the modern house tour

VIRTUAL HOME TOURS

Experience 3D Walking Tours of Our Most Popular Home Designs

It’s the next best thing to being there in person. In fact, it’s better because within a matter of minutes, you can take virtual walking tours of dozens of incredible home designs. Explore houses room by room, and find the perfect design for you.

To get started, choose your state and select a thumbnail to launch your virtual walking tour!

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Before & After: In Seattle, a 1904 House Sheds Decades of Remodels—and Five Tons of Debris

The Gorgeous Walls in This London Kitchen Renovation? That’s Hempcrete

A Midcentury Sears Kit Home in New York (Mostly) Shakes Off a ’90s Hangover

Budget Breakdown: They Turned a Narrow Sydney Terrace House Into an Inner-City Oasis for $397k

Renovations Stripped Away This Athens Flat’s Character. An Architect Brought It Back, and Then Some

Moveable Screens Let the Owners of This Prefab Home Adjust Light and Airflow

Before & After: They Gave Their Tiny Kitchen a Donald Judd–Inspired Upgrade

Monkey Bars in the Hallway? This New Brunswick House Is Designed Like a Playground

My House: Nadav Kander’s Ibiza Retreat Is Worlds Away From the Island’s Oonzt-Oonzt Nightlife

The Kitchen Island in This London Home Is Made of Melted-Down Chocolate Box Molds

Budget Breakdown: In London, a Midcentury-Inspired Kitchen Update Leads to a $229K Home Revamp

This Melbourne Apartment Has the Coolest Solution for Exposed Pipes

In Paris, a Clothing Workshop Is Tailored Into a Work-From-Home Flat

Before & After: Their 1890 Farmhouse Hides a World of Color Behind Its Gray Facade

Camping Turned Into Glamping After a Family Built Twin Tiny Cabins in the Woods

Friends Weathered Nine Storms Within 18 Months to Build This Remote Cottage in Scotland

A Retired Couple Trades Their Pennsylvania Horse Farm for Beach Life in Coastal Delaware

Before & After: He Gave His Hollywood Hills Midcentury an All-Electric Upgrade

Drawers, Shelves, Closets, and Cubbies Pack in the Storage at a Family’s Mexico City Home

This Ski Cabin’s Spiral Stair Doubles as... a Woodburning Stove?

Before & After: They Gave Their Fussy Hill Country Cabin a “Subtractive” Makeover

Pink Varnish Puts a Playful Spin on a Brutalist Apartment in Athens

A San Antonio Property Is More About the Drought-Resistant Yard Than the Tiny Home It Surrounds

Two Cottages—Renovated Using Less Than $150K—Embrace Living With Kenya’s Wildlife

A Singapore Home Forgoes Air Conditioning (and Windows) to Take Living With Nature to an Extreme

Did You Know the Visionary Behind the “Whole Earth Catalog” Lives on a Century-Old Tugboat?

A Disused Historic Home in Argentina’s Cowboy Country Becomes a Young Family’s Rural Refuge

Cool Ranch: The Perfect Southern California Pool Is Behind a Midcentury in the Valley

Budget Breakdown: A Kitchen Renovation Uses Sustainable Materials and Lush Wallpaper to Go Green

The Owner of an L.A. Neutra Doubles Its Living Space by Looking in the Unused Backyard

Looking for a New Direction, a Couple Build an Arrow-Shaped Off-Grid Home in Patagonia

Budget Breakdown: A $336K Cottage Renovation Gives an Oregon Widow a Fresh Start

Before & After: In Madrid, a Family of Architects Turn a “Cave” Into a Light-Filled Apartment

A Couple Spent Almost Two Decades Renovating a Silver Lake Home. It Finally Feels Like Theirs.

A Mother and Daughter Share an Expanded Weatherboard Cottage That’s Still Just 807 Square Feet

Construction Diary: An Artist Plays Architect to Design a Brutalist-Inspired Family Home in Turkey

3,738 more articles

Self-Driving Tours of the Midcentury Modern Architecture that makes Palm Springs Famous

As seen in....

Premium Guided Self-Driving & Walking Tours since 2017

Exterior tours from the safety and comfort of your own car, plus the convenience and luxury of your own schedule. Tour routes are done in order and have integrated Google mapping. Read more about how our tours work here or watch this video to see exactly what to expect .

Familiarity with Google Maps and your smartphone's internet browser are important to use our tours.

Celebrity MEGA Tour

The biggest and best self-driving celebrity tour you will find in Palm Springs.

See the homes of Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack, Elvis, Leonardo DiCaprio, a U.S. president and more.

Now available! BIKE Tour

See several popular stops in a moderate 10 mile round trip loop especially for cyclists.

See the homes of Frank Sinatra and Elvis, Leo DiCaprio & one of the most iconic private houses in the valley.

Need a bike? We recommend BIKE Palm Springs.

Modernism Top 10 Tour

Explore the 10 best known, most iconic and most beautiful buildings that put Palm Springs on the map.

Enjoy stories, background and history from your expert local guide; all the best buildings in Palm Springs in just a couple of hours.

Self-Driving Celebrity Homes Tour – 10 Best

From Sinatra to Marilyn, to Leo and even the Kardashians, Palm Springs is a celebrity paradise.

