Eco-Modern Community Coming to Palm Springs

Freehold Communities has announced the launch of Miralon, the sustainably designed community emerging in Palm Springs. One of the largest new “agrihoods” in the U.S., Miralon offers 1,150 Modernist-inspired residences to harmonize with the Coachella Valley’s architectural heritage. A highlight of Miralon’s 300 acres is its transformation of a previously constructed 18-hole golf course into working olive groves, community gardens and walking trails. Homes and amenities in the masterplanned community will break ground in Q4, 2017.

The community's extraordinary approach -- customized to the climate and culture of California's Coachella Valley -- has gotten attention from media as unusual as Yahoo Finance and Curbed L.A., as Olive Oil Times. (Yep !)

Mid-Century Modern Landmark Going Creative Office

Not to worry. Cuningham Group Architecture, Inc. is lovingly restoring the historic Farmers & Stockmens Bank, making it its new Phoenix office. The building was designed by the internationally famous team of Pereira & Luckman in 1951. It is certified a historic structure by the City of Phoenix Historic Preservation Office. Cuningham Group moves into building when it completes interior renovations in December.

The Arizona Republic covered the move.

“For a firm such as ours that deeply respects good design, it is an honor to make this landmark our home,” said Cuningham Group Principal Nabil Abou-Haidar, AIA. “There is a clean-lined simplicity to the building that remains attractive to this day. It is certainly an approach we bring forward in contemporary architecture for our clients, and in our other offices around the world.”

The Farmers & Stockmen’s Bank is one of just two Phoenix structures by William Leonard Pereira. The architect is famous for the Transamerica Pyramid in San Francisco, the masterplan for the City of Irvine, and (with Paul Williams and Welton Becket) the jet-age “Theme Building” at Los Angeles International Airport. 

The original landmark was captured by famed architectural photographer Julius Shulman in images now controlled by J. Paul Getty Trust.

Original Farmers & Stockmens Bank interior, by Pereira & Luckman. Photo by Julius Shulman. © J. Paul Getty Trust.

Farm Charm for Urban Homesteads

The Los Angeles Times Home & Design section published this story including our friends at Brookfield Residential:

At Ontario Ranch, a planned community that will eventually include 47,000 homes, homebuilders have incorporated modern farm décor into many of the single-family dwellings, town homes and condominiums. The community of New Haven, for example, features reclaimed wood walls, optional barn-style closet doors, and upcycled farm tools (tractor gears used as mirror frames in the community’s clubhouse, for example), in a blend of rustic and chic. “The farm motif honors the area’s legacy, but we made sure that it accompanies the most up-to-date amenities,” says Mercedes Meserve, vice president of marketing for Brookfield Residential, which is building several neighborhoods in the area.