Gwynne Pugh Urban Studio’s new luxury hotel, the Orchid Tree Resort & Spa in Palm Springs, California sits on a 3.1 acre site one block off Palm Canyon Drive and is nestled into the foothills of the San Jacinto Mountains. The hotel, in Historic Tennis Club neighborhood is an adaptive reuse of eight existing historic bungalows and a church. In addition, a new 98-room, five-story resort hotel and spa complex with restaurant and banquet facilities will be built. Weintraub Real Estate Group is the owner/developer. The plan was roundly lauded by the Palm Springs Architectural Advisory Committee and would transform the 3.1-acre site, which includes the badly fire damaged church and will restore the adjoining bungalows.

"Our concept here is to create, really, the most luxurious hotel in Palm Springs," Weintraub told the Palm Springs Architectural Advisory Committee. "And to do it in a way that meets the newer traveler, where there may be a void for this type of project."

"I think it's a really artfully created project," said Michael Hirschbein recently, a member of the architectural advisory committee said.

The bungalows have been adulterated somewhat, and it is the architect's intention   to bring them back as closely as possible,  on the exterior, to the original bungalows.