Skip the crowds and enjoy this self-driving tour as we share the gossip, the gorgeous homes and Palm Springs's celebrity secrets.

Modern Architecture 101

Familiar with the Top 10, or looking for hidden gems & lesser-known but still fabulous buildings?

Dive deeper into modernism as an architectural style, via the stories of its founders & see its most striking examples.

Palm Canyon Walking Tour

Palm Canyon Drive is a bustling commercial area with gorgeous architecture, fascinating stories & surprising history.

This walking tour is ideal for both first-time visitors and those who'd like to learn a bit more about the city.

Modernism Mega Tour

A combination of our Top 10 Tour and the Modern Architecture 101 Tour, the Mega Tour boasts nearly double the number of tour stops than a regular tour. This is the tour for architecture lovers and those looking to learn all about Palm Springs.

Rancho Mirage Architecture & Celebrity Tour

Outstanding examples of modernist architecture and marvelous mid-century designs all on open display in the "secret" architectural hot spot of Rancho Mirage.

Downloadable Pocket Tours

Get started with these fun self-directed tours delivered instantly to your inbox. These tours provide information, lists and include addresses, but do not offer integrated mapping. If you'd like guided mapping or a planned route, please browse our premium tours above.

Fabulous Doors of Palm Springs

The colorful and stylish doors of Palm Springs are a modernist mainstay.

This 60-page e-book shares photos, exact addresses, and information about dozens of cool doors & modernist facades you can see for yourself in Palm Springs.

$9.99 – Get This Tour Checkout Added to cart

Seriously Selfie Tour

This chic and mod list of the most Instagram-able spots in all of Palm Springs will fill your Instagram feed with style.

Our ten-page PDF shares some of the best spots to snap iconic photos as you explore beautiful Palm Springs California and these spots make an amazing backdrop for your selfies too.

$3.99 – Get This Tour Checkout Added to cart

Joshua Tree Park Guide

With so much to see and do in Palm Springs and the Coachella Valley, nearby Joshua Tree National Park is sometimes overlooked by visitors.

Take our word for it that carving a day out of your schedule to explore this one-of-a-kind desert park will be a decision you won’t regret.

$3.99 – Get Your Guide Checkout Added to cart

Breeze Block Bingo!

You see them everywhere in Palm Springs; gorgeous, sculptural breeze blocks!

Learn the different shapes, and keep tabs on the ones you see using our 1-page printable Breeze Block Bingo Card, created by a talented digital artist.

$3.99 – Get Your Card Checkout Added to cart

Customer Reviews

"the tour is easy to follow and on top, you get interesting information via the audio link and also pictures of the inside. i highly recommend it.”.

V. Deussen - Verified Buyer

So worth $49!

Beth D'Addono, USA Today 10 Best

This is the 4th tour we’ve done, and like the others—WE LOVED IT!! We think this is the best way to see and learn about Palm Springs architecture and history.

Glenn C. - Verified Buyer

"...brilliant, engaging, fun, easy to use and a memory-making joy!

I’m so grateful you did this .

Richard T, Architect

I took both my husband and mom on your tour Celebrity Tour (twice!) and each time was so amazing and really fun! You truly have made a safe and fun tour experience. I loved it and can’t wait to take the Rancho Tour soon. 

-Monica D. - Verified Buyer

"We found the education from our self-guided driving and walking tours ... a fascinating and beneficial addition to our architecture touring. Founder Erin Lawrence offers well-paced, easy-to-listen-to commentary on her audio tours, with accompanying photos ."

-Therese Iknoian, Travel writer, HiTravelTales.com

"This tour was extremely interesting, and we loved the fact we could do it at our own speed, in our own car. Definitely recommend!"

K. Scully - Verified Buyer

"We liked that we could go when we wanted and spend as much time as needed at each stop. The tour is the perfect length."

B. Dolan - Verified Buyer

"We loved it! It was very educational and fun!"

Jerry M. - Verified Buyer

"Fascinating peek into architecture and history!"

R. Philips - Verified Buyer

"We’re not the tour bus type. This tour was right for us, and let us take the family along for a reasonable price."

S. Mowitz - Verified Buyer

"I don't know much about architecture, so it was very illuminating. We liked the variety of buildings it showcased."

N. Perez - Verified Buyer

We really enjoyed the celebrity home tour! It was done very well. Next time I’m in Palm Springs I will definitely take another of your tours.

Karyn M. - Verified Buyer

About Our Tours

Our Palm Springs architectural exterior tours are self-driven in your own car, meaning you can go at your own pace, and stop, look, and get out of the car to take photos any time you want, without worrying about holding up a whole tour group. Tours are exteriors only.

You can have as many people as you like in your car—all for the same price.

Our premium self guided modern multimedia tours—like the Modern Architecture 101 tour—take approximately 90-120 minutes and use audio, interactive mapping and directions, and photos via our online platform so that you can learn about the fascinating history and bold architecture of Palm Springs, without needing to keep up with a tour group.

Want something a little quicker? Purchase the Seriously Selfie Tour or Door Tour e-book for a shorter, more simplified experience.

Watch our helpful "How To" video

Modern Tour FAQs

Our tours are exterior-only multi-media audio and photographic tours that will take you on a self-driving route using your own vehicle.  You need to know how to use your smartphone's web or internet  browser as well as Google Maps, and how to switch between them.

