Long considered one of the Coachella Valley’s best-kept secrets, The La Quinta Country Club is a lush desert oasis where architecture, Hollywood history and world-class golf have converged for nearly seven decades. Its championship course, designed by Lawrence M. Hughes, opened in 1959 with a star-studded inaugural round featuring Bing Crosby, Bob Hope and other Hollywood luminaries. The following year, President Dwight D. Eisenhower—whose brother Edgar was a member—dedicated the club, setting the stage for decades of presidential, celebrity and sporting connections.
On our exclusive tour, guests will travel by golf cart through the club and explore a specially curated selection of architecturally significant residences and gardens. Against the dramatic backdrop of the Santa Rosa Mountains, the tour examines the ideas that have defined desert living across generations: strong horizontal forms, expansive glazing, innovative structures, carefully framed views and an effortless relationship between architecture and landscape.
The homes of The La Quinta Country Club trace the evolution of desert residential design from the midcentury era through late modernism and contemporary interpretations of desert modernism. The community includes work attributed to or designed by notable architects and designers including William F. Cody, John Lautner, A. Quincy Jones, Hugh Kaptur, Barry Berkus, Laszlo Sandor, Richard Harrison, John Walling, Robert Ricciardi and Lance O’Donnell, along with interiors by renowned designer Arthur Elrod.
Together, their work reveals that desert modernism was not confined to Palm Springs, but evolved across the Coachella Valley in response to climate, landscape and a distinctive indoor-outdoor way of life.
After the tour, guests will enjoy a wine and hors d’oeuvres reception inside the clubhouse, featuring filmmaker and journalist Matt Tyrnauer, sharing insights about the architecture, landscape, and evolution of La Quinta’s Modernist legacy.
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