A Steal or Just Plain Steel? - Page 2

“It was like a [from-the-] ground-up restoration,” said Grahn, who works for Deasy/Penner and Partners. “The things that were modernized were done with such sensitivity...It hasn’t been molested, it hasn’t been bastardized.”

The restoration included removal of one bedroom and one bath, expansion of the remaining rooms, structural work, new appliances, new landscaping—and overlay of the previously concrete flooring.

“Wexler originally wanted poured terrazzo, so that’s ironic because that’s what [Giles] wanted,” Grahn said of the flooring.

The Palm Springs Modern Committee was so impressed with the restoration that it awarded the house its 2009 ‘Residential Restoration Award’ and included it in among four properties in its Iconic Home Tour in 2014, with Wexler and his three sons as scheduled guests. Giles is such a fan of the architect that he helped sponsor a Wexler exhibit at the Palm Springs Art Museum in 2011.

Of course, Giles is not alone in his admiration. Grahn said desert property owners are still to this day using unbuilt Wexler designs to build new homes.

“He was the master,” gushed the realtor, who ranked this property along with Wexler’s remarkable Leff/Florsheim House (which Grahn has sold twice in recent years) as the most significant listings of his career. “And this was Wexler’s own house!”

Grahn said this week that despite “interest by two different parties,” no offers had yet been received.

“We have a lot of interest, but no one has pulled the trigger,” he said, noting the house’s uniqueness. “It [attracts] a very, very specific buyer.”

“It really was one of his final designs,” the agent said of Wexler, whom Grahn is proud to have met. “It’s a really important offering, a really important house.”

For more information on the former Wexler family home, click here.