Watch this video to see exactly what to expect.

Start up the tour online, and follow the guided directions, while listening to the tour audio.

When you buy a tour, you'll get the address and a Google Maps link that directs you to the starting point for the tour. Once you're there, press play and your "Tour Narrator" will tell you about this stop.

When you're ready to move on to the next stop, follow the directions from the included Google Maps link to the next address. Once you're there, return to the internet browser window and view the next stop and listen to the audio.

You'll repeat this process at your own pace until your tour is complete.

Homes are all privately owned and interiors are not available to view.

Some public buildings are included on our tours; these may or may not be open to the public on the date and time you choose to visit. We can make no promises about seeing the interiors of any public building; these tours are meant to be exteriors only.

Homes are all privately owned and interiors are not available to view. It is important that tour goers not disturb the homeowners or trespass onto private property.

Some public buildings are included on our tours; these may or may not be open to the public on the date and time you choose to visit. We can make no promises about seeing the interiors of any public building; these tours are focused on exteriors only.

Taking one of our tours requires Wi-Fi or cellular data, as they run online. At this time they are not downloadable for offline use. It is possible to purchase or rent portable Wi-Fi Hotspots like the Skyroam device which will allow you to access data for much less than traditional cell phone roaming rates. (We're looking at you, Canada!)  Read about that option on this blog, where there's also a promo code  for a discount on the device. 

Modern Tours Palm Springs tours run in a specific order, but do allow for you to stop, explore, marvel at the beautiful homes and buildings, and make deviations along the way. Even stop for lunch!

Before purchasing a tour, you'll see the estimated time to complete the tour.

Most of our tours are designed to take between 90 minutes to two hours, but since you’re in the driver’s seat, you set the pace of your tour. You can pause the tour at any time if you see something interesting.

No. After your purchase, you’ll have 30 days to take the tour before your subscription will expire. If you like, buy it today, and you can flip through it to get an idea of what you’ll see, then drive it for real when you arrive in Palm Springs.

Yes! The Top 10 Tour is ideal for cyclists and many guests have shared that they have opted to conduct this tour on a bike. The tour is a loop that encompasses approximately 13 miles. Depending on your speed, if you have power assist from an e-bike and how long you wish to stay at each stop, this tour can be done in 90 minutes to 2.5 hours on a bike.

After you’ve purchased your tour, you’ll first listen to the tour introduction and then you'll make your way to the first stop where the tour will begin. 

Any way you like! You’ll be able to listen to the tour audio on your phone, tablet or connected car speakers, or using a Bluetooth speaker if you want. 

In addition to the audio you can also read a written description of each stop, and look at photos. Of course, you'll be parked in front of each destination too, to be able to see it for yourself.

Whenever possible, our tours include interior photos, historical photos and documents, and historical facts and fascinating stories. 

Our self-guided tour uses Google Maps to navigate you from location to location. Once you've finished at each stop, you'll have Google Maps instructions on where to go next.

Absolutely! Each tour comes with an English transcript of the accompanying audio for accessibility. 

Directions to the next stop are given through Google Maps.

We estimate one of our tours will use approximately 0.02gb of data.

Please note all roaming fees, data charges and overages are your responsibility and we are not responsible for additional charges you may incur with your wireless provider.

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House Beautiful's Most Popular Home Tours of 2022

See the spaces our readers fell in love with this year.

Carriage House by Shannon Roberts (Savannah, GA)

In 2020, life handed Knoxville, TN, interior designer Shannon Roberts some particularly sour lemons: a cancer diagnosis just as Covid-19 began swirling the globe. He turned it into lemonade—and fast. “Two weeks before the world shut down, my husband and I purchased a second home in Savannah, Georgia,” says Roberts. “The carriage house (all 800 square feet it) was fair game for a renovation.”

Colorful Bedroom by Angie Lane (Tecumseh, MI)

The bedroom in Angie Lane 's circa-1860 Italianate farmhouse in Tecumseh, Michigan, needed addressing. "It was a mattress on a platform frame and not much else," confesses the designer, who finally committed to sprucing it up to shoot for the cover of her book, Midwest Modern Manifesto . "I ran with the idea of the room as an abstract version of a landscape painting," she explains.

TOUR THE HOME

Colonial Revival by Isabel Ladd (Lexington, KY)

"Explosive, vivid, saturated.” This is how Lexington, Kentucky–based interior designer Isabel Ladd describes her home, a 1936 colonial that she renovated in "…colors and patterns that bring me immense joy. It reflects how I dress and live: very passionately and in full color."

Historic Townhouse by the Novogratzes (NYC)

For decades a bubble gum–pink stucco townhouse, the exterior of Cortney and Robert Novogratz's new family home in New York City is now gold. This, of course, is what the Novogratzes, a married design and branding powerhouse, do: “We aren’t afraid to take a falling-down building and brighten it up. It can totally transform the energy of the neighborhood,” Cortney says.

Whimsical Studio by Rudy Saunders (NYC)

As an interior designer at Dorothy Draper & Company Inc. , Rudy Saunders has had plenty of experience working in exquisite homes. But he had his work cut out for him at the pre-war studio apartment on the Upper East Side where he lives: The space is tiny—only about 375 square feet—and it’s a rental, meaning major renovations were out of the question.

