7.23.2021 | DIGS.NET 31
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One of the
original desert
modernists,
William
F. Cody's
midcentury
ascendancy
helped define
the West Coast
lifestyle—then
and now.
B Y J E N N T H O R N T O N
MASTER
DOMAIN
MAIN: PALM SPRINGS SPA
CREDIT: JULIUS SHULMAN
PHOTOGRAPHY ARCHIVE
GETT Y RESEARCH
INSTITUTE, LOS ANGELES
(2004.R.10) © J. PAUL
GETT Y TRUST. INSERT:
PORTRAIT OF WM CODY
WITH ASSOCIATES
CREDIT: WILLIAM F. CODY
PAPERS AND WILLIAM
F. CODY PAPERS 2,
SPECIAL COLLECTIONS
AND ARCHIVES, ROBERT
E. KENNEDY LIBRARY,
CALIFORNIA POLY TECHNIC
STATE UNIVERSIT Y, SAN
LUIS OBISPO
A
RCHITECT WILLIAM F. CODY
had a poolside seat to postwar modernism
in Palm Springs, not only helping define
the sun-soaked oasis where he was reliably
prolific, but outside of the Coachella Valley to other
points beyond, too. That he did it in roughly a
quarter of a century makes his output—and his low-
roof, open-plan works—all the more extraordinary.
A visionary desert modernist who was active in
different contexts and climes (including Arizona,
Cuba and Hawaii), Cody's career was sidelined by a
debilitating stroke in 1973, but his legacy lives on in
the built environment he left behind.
"After World War II, California emerged as the
locus of efforts to create modern lifestyles and the
homes to house them," says Don Choi, who, together
with Catherine Cody (the architect's daughter) and Jo
Lauria, co-authored the forthcoming new tome Master
of the Midcentury: The Architecture of William F. Cody
(Monacelli). In an era that gave rise to the Eames House,
Of
His
