Howard Lapham

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Howard Lapham (1914-2008) is a modernist architect whose notable residences exist primarily in Southern California. He relocated to the Coachella Valley in the California desert east of Los Angeles in 1954 from Stamford, CT. He was 40 at the time of the move. Soon after settling into this desert community, he began designing homes for California's wealthy and movie elite. Many of Lapham's clients were members of the Thunderbird Country Club. Development near the golf club's fairways and up the slopes of the foothills grew into "Thunderbird Heights." These Lapham buildings appeared in Architectural Digest: Hyatt von Dehn Residence (1960, Thunderbird Heights), the Kiewit Residence (1960, Thunderbird Country Club), the Clarke Swanson Residence (1961, Thunderbird Country Club), the Morrow Residence (1961, Silver Spur Ranch, Palm Desert), and a remodel of the Thunderbird Country Club clubhouse (1961).

Perhaps Lapham's most famous renovation was that of the famous Chi Chi nightclub in 1959. The Chi Chi facade was redone in "ultra-modern" style. In 1970, Lapham built the Mayan-themed Cook House, known as Ichpa Mayapan, atop Thunderbird Heights. This rendering of the [Cook House (1971)][1] is available here. The Cook house is one of several homes chronicled in the independent film Desert Utopic, Mid-Century Architecture in Palm Springs. Lapham's signature placement of houses against carefully chosen flat-niches is characteristic of his desert homes.

Between 1959 and 1963 some of Lapham's Palm Springs buildings were designed with help from Haralamb H. Georgescu, a Romanian-born architect. Other architects active in Palm Springs between the 1950s and 1980s include John Lautner, Richard Neutra, R. M. Schindler, et al) and these regional architects important in modernist design: William F. Cody, Albert Frey, Donald Wexler, E. Stewart Williams, and William Krisel.

Sources: City of Rancho Mirage Historic Preservation: [2]

Desert Utopia [3]