Comedian Bob Hope, when presented with a model of his 24,000 square foot Palm Springs home by architect John Lautner in 1969, had but one comment to reflect his admiration of and bewilderment towards the proposal: “Well, at least when they come down from Mars they’ll know where to go.”

The monumental home was built as conceived, albeit with an extraordinary amount of minor material revisions requested by Hope and his wife Dolores. While Lautner and Arthur Elrod, the interior designer originally hired for the job before his untimely death, had envisioned a minimalist interior to direct attention to the home's sweeping vistas, the couple had something different in mind. According to the LA Times, "Dolores Hope wanted an ultra-glamorous interior suitable for Hollywood-style entertaining and golf tournament after-parties." 

After the couple had passed - Bob in 2003 and Dolores in 2011 - the house was put on the market for $50 million. The home was eventually sold to venture capitalist Ron Burkle, a self-proclaimed architecture enthusiast, for $13 million, and the new owner was determined to redesign the interiors with all the subtlety and simplicity that Lautner had once envisioned for the home. After pouring through the John Lautner archives at the Getty, Burkle and his hired renovation team are nearly finished with what Lautner had planned several decades prior: a desert home that brings invited guests together in celebration of the desert landscape surrounding it.