DON WEXLER INTERVIEW
Architect Don Wexler traces his long road -- from
humble beginnings to Palm Springs 'Walk of Fame'

From the pages of CA-Modern magazine
By Jack Levitan

Don Wexler came of architectural age in a town where stardom was taken for granted. But Wexler never dreamed he'd achieve stardom himself. Today, however, he is very much a star among devotees of modern architecture, especially those who are denizens of the desert, where he has done virtually all of his work.

Although best known for his neighborhood of steel houses, designed for the Alexander Construction Company in the early 1960s, Wexler devoted most of his efforts to public and commercial projects, including Palm Springs Airport, the city's police department and jail, schools throughout the valley, the Larson Justice Center in Indio, the Merrill Lynch Building in Palm Springs, and the original Palm Springs Spa Bath House, which he designed with his former partner Rick Harrison, Bill Cody, and Pierre Koenig.

All of these projects, except the bathhouse, were steel-frame construction. At least seven of the schools were 'all-steel,' meaning steel walls and roofs as well. "I didn't use much wood at all," Wexler says.

Wexler also designed dozens of custom houses, many of them award winners; the Green Fairway Estates subdivision for the Alexanders; and many condominium and apartment complexes, both on his own and with partner Rick Harrison, including the Royal Hawaiian, Sagewood Condominiums, Twin Springs Condominiums, and the Rose Garden in Palm Springs, and Rancho Estates and Tamarisk Court in Rancho Mirage. His most recent project was the elegant and much admired four-home project, Tropicana, in Palm Springs.

He also designed dozens of custom homes and perhaps 200 tract houses, more than he can remember. "I forgot I did so much work," Wexler says, in his small office at the Professional Park, an office-condo complex of his own design. "But I have to admit, I was always busy, for 50 some years that I practiced, or almost 50 years."

Today Don lives in Palm Springs. He had three sons -- a photographer, a graphic designer, and a psychologist -- with his first wife, Lynn. His second wife, Nancy, recently passed away. He remains active in architecture, as a consultant architect Lance O'Donnell of O2 Architecture, a longtime fan.

Don recently received the Palm Springs Modern Committee's Lifetime Achievement Award and was honored with a star on the 'Walk of Fame.'

Born in South Dakota and raised in Minneapolis, Wexler studied architecture at the University of Minnesota on the GI Bill, and then came to Los Angeles to work, briefly, with modernist legend Richard Neutra. Then architect Bill Cody invited Don to join him in the desert.

Q: How did you come to Palm Springs?

DW: When I had the opportunity to come down here, it was a job with Bill Cody working on Tamarisk Country Club. And once that project was over I just didn't want to leave. I just fell in love with the community -- this was in '52. I wouldn't want to live anywhere else.

It was a very small community when I came here, maybe 7,000 people. It closed down for four months in the summer -- there was nothing here. There were no doctors, no dentists. The first year there was one restaurant open. In the middle of July the safest place in the world to go to sleep would have been in the middle of Palm Canyon Drive at high noon.

Q: What appealed to you about the desert?

DW: There were things that were available to us that would not be available in any other community, things that we didn't even think about. We belonged to the Racquet Club. A lot of very wealthy people belonged to it, a lot of very famous people, a lot of movie people, and there was just no status thing. Everybody was friendly with everybody else.

The kids were free to go anywhere. We wouldn't think anything of them walking to school or being on their own. When they were growing up we didn't even lock the doors to our house. The milkman would come in at night and look in the refrigerator and see what we needed and put it in there. It's a different way of life.

We made our own entertainment. We'd get together with a bunch of other couples, play volleyball or swim. You could swim all night, be outdoors all night in the summer. There were about maybe ten couples we'd see all the time. We were involved in the junior chamber of commerce, which was very active. You couldn't ask for it any better.

Q: Were you friends with the stars?

DW: You'd see an awful lot of them. The only one I got to know well was Dinah Shore. I did work for Frank Sinatra. I did the Sinatra Medical Educational Center. He was just one tremendous guy. He was great.

Q: This was before the era of the paparazzi?

DW: It may have gone on in other places but not in Palm Springs. You'd see Red Skelton, Lucille Ball, Jeff Chandler walking down the streets. Red Skelton had his own parking space downtown. Nobody bothered them in the '50s, '60s, and '70s. That's why they were here.

Q: What made you think you could make a living in the desert?