Cottage Bungalow by Shavonda Gardner (Sacramento, CA)

While it might have been the moody living room that graced House Beautiful's cover, readers were obsessed with pretty much ALL of Shavonda Gardner's inviting California cottage. One standout room was her English country-inspired kitchen, whose mix of colors is, shall we say, chef's kiss.

Modern Home by Jess Cooney (Berkshires, MA)

Sited in Egremont, Massachusetts, the house that Jess Cooney 's clients had bought featured a new, all-white kitchen, along with sky-high windows overlooking dreamy mountain views. Then a tree fell through the roof during a storm (thankfully, the house was empty), and the area sustained significant water damage. “The accident made the decision for them,” says Cooney. “We gutted the kitchen, painting the cabinetry bright blue so it really popped in the open living space.”

English Manor by Kim Armstrong (Texas)

Designer Kim Armstrong’s clients, newly retired, were ready to move to the countryside. Their family was expanding as their children were creating families of their own. A new house with an open-concept floor plan had high ceilings that made window treatments a puzzle. But “the most challenging” part of the project, says Armstrong, “was to create intimate space” in the large open floor plan.

1930s Cabin by Emily Janak and Northworks (Jackson, WY)

Tearing into the walls of their new 1950s ranch house, designer Emily Janak and her husband, architect Adam Janak of Northworks , discovered an architecture lover's version of buried treasure: an original 1936 log cabin that had been covered up with drywall in the ’60s. “It was like finding gold,” says Janak. Because the pine timber had been sealed up for decades, it was in pristine condition.

Pop House by Atelier ND (Amsterdam)

Carice van Houten, best known for her role as Melisandre on HBO’s Game of Thrones , and her boyfriend, actor Guy Pearce, had just bought a 1918 brownstone in a suburb of the Dutch capital. The walls were all white, but Van Houten describes herself as “a walking color explosion, a female Peter Pan, a bit like Pippi Longstocking… My trademark is my eclecticism.” A kaleidoscopic upgrade was needed.

HB's 2022 Whole Home (Atlanta)

Breathing new life into an old house takes a village. HB partnered with Ladisic Fine Homes , architectural firm Pak Heydt & Associates , as well as even interior designers to transform this tudor-style house in Atlanta. Designers include: Ariene Bethea, Ashley Gilbreath, Brynn Olson, DuVäl Reynolds, Jonathan Savage, Keia McSwain, Leanne Ford, Lisa Adams, Mark Williams, Niki Papadopoulos, Whittney Parkinson, and Zoë Feldman.

Marble Kitchen by Laura McCroskey (Kansas City)

When it came to designing the 328-square-foot kitchen of her newly built home, Laura McCroskey’s client, Becky Hillyard, had one request: “No marble!” The lifestyle influencer, founder of the blog Cella Jane, had asked her 642,000 Instagram followers for advice on which surface material to use—and nearly everyone cautioned against marble, since it’s so easy to stain.

Industrial Loft by Alison Victoria (Atlanta)

Alison Victoria had never considered herself an apartment kind of girl. But when she laid eyes on the Stacks lofts, a converted 1880s textile mill in Atlanta, the HGTV star immediately knew she had to buy a unit there—even if only to flip it.

Cottonland Castle by Chip and Jo Gaines (Waco, TX)

The 1913 stone manor house, originally modeled after a small German castle along the Rhine River, has a history and foundation dating back to 1890—not to mention a permanent place in local Waco, Texas, lore. “It sits in the center of a neighborhood downtown, so if you live nearby, you’ve driven past it hundreds of times,” Chip Gaines explains.

Forever Farmhouse by Carolyn Miller

"It was what I call a Frank Lloyd Wrong ," says designer Carolyn Miller of the 1930s Pacific Palisades farmhouse that had fallen victim to a series of bad renovations in the 30 years since its owners moved in. The clients needed help, Miller recalls: "They wanted to bring the house into its best possible state. And they trusted me to do it."

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CHECK OUT OUR REVIEWS ON GOOGLE AND

TRIP ADVISOR!

WE GO INSIDE HOUSES ON EVERY TOUR THAT WE DO, and there is a  live guide leading the tours!

We also drive through the most DRAMATIC, beautiful and  architecturally significant neighborhoods of palm springs.

TOURS START AT $200 PER PERSON

SOME OF THE HOUSES WE GO INSIDE OF:

We are the luxury tour of palm springs, and the oldest architectural tour operator in palm springs.  We are the official tour of the palm springs art museum architecture + design center.

we have audio connection to all cars in the "caravan" Separate Vehicles (Guests' own vehicles, or we can arrange luxury transportation for an additional fee) With Two-Way audio Communication between THE TOUR GUIDE, WHO WILL LEAD THE TOURS, TO All Parties.

Photography Is Permitted Throughout The Tours.

Please Visit The Tours Link Above For All Of The Deets.

 tours start at $200 Per Person

Corporate and group tours are also a specialty.  We have done 4 tours for amazon, 7 tours for nike, 4 tours for cadillac, 4 tours for interior design magazine, multiple tours for volkswagen, and tours for christian dior, loro piana, NBC, american express, wedding parties, etc.  please visit our corporate and group tours page .

