Page 70
'7,1/e 'Jmft,Oltt44U o/ t,,uea4tia,e~ TOTAL PRICE
FROM
Roy Fey a111l his Architectur,1! $
20 450
firm have gone lO great ex•
pense to make sure that th e I •
excit ing homes that they have ~ $
9 50 DOWN
• designed for you arc placed •=
p roperly on the J,,rge I 00 x I . I
lo~s so lhat you :lrc. ;tssun:d_ of max111~u111
pnv:.,cy as well :1s cl1mmc-w 1sc use o f )Our
space . The relat ion o[ your bedrooms,
·window w;1lls, ;rnd leisure areas to sun
and shadow pancrns is c:.dlcd ori entation
and EL LtAJ\:C l-1O VIST A ESTATES arc
the first to eliminate h it-,rncl-mis..; plot
planning a ncl employ careful study in this
vital field.
;>DR~VWa
ESTATES
RA O RO
for more fun in LLJB J
EL R ANCHO VJSTA ESTATES . . . GENERAL OFFICES 8c MODEL HOME 1011 N orth Palm Canyon Driv e, P alm Spri ngs, Ca lifornia • FAirv iew 4-3381 Your NE'W HOME
IN f.f R~ Vui<L
ElJ,a~ features . .
• Invitin g En trees • 3 & 4 Bedrooms, 2 & 3 Baths
• Large 14 x 23 Li\·ing R oom • Famil y R oom
and Patio
• !J diffe rent front eleva tions featur ing 111oldcd
desi gn concre te blo ck faca des .
Five-foot plasfcrcd cHmatc control ove r hang s.
• Wall-to-wall carp eting in living room, bedroom s,
and hall s.
Tile floors in ldtchc n and family room.
• Utilities und erground from p ole to h ouse.
• Sunk en Roman Tub and Shower in nrns ter b::ith.
• All baths w it)1 til ed sho·wer area. S howen
enclose d,
• TV and telephone cables installed .
• E x tra large twu•l:ar car-por t. Separate laundry
-room.
1 Kitchen
, Ove11, ran ge, and hood in ma tched color :-,.
, Birc h cabinets .
Garbage Disp osa l.
P a!is-thru bar sea ting fom· between Kit chen and
Famil y room.
55 Item 2B - Page 71
The GOOD ,&
§t~~Y~ti. ~~ !
Tin: proudp .... th.tttof a home In •:1 ~
RANCHO YISTA ESTATES 1., if qua li
fiNI, uit<,nu tl,:ally a"d I no chu·g<:.
ltlllh~ lo a (g<1lfl»1J:) ffl('O)lknl,ip \
lll the world famou• Pa lm Sp•~•
R•d~ 0 11b. lie will he livlng: le..
11..,., ,.,.o minute. •- Y from thl1
club'tu 11m11chedfadl1 1le6 '6r1M1IJ 00,,
r«r,:a1lon P>Cludlng lhe tenul1 dub,
nlympi., ,wi.m,ni ng pool, ridin g 1ta.blff.
rHtau .. 111, a nd J.op.., S.h oolo,
1th11«he.., 1nd tu1..,.......rk.,.,, re 11earby.
OiMGver the dtli ghl, of COUl'ITRY
O,UB IMng 111rrot1nded by ckan air,
ol...eT1 bnu1y,a>1d n lu:NI p"".>pW!
.c play.
SEO
THE CAPRI
EXTRA CONVENIENCE
EL RANCHO VISTA HOME S
have TWO slidin g doors to
make the outdoors easy to get to.
BED
lloy Fey ha & constructed y our EI RANCHO VISTA
ESTATES home with scrupulou s ntte ntion to details of
quality utilizin g h.i., hard won e.,"(.periencc in buildin g o"cr 8,000 home s of superior worth. Each hom e is de
signe d with the deeei·t in mind. As a bcnu,tiful machh!c lor living on the desert your El Rnnclm Vista home ,\-'1ll provi de unparalleled leisure and comfor t. Trul y a hom e to brin g pride of owncnhi p nncl prest ige to the
co mmunity.
