Large Houses

In his large houses White continued his concerns for accommodating views, for efficient plans, and for creating intimate relationships to the landscape. He used T- or L-shaped plans to enclose patios and terraces. On corner sites, White often employed a splayed U-shaped plan to allow for a protected outdoor living area. On unusual sites with special views, White responded with extraordinary designs, such as houses with hyperbolic-paraboloid roofs, or the Y-shaped plan of the Philip Johnson house (La Quinta, 1953).

In his more luxurious desert designs, such as the Miles C. Bates house (1953) in Palm Springs and the Kanrich house (1953) in Rancho Mirage, White explored plans based on circles and organic curves. 

For the Paulette Johnson house in the Silver Spur Ranch area of Palm Desert, White had designed a hyperbolic paraboloid roof, but was built with a flat roof. With walls of glass and limited number of interior masonry walls, the house references both Frank Lloyd Wright and Mies van der Rohe. 

His own house, built in 1961 in the Kissing Camels Estate in Colorado Springs, clearly references his 1940 design for an “ideal house,” seen earlier in this exhibition.