SCROLL DOWN FURTHER FOR PIX BELOW

The Modern Tour is THE architectural luxury tour of Palm Springs. WE VISIT THE INTERIORS OF PRIVATE RESIDENTIAL INTERIORS ON EVERY TOUR THAT WE DO.   THERE IS A LIVE GUIDE LEADING ALL OF OUR TOURS!   We are the official tour of the Palm Springs Art Museum Architecture and Design Center.  There are numerous upgrades to our tours, such as interior visits to the Franz Alexander House, the Frederick Loewe Estate, , as well as additional interiors creating a very customizable experience.  The tours are informative and entertaining.  Please explore our site, and we look forward to touring with you..

House Tours & Real Spaces

Take a peek into designers' homes, clever tiny houses, and converted spaces. The home owners, renters, and designers behind these real spaces share their experience and expertise when it comes to making a room look and function at its best.

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All products featured on Architectural Digest are independently selected by our editors. However, when you buy something through our retail links, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Tour 9 Minimalist Homes That Are Stylishly Tranquil

By Rachel Davies

There are few mental images that conjure up as much peace of mind as those of a minimalist home . Refined yet livable and completely devoid of unwanted clutter , minimalist living spaces are often refuges from the demands of everyday life. Their hallmark attributes—pared down color palettes, clean lines, and a frequent reliance on natural materials—are often employed to deft effect by interior designers who are committed to this seemingly simple aesthetic. Below, from a New York City condo to a modern home in Morocco, we share nine of the best minimalist homes to be featured by AD.

A sake-inspired beach house in Fire Island

Working for fashion industry clients Derek Lam and Jan-Hendrik Schlottman in the Pines enclave of New York’s Fire Island, Neal Beckstedt sensitively redesigned a midcentury beach house by modernist master Horace Gifford. “Something about it really felt like it wasn’t the typical beach house,” Lam recalls of his first impression of the property before he bought it. “It was designed with something in mind, with beautiful intention.”

Looking around fashion designer Derek Lam’s waterfront home, one doesn’t immediately think of sipping sake. But that was key to the inspiration he shared with architect and interior designer Neal Beckstedt when they began working on this project together. Of course, Derek Lam being Derek Lam—a womenswear star known for combining elegant simplicity and exquisite detailing—didn’t want just any sake. “In the beginning, I told Neal that my favorite drink was this sake at [the New York City restaurant] Omen that they serve in a cedar box. It’s perfectly simple, and it has this beautiful cedar smell when you drink it,” Lam recalls. “I said, ‘Neal, I just want to live inside that sake box.’”

Ask and ye shall receive.

Now, Lam lives in the cedar sake box of his dreams. Together with his husband, Jan-Hendrik Schlottmann—founder of Italian fashion brand Callas Milano —and their Irish terrier, Roscoe, he’s made the most of the serene home’s 2,000 square feet of minimalist and modernist space—all of it considerably more comfortable and cozy than it might have been thanks to Beckstedt’s carefully thought-out use of warm and natural materials and sculptural accents. — Andrew Sessa

A stunning farmhouse in upstate New York

The main living area features a custom dining table designed by Niels Schoenfelder. Above, a cozy TV nook overlooking the space leads to the primary bedroom.

Beverly Kerzner first met architect and designer Niels Schoenfelder over 20 years ago. At the time, he was 24 years old and had already built a stunning hotel in Pondicherry, India, that caught her eye. After tracking him down and initiating a fruitful conversation, she tapped him to build her dream home.

“Right from the start, Niels and I pushed each other. It was always a conversation, or a lengthy debate, getting to know the land,” Kerzner says. She spent years perfecting her vision with the young German architect.

Fast-forward to 2017 when she purchased a vast plot of scenic land in the Hudson Valley . The sprawling hill-scape contained two stunning barn structures, a river that runs through the property, a cabin, and a residential home. Just like in the far off regions near Pondicherry, this was a landscape that had to be appreciated, worked with, and understood. “I knew immediately Niels was the one for the job,” she recalls. The finished result is a grand yet subtle structure that allows its surrounding environment to take control. — Sophia Herring

A modernist homage in New Canaan, Connecticut

The structure—and its pool—viewed at low light

AD100 architect Deborah Berke remembers the first time she set foot on the land. “It was inspirational,” she recounts of the site: a verdant eight-acre swath of New Canaan, Connecticut, with thick woods, a gentle grade, and a picturesque pond. “I am a New Englander by heritage, and that quintessential landscape of big trees and water really speaks to me.” At the time, the current dean of the Yale School of Architecture had been approached by the property’s owners to build an auxiliary pavilion to their main house—someplace for guests to sleep or for themselves to use as a retreat. “The impulse was a light touch so that nature felt most present.”

By Kristi Kellogg

By Katherine McLaughlin

By Claudia Williams

Through careful siting, ingenuity of fenestration, and other tricks of transition, Berke crafted a nuanced sequence that delays gratification, introducing the scenic surrounds in one spectacular sweep. When guests arrive they are greeted by a seemingly monolithic expanse of gray brick, its staggered façade concealing the entrance. The gravel motor court, however, gives way to a dashed line of rectilinear pavers that unfold beneath a simple black metal trellis, beckoning visitors. (“That trellis says come here, ” Berke jokes.) Step through the door, turn the corner, and you are greeted by a panorama of window walls that frame the sylvan vista. “Before you enter, you don’t quite know what’s going to be revealed,” she notes. “Only inside do you feel where you are.” 

