Extreme Restoration :: Peeling Back Layers to Reveal a Hidden Architectural Treasure

deasy/penner clients Kevin Lane and Shev Rush are business executives with a love of architecture and a weakness for restoring historic homes that have been remodeled beyond recognition. They’ve done it with homes by architects Palmer & Krisel in Palm Springs, Gregory Ain in Silver Lake, and one of the Donald Wexler Steel Homes in Palm Springs - but they almost met their match with their latest project in the Old Las Palmas neighborhood of Palm Springs.  It’s one thing to see an old home in need of heavy restoration; it’s quite another to have little semblance of the original structure left. Like an archeologist, one must peel back layers of material to discover sometimes infinitesimal clues.  It’s the kind of painstaking work that few have the time or patience to undertake, but Lane and Rush temper the stress by reveling in every small victory along the way.  

“Strangely, we were both told by guidance counselors growing up that we weren’t strong enough in math to be architects, and we both listened, for some reason. That didn’t curb either of our passion for architecture and design, and we’ve made it our avocation. In an age where many architectural homes have been remodeled beyond recognition, we have found it incredibly fulfilling to bring these homes back to their original states,” says Lane.

375 West Via Lola, Palm Springs

for sale $2,595,000
contact us to request a showing :: 310.275.1000

Rear of Residence facing Mountains (before and after)

When they first walked into the house in 2007, they knew only that Sidney Sheldon had extensively remodeled and altered the original residence. The exterior was cosmetically finished to resemble a Spanish Revival house, the grounds were styled in a French village aesthetic, and the large original swimming pool was enclosed in a glass and steel pool house structure which covered more than half of the rear yard, blocking the mountain views.

Entryway (before and after)

“We went to see the house originally because of the roofline in the listing photos – even though it had been modified, it looked like it belonged to a mid-century ranch house. Once we got there, though, it was incredibly hard to see past the remodel. Kevin and I met in the middle after about 15 minutes and said ‘let’s go,’ but then Kevin turned around, walked into a corner, knelt down at a piece of loose carpeting, and pulled it back. That’s when we saw the terrazzo floor and started to piece together what the house actually was,” says Rush.

Living Room (before and after)

Beginning in 2008, Lane and Rush began removing multiple layers of flooring to expose thousands of square feet of Italian marble and onyx poured terrazzo flooring. Added walls and enclosures were removed and replaced with original materials- clues to which were found in bits and pieces along foundations or in long-hidden places, such as the exterior vertical grooved siding, which had been covered in stucco.

Mirrored walls were restored to their original state; beautifully crafted French plaster walls (largely soundproof and thankfully quite thick, helping keep the house cool in even the warmest months) were re-skimmed. The soaring slump stone fireplace and poured concrete mantel were uncovered after removing multiple layers of mirrors, drywall, 2x4’s and mastic. Underneath the mirrors in the house’s storied bar, Lane and Rush uncovered an original bar counter – the counter retains the patina acquired via the original owner’s legendary cocktail parties.

After a months-long demolition of the pool house, the nearly half-acre property’s grounds were restored to befit the surrounding Old Las Palmas neighborhood, with manicured lawns for dogs or children to play freely alongside water-saving, drip irrigated desert landscaping, and citrus. Extensive use of native plants ensure desert wildlife proliferates – frequent visitors include flocks of western bluebirds, monarch butterflies, white owls, hummingbirds, finches and even the desert’s famous roadrunners.

Dining Room (before and after)

The pool and original flagstone pathways and patios were restored, as was one of the home’s most unique features: its large passive solar outdoor lanai featuring a rotisserie fireplace and wide expanses of terrazzo that extend the expansive living room outside. A discreet pass-through window from the indoor bar ensures cocktails can be readily procured without re-entering the house after a swim.

Says Lane: “One of the first houses we restored was one of the Wexler Steel Homes, so it was particularly rewarding discovering – about a third of the way into restoration - that this was Wexler & Harrison’s first residential commission. Unfortunately, the plans were lost long ago, so we were very lucky that the contractors who remodeled the home inadvertently left clues inside walls and underneath carpeting and tile that let us know what the house was originally.”

Lanai (before and after)

This, the 60^th year of the Leeds-Howard House (affectionately dubbed “Sandbiscuit” by Lane and Rush in a nod to the home’s Seabiscuit connections, its desert location, and Sheldon’s best-selling novel “The Sands of Time”), finds the house nearly as it was when Wexler and Harrison completed its construction.  It is the owners’ hope that the meticulous restoration of Wexler’s earliest work as an independent architect helps preserve this Desert Modern jewel  -- especially important in a time when many of its contemporaries have been remodeled or “reimagined” beyond recognition – for generations to come.

Architectural Detectives and Restorers :: Rush and Lane (and Jackson)