William Charles Tanner O’Donnell House

Spanish Colonial Revival Desert Inn designed by William Charles Tanner in Palm Springs.

Gazing up at the clear redwood beams knitted collectively in a complicated roof structure made by William Charles Tanner, Al Dorman was impressed. As the founder of AECOM, a gigantic infrastructure enterprise, Dorman was uniquely competent to comprehend the engineering concerned in the roof of the Thomas O’Donnell Residence in Palm Springs. (Dorman’s engineering credential stamped the first plans for Disneyland and since he has practically formed cities with his types around a storied vocation.)

Admiring the redwood ceiling, Dorman mused that Tanner was no mere draftsman but a grasp architect.

But right before Nellie Coffman selected Tanner to change The Desert Inn from tents and clapboard cabins into the Spanish Colonial Revival masterpiece it would come to be, and in advance of she tasked him with building O’Donnell’s hillside home, Tanner was identified principally as an artist, and someday draftsman.

In the early 20th century, Tanner rose to prominence in the artwork world as an illustrator for the Chicago Everyday Information, swiftly distinguishing himself by generating a series a single-panel “puzzle” photos where by the viewer experienced to decipher a thing hidden in the drawing. These proved to be a strike and eventually led to syndication in papers across the nation.

Afterwards he analyzed at the School of the Museum of Wonderful Arts in Boston beneath the well-known Impressionist painter Edmund C. Tarbell, who possibly inspired Tanner to more his scientific studies in Paris less than Richard E. Miller.

Portrait painter, muralist, journal illustrator, and architectural designer, Tanner was a correct Renaissance man and concerned in all creative endeavor.

Architectural historian Steve Vaught points out, “Renowned for his portraits of prominent citizens, sweeping historical murals, and his clever ‘Puzzle Photographs,’ which ended up syndicated in newspapers throughout the country, the Canadian-born Tanner was a perfectly-recognised determine in the art environment from the dawn of the 20th century to the commence of Entire world War II. Still his most enduring creative legacy could be uncovered, not on canvas, but in concrete, stucco, and tile.”

“Tanner observed no distinction between art and architecture and all through his peak several years of creative imagination from the 1910s by way of the 1930s, he regularly switched between the easel and the architect’s drawing board, developing a collection of completed types in Palm Springs and throughout Southern California. Tanner approached his developing plans with a painter’s eye, which may make clear why they increase above the simply knowledgeable and into the realm of ‘architecture as artwork.’”

“Just how Tanner became so skilled in architecture continues to be an intriguing secret, but it is regarded that he put in 5 yrs as a draftsman with a notable architectural agency while attending the Artwork Institute of Chicago. The firm’s identify has eluded historians, but the instruction Tanner been given was initial-price as evidenced by the high-quality and self-assurance of his later get the job done.”

Tanner’s earliest recognized Palm Springs layout was for Coffman and was hailed nationwide for its splendor and artistry. Coffman was decided to retain up with the situations and badly preferred to enhance her lodge accommodations. With a personal loan from O’Donnell she established about an bold approach to make lodges, casitas and a grand foyer and dining room in the Spanish type so common in California in the 1920s.

In exchange for the bank loan, O’Donnell questioned that Coffman supervise the making of a house for him on the mountainside at the rear of the inn. She picked Tanner to style and design equally.

The sophisticated roof plan illustrated Tanner’s severe sophistication. The O’Donnell household, Ojo Del Desierto, Eye of the Desert, was completed by January 1925 and was seen all over the valley as the greatest structure in Palm Springs for a long time.

Coffman experienced imported Tanner from Riverside in which he’d experienced a studio in the Carmel Tower of Mission Inn. He was operating on 5-panel mural, 23-ft extended, depicting Juan Bautista De Anza and Francisco Garces for the resort. In the club space, Tanner led conferences on artwork, literature, philosophy and politics, entertaining artistically inclined girls and resort company alike. He created homes surrounding the inn for the genteel enterprise course of the then orange-rising money of California.

Soon Tanner was a fixture in the desert, getting transplanted himself from Riverside. Usually dining with O’Donnell, Coffman and other well known desert citizens, in 1931 he developed Invernada, named whimsically as an approximation of In no way or Not Winter season, for capitalist George Heigho. Procured in 1946 by woman, meals organization captain of field Tillie Lewis, the house was a tour du force, Tanner’s mastery of the “concrete, stucco and tile” medium in considerable proof.

For Indiana businessman John C. Snyder, Tanner developed Morada La Estrella, Star Dwelling or Abode of the Star in the Las Palmas neighborhood of Palm Springs. The glowing, darling domicile highlighted all the intricate and soulful details in Tanner’s skillful vocabulary.

At the exact same time, Tanner was developing a team of similar landmark residences in the Los Feliz hills of Los Angeles. The bulk of his patterns had been Spanish as was the 1920s manner, but Tanner could shock with anything entirely distinctive in accordance to Vaught. “The 1930 Hollywood dwelling for pioneering female movie director Dorothy Arzner was done as a Greek/Art Deco temple and his 1935 layout of the To start with Neighborhood Church in Palm Springs is very little much less than ‘Gothic Deco.’”

For a long time, in accordance to Vaught, “the name William Charles Tanner has languished in obscurity, not for lack of expertise, but somewhat, lack of documentation.” Tanner experienced been dismissed as a draftsman. But of late, far more scholarly notice has been paid out to this extraordinary artist and architect.

Modernism Week is paying homage in a big way to this Renaissance man. Morada La Estrella will be opened for the to start with time for a tour many thanks to its erudite and generous entrepreneurs Steve Scott and Bob Eicholz. Scott will offer you a talk on the recently unearthed heritage of Tanner’s outstanding career and contributions. And Tanner’s prolonged overdue star will just take its spot among the other architectural luminaries at a determination in entrance of the Architecture and Style and design Heart of the Palm Springs Art Museum at the corner of Baristo and Palm Canyon, on Feb. 24 at 1 p.m.