EXTRA SHADE
PLAN 2060
cAP.Po~,. l
'4--~------
lb
EX~
EL RANCHO VJSTA HOMES
abound in roomy, outside lock-up
storage, there being up to 100
squa re ft. per house.
EL RANCHO VISTA HOMES have deep five-foot over hangs ther eby in suring the maximum of cooling efficiency
PLAN 2070
56 VI Contemporary Images – Photos by Author, January 2023
Item 2B - Page 72
57 Item 2B - Page 73
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60 Item 2B - Page 76
61 Item 2B - Page 77
62 Item 2B - Page 78
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66 Item 2B - Page 82
67 Item 2B - Page 83
68 VII Grant Deed
Item 2B - Page 84
RECORDING REQUESTED BY AND
WHEN RECORDED MAIL TO:
FULLERTON, LEMANN,
SCHAEFER& DOMINICK, LLP
215 North D Street, First Floor
San Bernardino, CA 92401
MAIL TAX STATEMENTS TO:
Larry C. Yarchever, Trustee
1633 Via Roberto Miguel
Palm Springs, CA 92262
APN: 677-233-003
DOC #2023-0056956 Page 2 of 5
rms SPACE FOR RECORDER'S USE ONLY
GRANT DEED TO A REVOCABLE TRUST
The undersigned Grantor declares that this conveyance transfers Grantor's interest to Grantor's revocable living trust for zero ("0") consideration This transaction is exempt from the Documentmy Transfer Tax pursuant to R & T §11930.
Documentary Transfer Tax is $0.00
~ Exempt from fee per GC27388.1; document transfers real property that is a residential dwelling to an owner-occupier. 181City of Palm Springs
181Uoincorporated Area of __ _
CAITLIN G. FREEMAN, Trustee of the LIVING TRUST OF DESERT SILENCE FAMILY TRUST, dated June 22, 2020, the GRANTOR,
HEREBY GRANTS TO:
LARRY C. YARCHEVER, Trustee of the LIVING TRUST OF DESERT SILENCE FAMILY TRUST, dated June 22, 2020, the GRANTEE,
All of THAT PROPERTY situated in the County of Riverside, State of California, and commonly known as 1633 Via Robert Miguel, Palm Springs, CA; which property is bounded and described as set forth in Exhibit ''A:' attached hereto.
SUBJECT TO the Restrictions, Conditions, Covenants, Rights, Rights of Way, and Easements now of record, if any.
The then-acting Trustee has the power and authority to encumber or otherwise to manage and dispose of the hereinabove described real property; including, but not limited to, the power to convey.
Executed on 'J.j l \o , 2023, in ~ e-\J lit.- o ty, Montana. fib \l(i-ft,i
69 VIII El Rancho Vista Estates Potential Historic District In 2015, Historic Resources Group identified El Rancho Vista Estates as one of nine potentially eligible Historic Districts. The following information is taken from the Survey Findings Summary:
“The survey identified nine potential historic districts that meet the registration requirements for listing at the federal, state, or local levels. For each district, individual properties were evaluated as contributors or non- contributors based on whether they were constructed during the period of significance, and whether they retain sufficient historic integrity to convey their significance as part of the district.” The identified historic districts are:
1. Caballeros Estates
2. Deep Well Ranch
3. El Rancho Vista
4. Las Palmas Summit
5. Racquet Club Road Estates
6. Sunmor / Enchanted Homes
7. Twin Palms
8. Vista Las Palmas
9. Vista Santa Rosa
Item 2B - Page 85
70 Item 2B - Page 86
AppD- 22
El Rancho Vista Estates
NAME El Rancho Vista Estates Historic District
ANALYSIS 71 total properties; 48 contributors; 670/o contributing STATUS CODE 3S/3CS/ 5S3
BOUNDARY El Rancho Vista Estates is bounded by Vista Chino on the north, the south side of Chia DESCRIPTION Road on the south, North Gene Autry Trail on the east, and the west side of Via Roberto Miguel on the west. This boundary represents Phases I and II of El Rancho Vista Estates, designed by architects Wexler & Harrison.
