The Old Las Palmas neighborhood began in the 1920s as a simple subdivision of Palm Springs, California, but it became one of the premiere residential neighborhoods of the desert getaway city.
It's been home for the likes of Leonardo DiCaprio, Kirk Douglas, Dinah Shore, Donna Reed, Liberace, and many more stars—and word has it, it's got the most celebrity homes of all the Palm Springs neighborhoods.
During Modernism Week, I headed to Old Las Palmas to get inside the former residence of actor Adam West, best known for portraying Batman on the 1960s TV series.
While parts of the neighborhood feature Spanish Colonial Revival homes lining its curvilinear streets, other parts have their fair share of the type of Mid-Century Modernist houses that have come to characterize the desert city.
The West House was built 1954, though the Batman actor didn't purchase it until 1970. The recent radical redesign by Michelle Boudreau repainted the exterior from white to black.
Boudreau reimagined it as a kind of "Batcave"—but you can't get around the wonderful water feature and the airiness of the huge glass doors that lead to both the kitchen and the living room, from both the front entrance and the back pool area.
The large glass front door bears a black Batman logo, which looms broodingly over a gorgeous light terrazzo floor.
The landscape design team at La Riviera Studios brought a bit of green to the small rock and succulent garden that separates the kitchen and entryway...
...making the completely overhauled and modernized kitchen one of the most pleasant spaces in the home.
Vesta Home staged the newly-renovated West House with some luxury furnishings—but to me, the main draw was any remnant of when it was known as the Yantis House, home of automotive parts industry leader John Yantis and his new bride, Toni Holt-Murray.
In 1984, they hired architect Albert Frey to oversee the design of a new addition to the home, which included a sunken bar and pass-through window to the patio—both of which survived.
In another sitting area, a Frey-era fireplace is no longer recognizable to its original design.
Another Frey-added feature, Boudreau said, is a long walk-in closet that acts as a kind of interior breezeway between the addition and the two bedrooms of the guest wing.
Each has its own patio access...
......and en suite bathroom...
...as well as distinct design motifs that are contemporary, but vintage-inspired.
As with many Palm Springs homes from the mid-20th century, all roads (and doors) lead to the outside...
...where the San Jacinto Mountains are in view both from the flagstone-lined poolside deck...
...and from the hot tub (which looks pretty much the same as before this most recent renovation, but it's unclear whether Adam West or Eartha Kitt ever took a dip in it).
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