The overall identity speaks to what Berke calls “the trajectory of classic modernism in New England.” It was in this corner of Connecticut, after all, that midcentury trailblazers such as Eliot Noyes , Marcel Breuer , and Philip Johnson reinvented the image of American domesticity, one glass-wall abode at a time. With its taught volume, limited materials palette, and engagement with the landscape, Berke’s pavilion builds on that tradition. — Sam Cochran

A low-tech home just outside Lake Tahoe

“We intentionally didn’t do lighting hanging over the island or over the kitchen table. We kept it very simple,” Nicole Hollis explains. The Trollopes’ kitchen includes oak stools in a jet black finish by E15 and countertops and black splash in Cambrian black granite with a brushed finish by Da Vinci Marble . The ceiling wood planks are raw sugar pine by Jim Morrison Construction .

As the CEO of Five9 , a publicly traded cloud software company, Rowan Trollope knows a thing or two about technology. Considering his role creating cutting edge technologies, one might believe that his new Lake Tahoe home would look like something out of The Jetsons. But if cartoon analogies are to be made, the 50-year-old entrepreneur’s home—which features slabs of stone floors and wood ceilings—would fit more seamlessly into an episode of The Flintstones. “In general, we really stayed away from technology in the house,” Trollope admits. Instead, he and his wife Stephanie, along with their two young children (their third is out of the house), sought to create a space that blurred the line between indoor and outdoor living. “We wanted our home to not be on the land, but of it,” Trollope continues, “which is why it’s partially built into a slope in the ground.”

Located in Truckee, California (roughly ten miles from Lake Tahoe), the one-acre property was purchased by the Trollopes in 2018. By March of 2020, construction was complete, allowing the family to temporarily move out of their primary San Francisco residence and into the house just as the pandemic hit. “The new home became our sanctuary during the pandemic,” Trollope says. “It has that feel of being quite isolated, which I like because my daily life is typically filled with people, meetings, noise. But this house was designed to be the opposite of that in every way.” In order to fit their utopian vision, Trollope tapped the California-based firm Faulkner Architects . “There is minimal difference in material deployment inside and out [of the home],” explains the firm’s founder Greg Faulkner. “I wanted to evoke feelings of a backcountry trip, the spirit of escape and discovery that rises upon arrival of somewhere uniquely special. These feelings are crucial in connecting with a space.”

If connecting with the space was important, then that meant that finding the right interior designer was paramount. That’s why Trollope brought in the San Francisco–based designer Nicole Hollis . “For anyone who steps foot in the home, they would immediately sense that a lot of inspiration came from Donald Judd,” Hollis says, referring to the sleek minimalism prevalent throughout the space. But it was evident the team—and the homeowners—pushed for more than just a Judd-like ambiance. — Nick Mafi

Isolated digs in Marfa, Texas

The positioning of the fireplace in the corner was a minimalist nod to Kiva fireplaces, commonly found in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where the couple has their primary residence.

“It was the only made structure as far as the eye could see, so it became the pivot point by which we designed everything else,” Bob Harris, partner at Lake Flato architects, says of an old water cistern on the approximately 700-acre ranch his clients purchased just outside of Marfa , Texas . “It is this symbol of people that survived in the past and made their livelihoods there in a harsh environment. You want to build upon that, which is what we decided to do.”

But initially, this idea was sold to clients who did not end up building the house that the Texan firm designed for them. The clients in question decided that the location was a bit removed from the proverbial action of the art-world mecca, which houses just under 2,000 full-time residents. Ultimately, they decided to sell their land to Ashlyn and Dan Perry, a couple who met when both were living in San Antonio but are now based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. In an unusual turn of events, the Perrys, philanthropists with a long history of charitable work in the arts, decided to green-light the rammed-earth structures that Lake Flato had designed for the previous land owners, rather than do what many others would have: Start from scratch and potentially with different architects. 

In total, eight structures were constructed using this method, and each is its own room for the most part. They include a mechanical room, an office, a gym, a guest suite, a guest wing, an art studio, a combination kitchen, a living and dining area, and the primary bedroom suite. The structures are set around a courtyard, connected by a covered porch above and breezeways below, which are also used to access each room, as they’re not interconnected. With its low profile and use of natural materials from the earth, the completed home stays true to the architect’s intention to “create a home that has been inserted into the untouched desert landscape without disturbance… It almost feels like a natural part of the desert itself.” — Rima Suqi

A midcentury gem in LA

The exterior of the home seen from street level shows the cantilevered roofs, and it also exemplifies Lautner’s vision to design the very anthesis of a boxed home. 

Before Joachim Rønning’s film Kon-Tiki was nominated for a Golden Globe and Academy Award, before he directed the fifth Pirates of the Caribbean , even before he married the activist Amanda Hearst, the Norwegian-born director had set his sights on a very different career path. “I was in my late teens when I first came across John Lautner’s work in a coffee table book and it completely fascinated me,” Rønning says. “In fact I was so taken by his designs that before I was bitten by the movie bug, I was thinking of becoming an architect.” It would take a few more decades before Rønning and his wife would come across Lautner’s work again, but this time, it would be to buy a home the influential architect had designed. 