PHYSICAL El Rancho Vista Estates has a strong sense of time and place. It is composed of one-story, DESCRIPTION single-family residences designed in the Mid-century Modern architectural style by architects Wexler & Harrison. Wexler & Harrison placed a variety of roo flines including gable, butterfly, and flat through out the curved streets of the development to give the neighborhood a dynamic architectural cadence. Variations in concrete block pattern were also used to give each house an individual look. The district is characterized by curving streets with sidewalks, landscaped parkways, mature trees, and dramatic rooflines, which give the neighborhood a dynamic appearance.
PERIOD OF 1960-1964
SIGNIFICANCE
APPLICABLE Nl / 3, C/3/ 4,5 (District Criterion 6)
CRITERIA
CONTEXT Post-World War II Palm Springs (1945-1969)
THEME Post-World War II Single-Family Residential Development / Mid-century Modem Architecture
STATEMENT OF The El Rancho Vista Estates Historic District is eligible for listing in the National Register,
SIGNIFICANCE
the California Register, and as a local historic district. It is significant under Criterion N 113 for its association with residential developmen t in the City of Palm Springs in the postwar era, reflecting an important period of growth in the city, and for its association with important merchant-builder Roy Fey. It is significant under Criterion C/3/ 4,5 as an excellent and intact collection of Mid-century Modern residential architecture designed by prominen t local architects Wexler & Harrison. It is the first residential subdivision designed by the firm.
DEVELOPMENT In 1960 Roy Fey, one of Palm Springs' most prolific developers and builders, looked HISTORY eastward from the village and established the tract that would become El Rancho Vista Estates (1960-61 , Wexler & Harrison). The "Barbara Tract," as it is officially known on the tract maps, was developed in three quick, successive phases from north to south, and included a street named after the developer himself (Avenida Fey). The development sat virtually isolated in the north eastern part of Palm Springs. The potential historic district comprises Phases I and II of the development , reflecting the portion designed by Wexler & Harrison.
71 Item 2B - Page 87
AppD- 23
Seeing the potential of what the Alexander Construction Company was doing with modern architecture in housing tracts, Fey engaged the local architecture firm Wexler & Harrison to design homes in El Rancho Vista Estates. The subdivision was the first single family tract development by Donald Wexler and Richard Harrison in Palm Springs. Similar to the Alexander developments, the architects for El Rancho Vista Estates placed a variety of rooflines including gable, butterfly, and flat throughout the curved streets of the development to give the neighborhood a dynamic architectural cadence . Variations in concrete block pattern were also used to give each house an individual look.
Three basic floor plans included three-bedroom/two bath and two-bedroom/two bath versions with family rooms, priced at$ 16,995.1 Buyers also received a "golfing membership in the nearby Ranch Club at no additional cost."• A furnished model home was located at 3200 East Vista Chino-likely the present-day parcel located at the southwest corner of Vista Chino and Via Roberto Miguel. These homes were market ed to Los Angeles residents as part of the "Balanced Power Homes" program by the Southern California Gas Company that positioned the combined use of gas and electric power as less expens ive than "All Electric Hom es" that were popular in Southern California during the period.3
1 "C lassified Ad Is;• Los Angeles Times, April 27, 1962, D 14. 2 "Advertisement/ Desert Sun, May 7, 1960.
