When the Avi Ross Group bought the Guthrie House in Palm Springs four years ago, they didn’t know it had originally been built by Albert Frey in 1935. “We had originally bought it to fix up what’s there,” says Avalon Rossi, half of the creative team behind the real estate development and design firm—her mother, Marina, makes up the other half. The pair were thrown a curve ball during escrow, however, when they discovered the home’s pedigree. “When we started the process, [the home] did not look like anything that he would have done.”

The realization would lead Marina and Avalon on an ambitious renovation to peel back layers of poor remodels, restoring the house’s “extreme minimalism” and connection to the desert environment.

Before: Original Exterior

Years of thoughtless additions and remodels had forced a lot of Spanish-style adornment on the home, such as in arched openings and stained glass. “This house has been through so many different styles and iterations since [Frey] built it in 1935,” says Avalon. “I don’t think anybody was aware of, or valued, that it was built by him.”

Before: Exterior

After: Exterior

Swiss-born architect Albert Frey (1903-1998) was an early proponent of the International Style in the United States. Early in his career, he worked in the Paris office of Le Corbusier, then moved to the United States in 1930, where he worked for Philip Goodwin, one of the architects of the Museum of Modern Art. By 1939, Frey had moved to Palm Springs, where he would champion a modernism that embraced the desert environment, designing several buildings throughout the area in the 1940s, ’50s, and ’60s.

Before: Garage

After: Garage

Before: Exterior Detail

After: Exterior Detail

Before renovating, the firm embarked on deep research into Frey’s work. According to their findings, Frey first came out to Palm Springs in 1934 and designed, with A. Lawrence Kocher, the Kocher-Samson Building, which is now considered the city’s first modernist, International Style building. Frey’s next project was the Guthrie House in 1935.

“It’s really his first residence that he did in the desert,” says Avalon. “There were really no other architects doing modern-style buildings at the time. There were hardly any other buildings being built out in the desert at all. It was pretty barren in 1935.”

They coined the “Frey Test” to guide their design plans and material selections. The test consisted of certain questions, says Avalon. These were: “Is it symbolic of the desert, and does it feel natural to the surrounding area?” In order to keep the scheme simplified and honor Frey’s minimalism, they asked, “Is there too much going on, or too much embellishment?”

Before: Original Interior

Before: Living Room

After: Living Room

Before: Kitchen

After: Kitchen

Before: Dining Room

After: Dining Room

Before: Den

After: Den

Before: Bedroom

After: Bedroom

Before: Bathroom

After: Bathroom

Before: Exterior

After: Exterior

Before: Pool House

After: Pool House

Editor’s note (1/28/20): The Guthrie House is listed through BBS Brokers Realty for $2,399,000.

Project Credits:

Architect: ere2 architetti (drafting) / Avi Ross Group (design)

Builder: Avi Ross Group

Structural Engineer: Solid Plan Engineering/ Sean Kessel

Landscape Design: Avi Ross Group

Lighting Design: Avi Ross Group

Interior Design: Avi Ross Group

Cabinetry: Stephane Vimont/ Vimont Concepts

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