Yesterday's Homes of Tomorrow Return

Mid-Century Modern Architecture Is Making A Comeback

(CBS) 
Janice Lyle lives in this hillside retreat designed by architect Albert Frey for himself in 1964. Once again, the interior decoration is courtesy of the architect and mother nature. A mountain actually comes into the house.

"The mountain is a part of our living space," Lyle said. "I sleep with my head about 12 inches from the giant boulder."

Lyle wouldn't have it any other way: "It is kind of like dying and going to heaven," she said.

Frey had set out to design an inexpensive bachelor pad, using low-cost materials inside-and-out.

He didn't anticipate today's energy prices: in summer, it costs nearly $1,000 a-month to cool just 500-hundred square feet. The intimacy with the desert has some other consequences, such as uninvited visitors like scorpions and lizards.

Vice President of the Palm Springs Modern Committee, Nickie McLaughlin said it is vital to preserve, protect and even promote the mid-century modern designs.

"It's great for tourism," she said. "Over the last few years the amount of people that have come from all over the world purely to view this architecture has grown enormously. And the city of Palm Springs needs tourism."

Indeed, visitors once came to Palm Springs just to play golf and maybe spot a celebrity.

Now, design is the starring attraction, and well-heeled visitors can even stay here, in the crown jewel of Palm Springs modern: the Elrod house.

Designed in 1968 by architect John Lautner for interior designer Arthur Elrod, you might recognize the home as the setting for a rollicking fight in the 1971 James Bond movie 'Diamonds Are Forever.'

For just $3,600 a night — with a three night minimum — the Elrod house can be yours. But mid-century modern comes in more modest packages as well, and that's perhaps the most important legacy of Palm Springs design. Houses like one designed by William Cody in 1969 proved that the modern vision was attainable by almost everyone, like Courtney Newman.

"The guy puttin' it up was lookin' at us like we were crazy," he said. "It's very soothing for some reason. You would think it wouldn't be, but it's just like it was always there, which it was."

[uvolks2]

So weird, I came here to find out the same thing.

[littlewingmel]

I loved this segment on Sunday Morning. Does anybody know the music score in this showing on TV?
Thanks