3 Display Ad 3 12, Los Angeles lime~ March I I, I 962, PI 5. 72 Item 2B - Page 88
AppD - 24
Context View on Avenida Fev Norte Context View on Avenida Fe.v Norte 3395 E. Camino Roios 3 472 E. Camino Rojos
3666 E. Camino Rojas 3 4 52 Avenida Fey Norte
73 Item 2B - Page 89
El Rancho Vista Estates AppD- 25
3399 AVENI DA FEY 1960 Wexler & Harrison Mid-century Modern Contributor 3D NORTE
3421 AVENI DA FEY 1960 Wexler & Harri son Mid-century Modern Contributor 3D NORTE
3452 AVENI DA FEY 1960 Wexler & Harrison M id-century Modern Contributor 3D NORTE
3474 AVENI DA FEY 1961; Wexler & Harrison Mid-century Modern Contributor 3D NORTE 2006
3475 AVENI DA FEY C. 1960 Wexler & Harrison Mid-century Modern Contributor 3D NORTE
3500 AVENI DA FEY 1960 Wexler & Harrison Mid-century Modern Contributor 3D NORTE
3511 AVENI DA FEY 1961 Wexler & Harrison Mid-century Modern Non- 6Z NORTE contributor
3550 AVENI DA FEY 1960 Wexler & Harrison Mid-century Modern Contributor 3D NORTE
3551 AVENI DA FEY 1960 Wexler & Harrison Mid-century Modern Contributor 3D NORTE
3576 AVENI DA FEY 1960 Wexler & Harrison Mid-century Modern Contribut or 3D NORTE
3577 AVENI DA FEY 1960 Wexler & Harrison Mid-century Modern Contributor 3D NORTE
3588 AVENI DA FEY 1961 Wexler & Harrison Mid-century Modern Contributor 3D NORTE
3589 AVENI DA FEY C. 1960 Wexler & Harrison Mid-century Modern Contribut or 3D NORTE
3622 AVENI DA FEY 1961 Wexler & Harrison Mid-century Modern Contribut or 3D NORTE
3623 AVENI DA FEY 1960 Wexler & Harrison Mid-century Modern Contributor 3D NORTE
3667 AVENI DA FEY 1963 Wexler & Harrison Mid-century Modern Non- 6Z NORTE contributor
3690 AVENI DA FEY 1961 Wexler & Harrison Mid-century Modern Contributor 3D NORTE
3691 AVENI DA FEY 1959 Wexler & Harrison Mid-century Modern Contributor 3D NORTE
74 Item 2B - Page 90
El Rancho Vista Estates AppD-26
NUMBER DIR STREET SUFFIX YEAR ARCHITECT Architectural style Evaluation Status Code 3420 E AVENI DA FEY 1960 Wexler & Harrison Mid-century Modern Non- 6Z NORTE contributor
3666 E AVENI DA FEY 1960 Wexler & Harrison Mid-centur y Modern Contributor 3D NORTE
3395 E CAMINO ROJOS 1961 Wexler & Harrison Mid-century Modern Contributor 3D 3420 E CAMINO ROJOS 1961 Wexler & Harrison Mid-centur y Modern Non- 6Z contributor
3472 E CAMINO ROJOS 1960 Wexler & Harrison Mid-century Modern Contributor 3D 3477 E CAMINO ROJOS 1960 Wexler & Harrison Mid-centur y Modern Contributor 3D 3510 E CAMINO ROJOS 1959 Wexler & Harrison Mid-century Modern Non- 6Z contributor
3552 E CAMINO ROJOS 1960 Wexler & Harrison Mid-century Modern Non- 6Z contributor
3555 E CAMINO ROJOS 1960 Wexler & Harrison Mid-century Modern Non- 6Z contributor
3570 E CAMINO ROJOS 1959 Wexler & Harrison Mid-century Modern Contributor 3D 3573 E CAMINO ROJOS 1960 Wexler & Harrison Mid-century Modern Non- 6Z contri butor
3585 E CAMINO ROJOS Wexler & Harrison Mid-century Modern Non- 6Z contri butor
3588 E CAMINO ROJOS 1961 Wexler & Harrison Mid-centur y Modern Contributor 3D 3600 E CAMINO ROJOS 1960 Wexler & Harrison Mid-century Modern Non- 6Z contri butor
3607 E CAMINO ROJOS 1960 Wexler & Harrison Mid-century Modern Contributor 3D 3663 E CAMINO ROJOS Wexler & Harrison Mid-century Modern Contributor 3D 3666 E CAMINO ROJOS 1961 Wexler & Harrison Mid-century Modern Contributor 3D 3694 E CAMINO ROJOS 1960 Wexler & Harrison Mid-century Modern Contributor 3D 75 Item 2B - Page 91