In 1961, John Lautner designed the West Hollywood home for interior designer and concert pianist Marco Wolff. For Lautner, who had apprenticed under Frank Lloyd Wright in the 1930s, the home was an opportunity to flex his creative muscles. What began as an arduous, almost vertical plot of land, resulted in perhaps the acme of midcentury-modern residential architecture on the West Coast. With this home, Lautner leaned into the primal state of nature, demanding that his audience turn their preconceived notion of domesticity on its head. It was a bold statement of how humans once lived—among the trees, the rocks, perched atop a hill—and the architect stamped his thumbprint on it. When Rønning and Hearst Rønning purchased the property, they tapped architect and interior designer Clive Wilkinson to help bring their new home back to its former glory. — Nick Mafi

Indoor-outdoor living in Casablanca, Morocco

The custom stained-oakwood staircase with plaster and steel details was inspired by Carlos Scarpa. “The olive tree in the entrance connects nature inside and out. Even the sand at the base was brought from the Moroccan desert,” Arghirescu Rogard says.

It’s not every day that a message on Facebook leads to an incredible redesign of a home, but that was indeed the case for architect and interior designer Crina Arghirescu Rogard. “The owners of this Casablanca villa gave me carte blanche to do a total gut renovation, inside and outside,” she says. And though the bones of the house were very modernist, the clients loved Arghirescu Rogard’s work so much that they were open to everything she proposed.

“I’m a contextual architect, so I like to keep in mind the environment where the project is found,” Arghirescu Rogard says. “[But] the clients wanted an unconventional space in respect to Moroccan culture—they wanted to take some of the formal elements out of the traditional settings.” In order to achieve this, Arghirescu Rogard was able to reconfigure the layout of both floors of the home and redesign the enclosed areas to generate a seamless flow. “The goal was to open the house to the exterior by taking down walls and positioning tall windows in places that could offer different layers of transparencies. And create unexpected perspectives and vistas to cut through the house without revealing it in its entirety,” she adds. “For example, the olive tree behind the glass façade becomes a backdrop for the sculptural staircase—the beating heart of the house—that itself protects the living room’s privacy while allowing a warming flow of light and air.” — Zoë Sessums

An unexpectedly earthy New York City condo

Zuchowicki’s intent was to bring a sense of grounded-ness to this corner of the bedroom, where his client can unwind in peace and quiet. He sourced a vintage Pierre Jeanneret chair from 1stDibs and decorated the desk with a vintage Alain Richaird table lamp from Demisch Dananat and a mobile by Max Simon.

When the interior designer Sebastian Zuchowicki began working with his client on his New York City residence, the starting point was the living room. “I feel like the living room concepts are always the soul of the space, especially in a New York City apartment, and then it trickles down,” he says.

Compared to his client’s conventional summer house in Rhode Island, the three-bedroom apartment in West Chelsea that he currently shares with his two children (and their cat) is a modern sanctuary with a finely tuned aesthetic. Zuchowicki spent a whole year slowly transforming the 3,000-square-foot condominium one room at a time, until the bedrooms, dining room, and newly fashioned private library had been completely perfected.

“My favorite detail is that there’s texture everywhere you look,” Zuchowicki says. “Literally everywhere you look, there’s texture. You won’t see a white wall anywhere, and that to me makes it feel special. It doesn’t feel heavy, and that was really important. I wanted it to feel light but super textured.” — Sydney Gore

A Boston town house with space to lounge

“My husband loves the top floor with the pool table,” Nelson-Rice says. This house is the couple’s first designed without kids in mind, and, Hacin says, “She wasn’t worried about being a mom or wife, she wanted to do Robin. She put all these tiny touches throughout that were a function of her personality.” The matriarch’s metric for buying art is: “Is it loving me, am I loving it back?” The trio of flags made of album spines by Walter Lobyn Hamilton is a personal favorite, as it embodies the power of music. Also in the daylit game room are a playful Vibia chandelier and Moses Nadel ottomans.

A client who literally refuses to take no for an answer may sound less than ideal, but for the team at Boston’s Hacin + Associates , one such energetic and creative collaborator’s approach led to aesthetic magic and joy. “Truly, I would describe her—we all would—as a dream client,” lead interior designer Matthew Woodward says. “I’ve never had more fun on a project in my life.”

When Robin Nelson-Rice and her husband, Derica Rice, decided to move from suburban Indiana to Boston, their real estate broker and general contractor both felt H+A was the perfect match to reimagine a six-story 1881 Back Bay town house. However, founding principal and creative director David Hacin found himself quite busy at the time. “Robin looked at me right in the eye and said, ‘You don’t understand. You are going to be doing this project.’ And I actually loved that,” Hacin says. “As we were talking, we clicked, we connected, and that was it for her. She wanted to keep going with that process.”

“We made decisions wholeheartedly based on viewing the space as a gallery for contemporary Black artists,” Woodward says. “Robin was really thrilled to do that. Early on, we were conscious of showing restraint in the materials palette, so we could really let the art stand out.” The dining room in particular was designed around a Russell Young portrait of Barack Obama, a piece Nelson-Rice says, “speaks volumes—it’s peaceful, it’s hopeful, it’s positive.” — Kathryn Romeyn

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By Hannah Martin

By Dan Howarth

By Charlotte Collins

The Vanderbilts Would Have Been Scandalized by This Sleek Waterfront House

Gilded Age, meet the modern age!

