Palm Springs, CA

Scott Histed, Luxe Director at Bennion Deville Homes, has listed an architecturally significant home in the glamorous Palm Springs neighborhood of Vista Las Palmas—home to some of Hollywood’s biggest stars in the 1950s and 60s. This 4-bed, 3-bath home was designed by famed midcentury architect Charles Dubois in 1958 and is a rare double A-frame roof line residence. Only fifteen of these sought-after A-Frame homes were constructed in Vista Las Palmas and are rarely available. This is the first time in nearly twenty years that this home has been offered. This incredible home is in pristine vintage condition, and may be enjoyed as it is or updated to suit personal tastes. It is listed at $2,498,000.

DuBois’ Palm Springs homes are known for classic midcentury modern traits such as post and beam construction, vaulted ceilings, walls of glass, and an emphasis on blending indoor and outdoor living, and this home includes them all. Located at 925 West Crescent, this iconic 2,132 square foot residence offers a commanding street presence and an amazing location at the end of its street, alleviating excessive traffic and noise. It is perfectly sited on a lot of just over one-third of an acre and the huge private yard offers a perfectly positioned and inviting large swimmer’s pool. This home is in great condition and features rare side-by-side clerestory windows, soaring tongue and groove ceilings, concrete floors, and walls of glass. The home’s excellent floor plan offers breathtaking mountain and open sky views from the entertaining rooms and primary bedroom suite. It has a great separation of bedrooms and has been used in past as a very successful vacation rental. 

The home’s iconic A-frame shape led these homes to be referred to as “Swiss Miss” from a comparison to the gable roofs often found at ski chalets in Switzerland. The roofline also followed a trend for Polynesian-influenced designs, which had become popular in the United States and increasingly common in bars and restaurants at the end of the 1950s, lending the name “Alohaus” to this design. 

In the late 1950s, the Vista Las Palmas neighborhood was undergoing development by builder Joe Dunas and the Alexander Construction Company. William Krisel had completed a number of homes with the “butterfly” roof, and the flat roofs that had become more typical to the Palm Springs Desert Modern style. Dunas turned to Charles Du Bois to come up with something that would distinguish them from this trend. Du Bois designed his collection of Swiss Miss houses as low-lying, one-story residences with a dramatic A-frame entry. The pitch spans the width of the residence, creating a covered porch area in both the front and in back by the pool. The A-frame structure also creates a soaring, double-height main living space.