El Rancho Vista Estates AppD- 27
NUMBER DIR STREET SUFFIX YEAR ARCHITECT Architectural style Evaluation Status Code 3695 E CAMINO ROJOS 1960 Wexler & Harrison Mid-century Modern Contributor 3D 3351 E PASEO BARBARA 1960 Wexler & Harrison Mid-century Modern Contributor 3D 3352 E PASEO BARBARA 1961 Wexler & Harrison Mid-century Modern Non- 6Z contributor
3390 E PASEO BARBARA 1961 Wexler & Harrison Mid-century Modern Contributor 3D 3393 E PASEO BARBARA 1960 Wexler & Harrison Mid-century Modern Contributor 3D 3440 E PASEO BARBARA 1961 Wexler & Harrison Mid-century Modern Contributor 3D 3445 E PASEO BARBARA 1960 Wexler & Harrison Mid-century Modern Contributor 3D 3466 E PASEO BARBARA c. 1960 Wexler & Harrison Mid-century Modern Non- 6Z contributor
3467 E PASEO BARBARA 1961 Wexler & Harrison Mid-century Modern Contributor 3D 3488 E PASEO BARBARA 1960 Wexler & Harrison Mid-century Modern Contributor 3D 3489 E PASEO BARBARA 1960 Wexler & Harrison Mid-century Modern Contributor 3D 3522 E PASEO BARBARA 1960 Wexler & Harrison Mid-century Modern Contributor 3D 3523 E PASEO BARBARA 1960 Wexler & Harrison Mid-century Modern Non- 6Z contributor
3555 E PASEO BARBARA 1961 Wexler & Harrison Mid-century Modern Contributor 3D 3556 E PASEO BARBARA 1960 Wexler & Harrison Mid-century Modern Contributor 3D 3597 E PASEO BARBARA 1960 Wexler & Harrison Mid-century Modern Contributor 3D 3598 E PASEO BARBARA 1960 Wexler & Harrison Mid-century Modern Non- 6Z contributor
3622 E PASEO BARBARA C. 1960 Wexler & Harrison Mid-century Modern Contributor 3D 76 Item 2B - Page 92
El Rancho Vista Estates AppD- 28
3625 E PASEO BARBARA 1960 Wexler & Harrison Mid-century Modern Contributor 3D 3663 E PASEO BARBARA 2002 Wexler & Harrison Mid-century Modern Non- 6Z contributor
3666 E PASEO BARBARA 1960 Wexler & Harrison Mid-century Modern Non- 6Z contributor
3676 E PASEO BARBARA 1960 Wexler & Harrison Mid -century Modern Non- 6Z contributor
3677 PASEO BARBARA 1960 Wexler & Harrison Mid-century Modern Contributor 3D 1521 VIA ROBERTO 1961 Wexle r & Harrison Mid-century Modern Non- 6Z MIGUEL contributor
1543 VIA ROBERTO 1961 Wexler & Harrison Mid-century Modern Contributor 3D MIGUEL
1552 VIA ROBERTO 1960 Wexler & Harrison Mid-century Modern Not Visible 7R MIGUEL
1555 VIA ROBERTO 1961 Wexler & Harrison Mid-century Modern Contributor 3D MIGUEL
1565 VIA ROBERTO 1960 Wexler & Harrison Mid-century Modern Non- 6Z MIGUEL contributor
1593 VIA ROBERTO 1964 Wexler & Harrison Mid-century Modern Contributor 3D MIGUEL
1594 VIA ROBERTO 1961 Wexler & Harrison Mid-century Modern Non- 6Z MIGUEL contributor
1622 VIA ROBERTO 1960 Wexler & Harrison No style Non- 6Z MIGUEL contributor
1627 VIA ROBERTO 1960 Wexler & Harrison Mid-century Modern Contributor 3D MIGUEL
1633 VIA ROBERTO 1960 Wexler & Harrison Mid-century Modern Not Visible 7R MIGUEL
1659 VIA ROBERTO 1960 Wexler & Harrison Mid-century Modern Contributor 3D MIGUEL
1673 VIA ROBERTO 1960 Wexler & Harrison Mid-century Modern Contributor 3D MIGUEL
77 Item 2B - Page 93
El Rancho Vista Estates Historic District
ul
E VIS CHINO E VIS CHINO g E Vl!C HINO
~
3352 3390 3440 3466 3466 3522 3556 3598 3622 3666
1659 ~
E PSO BARBARA
~r
3351
1633 i
i!!