In an era of homogeneous highways and interchangeable subdivisions, there remain a few American locales whose mere names conjure an entire world and aesthetic. Places like Nantucket, New Orleans, and Charleston have clung to a unique identity, enshrining vernacular style in residences and downtowns in hopes of warding off the encroachment of sameness.

A surprisingly large number of the houses still stand, clustered around the deep-water harbor that attracts yachts and regattas. Some have remained as family homes or become trophies for newcomers like Oracle founder Larry Ellison. No matter whose name is on the deed, though, one thing you do not associate with Newport is modern architecture.

Which is why in the spring of 2020, when the ELLE DECOR A-List architect and designer Poonam Khanna, founder of the New York City–based firm Unionworks , received a call from Charlotte Wagner, a Boston art collector and philanthropist, she was intrigued.

Wagner and her husband had bought a waterfront plot with a teardown Victorian where they were building a weekend retreat. As longtime collectors of edgy blue-chip works—Wagner is a trustee of Boston’s Institute of Contemporary Art—they wanted a definitively modernist house, but it had to be sited, designed, and crafted with the similar level of care as the original grand homes. “We wanted to honor the excellence that distinguishes this community,” Charlotte says.

Most of all, the house had to establish a strong connection to the landscape, inside and out. It was an ideal match for Khanna, who in her decades of practice has developed a reputation for balancing minimalism with a quiet, organic grace. She is a master of materials, using metals, wood, and boldly figured stone in a way that seems entirely fresh.

Tour This Modernist Home in Newport

Designed by the Boston-based architect David Stern , the property—a main house and a guest cottage connected by a rain garden—seems almost to blend into the reedy, windswept surroundings. With its flat roof and mahogany rain screen, the silhouette is low slung and severe, in the modernist tradition, but because a big portion of the lower level is a breezeway leading straight to the sea, it feels as airy as a length of driftwood. Over time, the untreated mahogany will gradually turn silver, adding to the effect.

The couple’s principal residence in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is filled with statement furnishings, including works by the Milanese architect Vincenzo De Cotiis, a perfect foil to art by Cecily Brown, Glenn Ligon, and Alice Neel. In Newport, by contrast, Khanna has created an oasis of comfort and informality. To weave in a sense of beachy serenity without monotony, the rooms, while neutral in palette, are vivid with texture. Khanna edited away noise by repeating materials in unexpected places and playing with different colorways in the same textile on the furniture and surfaces. “We wanted there to be a subtle thread that runs through,” she says, “like ripples of water.”

One of the most compelling inspirations came early in the project when Khanna and Wagner took a walk together around the five-acre property and adjacent beachfront. They scrambled over the formations of local rock, known as pudding-stone, a Paleozoic-era aggregate of rounded pebbles of various shades fused with a neutral sandy background. “We found our palette right there,” Khanna says.

.css-12zwr2e{font-family:Sabon,Sabon-styleitalic-roboto,Sabon-styleitalic-local,Georgia,Times,Serif;font-size:1.625rem;font-style:italic;letter-spacing:-0.0225rem;line-height:1.2;margin:0rem;}@media(max-width: 48rem){.css-12zwr2e{font-size:1.9375rem;line-height:1.3;}}@media(min-width: 48rem){.css-12zwr2e{font-size:1.9375rem;line-height:1.3;}}@media(min-width: 64rem){.css-12zwr2e{font-size:2.75rem;line-height:1.1;}}.css-12zwr2e b,.css-12zwr2e strong{font-family:inherit;font-weight:bold;}.css-12zwr2e em,.css-12zwr2e i{font-style:italic;font-family:inherit;}.css-12zwr2e i,.css-12zwr2e em{font-style:italic;font-family:Sabon,Sabon-styleitalic-roboto,Sabon-styleitalic-local,Georgia,Times,Serif;} “We wanted there to be a subtle thread that runs through, like ripples of water.” —Poonam Khanna

The exterior’s slender verticals carry into the interior, where Khanna plays toward and against that geometry. In the entry, oak wall panels create a warm backdrop for minimal metal stair railings. One of the house’s most spectacular artworks—a wobbly grid of brightly colored squares by the 78-year-old abstractionist Stanley Whitney—stakes out pride of place on the landing.

In the main home’s great room, an asymmetrical U-shaped sofa sets the tone for the layout and flow. The colors of the furnishings echo the landscape; the mix includes a blocky round oak table by Yabu Pushelberg, Danish dining chairs with delicate wooden frames, and a David Weeks chandelier that is as much sculpture as illumination. “The idea was to have a lot of pattern and detail but modulate it at a low volume,” Khanna explains.

In the nearby powder room, she employs her characteristic panache with figured stone. Here, a vanity and wall in richly veined Turkish marble is paired with a vintage French rope mirror. It is this kind of subdued daring—knowing when and how exactly to introduce a graphic slash into that sense of calm—that is at the heart of Khanna’s gentle talent. “The idea is to lull you into relaxation,” she notes. “And then, when you’re ready, bring you back to earth.”

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