DW: I haven't the slightest idea. In fact the first year that Rick [Harrison] and I were in business, I was single and he was married and had a kid, we grossed $5,500 and we didn't suffer at all. I used to get Kraft dinners that lasted me for three meals. I think they cost seven cents at the time.

Rick and I started out on North Palm Canyon, right across the street from the old Doll House. That was fabulous, very famous -- everybody went there. The food was great.

Q: Could you afford to eat there?

DW: We could afford to buy a beer. At five o'clock every night the Guadalajara Boys would start playing there. We knew it was time to quit.

Q: How did you get jobs?

DW: When Rick and I first start out, we had nothing. We would get a few small houses from developers. That kind of grew. We kept getting more of them. Then we got some individual clients. Ever hear of Andrea Leeds? Old-time movie actress. She was married to Bob Howard, the Howard family that had racehorses and a Buick agency. We did a house for them, and for Alan Ladd. It was just meeting people and talk to them.

The first job I actually went after was school work. That was a matter of going in and talking to the school board members. Finally they gave me a little job, then a bigger one.

I really enjoyed working on schools, to accomplish good schools, and know they were being put to good use.

By the mid to late '50s, my interest became more schools and public works. Rick was more into the housing and developer work. So, we were really running two offices in one office. That's when we decided we would be better off having two separate offices and running them properly. And it worked out well for both of us.

Q: How many houses did you design?

DW: More than I remember. And the only reason I say that is, I'll get calls. Someone will say, 'We bought a house, we understand it's one of your houses.' Sometimes I'll remember, sometimes I won't. I say, 'I'll have to come and take a look at it.' And yeah, I did it. I'm amazed.

When Rick and I first started out, we did houses for developers more so than custom houses. Rick and I did the original two projects for [developer] Roy Fey. We did the steel houses for Bob and George Alexander, and work for individual developers who built a few houses here and there.

We didn't do many custom houses. I did Dinah Shore's house, and I did a home for a friend of mine. My own. Then when Rick and I were partners, we did a home for Sue Ladd and Alan Ladd, and we did a house for Bob Higgins that eventually became Kirk Douglas's house. But most of the rest were builders' houses.

I felt houses were very personal. You got very involved with people. It's different than doing a public building or a commercial job. It's hard to judge a house just by its appearance, if it's a custom house for somebody. Do they enjoy living there? If they don't like the house, you haven't done a very good job.

Q: Why were you interested in steel?

DW: The seven houses in Palm Springs, which I designed with engineer Bernie Perlin in conjunction with U.S. Steel, are all steel -- exterior, walls, roof, some exposed steel inside. But the walls are drywall. Actually the houses are mostly glass. I saw steel as ideal for the desert. In the desert, steel concrete, and glass are the only materials to build with. They're inorganic and they don't deteriorate in the extreme temperatures we have.

Q: Tell me about your other residential projects in steel.

DW: We had just finished the seven steel houses, and U.S. Steel contacted Bernie Perlin and myself to develop a steel house at Los Coyotes Country Club at Buena Park, near Anaheim, from off-the-shelf steel products. They wanted it as a display house to show people what could be done. I'm very proud of the house. It worked out very well.

Q: I heard you designed a tract of low-cost steel homes near San Diego?

DW: We did some FHA housing out of all steel. It was supposed to be low-cost housing. It was Rancho de los Penasquitos. We were still doing work for U.S. Steel. The plan was for 1,000 senior citizens' units, but only 30 were built. Then about 20 years later I went by there and I guess they had sold as condos. People had added on all this stuff that had nothing to do with the structure. After seeing it that once, I've never been back. I have no desire to see it.

Q: In 2000 you sold Donald Wexler Associates to a large architectural firm in Los Angeles. Did you retire right away?

DW: I stayed with them for a couple of years. But after being on my own all that time and being a small firm, [I found that] working with a big firm it's a whole different way of life. I didn't enjoy it at all.

Q: Do you enjoy the attention your work has been receiving recently?

DW: I'm amazed what's happened in the last ten years, being published in three or four books and articles from all over the world. We had a crazy experience. Six, eight years ago we were going to Barcelona. We were on Air France and my wife speaks French. She took 'Elle,' the magazine, and there's an article about me in it. That just floored me.

I was selected for an alumni award from the University of Minnesota. I was totally amazed because I graduated in 1950 and I hadn't been back.

It's astounding. All I know is, I was doing what I thought was right. I wouldn't have traded my life for anything. I enjoyed what I was doing.

Photos: Larry Merkle; vintage photo courtesy Don Wexler Collection; special thanks to Michael Stern and Glen and Gary Wexler

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