1627
1593 3551 3577 3589 3623 3667
3691
3552 3570 3588 3600 3666
3694
ECAM ROJOS
L
i
\
~
0 ,,,cH,.JA,.,,R""-0 ____ .. EC,,,,Hl~ ,~o ____________ , _ J ,CHIA.RO/ AppD-29
EVISCHINO
LEGEND
r::J CONTRIBUTOR
t:J NON-CONTRIBUTOR
r::J NOT VISIBLE
E VIS CHINO
r::J INDIVIDUALLY ELIGBLE
- DISTRICT BOUNDARY
•-• TRACT BOUNDARY
78 Item 2B - Page 94
Announcing
Grand Opening
Saturday, March 19th, 1960
Ro'! :Je'J ;
{I /?aHc~c lJiJt1 {Jt1teJ
The Followin g Crafts men, Contr1cton and
Instituti ons Contribute d Magnifi cently to
the Beauty, Quality and Attract ive Price
of EL RANCHO VISTA ESTATES
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11,111 HlPWIJ Ill
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SECURITY TITLE INSURANCE CO,
Rl•euldt, ColllorQla
CCN1graulatlon1
COACHELLA VALLEY SAVINCS' LOAN
lalm Sprint•
Con9raulaUou
Striking MODEL HOME at 3200 EAST VI STA CHINO
WEXLER AND HARRISON, Al.A, ARCHITECT DECORATED BY MURIEL BERING
HARPER GOFF, CONSULTANT
Brine you the Good PALM SPBINGS LIFE
\ NI
$19,950 -
·,,950 ....,
f R EE GI" to purch11en of first 10 home,._
12 cu, It, Hot Point refrlcerat or for your kitchen,
C,nuol Otf1u 1290 Sc,uth ,.,m Conyon Dn,,-FA 5-2012
All lrok,n W,lcom,
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CHMENT D
Item 2B - Page 95
RESOLUTION NO. HSPB #161
A RESOLUTION OF THE HISTORIC SITE PRESERVATION
BOARD OF THE CITY OF PALM SPRINGS, CALIFORNIA,
RECOMMENDING THAT THE CITY COUNCIL DESIGNATE
THE RATNER RESIDENCE LOCATED AT 1633 VIA
ROBERTO MIGUEL , A CLASS 1 HISTORIC SITE ( HSPB
#161), APN #677-233-003.
THE HISTORIC SITE PRESERVATION BOARD (“HSPB”) FINDS AND DETERMINES AS FOLLOWS:
A. WHEREAS, Chapter 8.05 of the Palm Springs Municipal Code allows for the designation of historic sites and districts; and
B. WHEREAS, The City of Palm Springs filed an application pursuant to Article III, Section 8.05.070 (Procedure and Criteria for Designation of Historic Resources ) of the Palm Springs Municipal Code requesting historic resources designation for “The Merrill Lynch Building” located at 415 South Palm Canyon. The application included a historic resources report (“the report”).
C. WHEREAS, on September 19, 23, 24 and 30, 2024, members of the Historic Site Preservation Board (HSPB) conducted site inspections of the proposed historic resource, accompanied by City staff; and
D. WHEREAS, o n October 1 , 20 24, a noticed public he aring of the Palm Springs Historic Site Preservation Board (“HSPB”) to consider Case HSPB #161 was held in accordance with applicable law; and
E. WHEREAS, the HSPB carefully reviewed and considered all of the evidence presented in connection with the hearing on the project, including, but not limited to, the staff report and all written and oral testimony presented.
THE HISTORIC SITE PRESERVATION BOARD OF THE CITY OF PALM SPRINGS RESOLVES:
SECTION 1: FINDINGS – PART “1”, CRITERIA FOR HISTORIC RESOURCES.
Evaluation of the Application. Pursuant to Municipal Code Section 8.05.070 (C,1,a), the HSPB shall evaluate the application and make findings in conformance with the following criteria:
1. Criteria for the Designation of Class 1 Historic Resources. A site, structure, building or object may be designated as a Class 1 historic resource, provided both of the following findings (“a” and “b”) are met:
Item 2B - Page 96
Resolution No. HSPB #161 – The Ratner Residence