Glass-covered house could break record sale price for this Palm Springs neighborhood

With its tropical plants, resort-style pool, walls of windows and outdoor tiki torches, the recently renovated home for sale at the corner of South Manzanita Avenue and Cactus Road in Palm Springs’ Deepwell Estates neighborhood has many of the trappings of high-end desert living. However, it's perhaps just as notable for what it doesn’t have anymore: a traditional front door.

Architect and developer Teddy Lee, who bought the house at 1195 South Manzanita Ave. in 2021, said he decided to nix the traditional door in favor of a design with several glass entries because he was adding a large wraparound patio and wanted to further blur the lines between indoor and outdoor space.

“I just felt like there should be no beginning or end with your experience in the house," Lee said. “I mean, it'd be kind of crazy to call it antiquated, but I do feel like a front door, and a foyer — it's just a little too formal for Palm Springs.”

But while the choice to have no front door might feel thoroughly contemporary, Lee says it actually is rooted in the values of the mid-century modern era that the home is a product of.

“Back when all of the mid-century modern was being built, it was sort of about community and blurring the lines between neighbors and welcoming people in and out,” he said. “So to me, once you obliterate the front door you kind of create a more welcoming space.”

That change also provides an early indication of the extent to which the four-bedroom, six-bathroom house has been reimagined by Lee. He said he wanted to modernize the home while maintaining its distinctive mid-century architecture.

Perhaps the most substantial change he made was to "flip the floor plan" to address some awkwardness in the old layout. Switching the location of the kitchen and two of the bedrooms allowed him to take better advantage of the sun in the design while making the house both more cohesive and functional, he said.

Designed by Palm Springs architect Howard Lapham (The Desert Star hotel is one of his most well-known buildings), the home was built in 1970. Lee said that when he bought the house, he observed bike tours that would pass by the house referring to it as "The Brady Brunch house."

Lee was initially puzzled until he looked closer and realized that the home's roof had what he calls a "Polynesian mid-century roof line" that resembled the roof from the family's house in the TV show. He said that when it came to landscaping the home, the choice was between traditional desert cactus or more lush plants and that the presence of that Polynesian roof pushed him toward the latter.

The addition of the tropical plants was also pivotal to transforming the front of the house, which had previously been the location of a large concrete motor court that Lee said was emblematic of the times, into what he calls an oasis that provided both privacy from the street and a better setting to enjoy the space.

The house is one of several projects Lee and his construction company, TED Construction , have undertaken in the Palm Springs area since coming to the city from San Francisco during the COVID-19 pandemic (he now goes between the city and Los Angeles). His other projects include planned bars in downtown Palm Springs, south Palm Springs and Coachella, and his firm also does general contract work on other projects.

The house was purchased for $1.35 million in 2021 , according to Riverside County property records. It is currently listed for $4.188 million, which the agents say would break the previous record sale price of $3.4 million for a home in the Deepwell Estates neighborhood, located on the northwest side of the intersection of Highway 111 and Sunrise Way.

James Gault, one of the real estate agents for the home, said Lee’s approach to design has been about helping to usher in a new era and energy in the city.

“Old Palm Springs would be embodied by a dirty martini and cigarettes. The new Palm Springs we are looking to usher in is hot yoga and hot spritzes,” Gault said.

Paul Albani-Burgio covers growth, development and business in the Coachella Valley. Follow him on Twitter at @albaniburgiop and email him at paul.albani-burgio@desertsun.com .

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Glass-covered house could break record sale price for this Palm Springs neighborhood