Amazing Monument House, Joshua Tree

About the Space

In a valley of boulders just outside the Joshua Tree Park is the historic Monument House. Designed by Josh Schweitzer as a retreat for the owners’ close friends and family, this recently renovated house is available to the public for the first time. Following in the footsteps of Lloyd Wright’s nearby New City of Mentalphysics, this home continues a rich tradition of experimental and radical architecture in the California high desert and has been on the cover of numerous books and magazines. 30 year is still equally jarring and relevant. It is nestled amid the giant boulders near the entrance of Joshua Tree National Park (known as Joshua Tree National Monument when the house was designed). The desert sun creates dramatic, choreographic shadow play with the right angles of the architecture and perforations. As a highly conceptual shelter, it is an extreme contextual marriage of location and organic postmodern architecture, an unprecedented alien style as distinctive as the landscape surrounding it. "Everyone thinks of the desert as monochromatic. But when you look carefully, there are all these amazing colors: a vivid green lichen growing on a rock, a bright red flower, and the impossibly blue sky. This compound takes those colors and builds them at the scale of man, which is bigger than the flower, but a lot smaller than the rocks." - Architect, Josh Schweitzer The cubic shape, with trapezoidal openings, mirrors the surrounding landscape, which is dominated by fragmented monzogranite boulders. Three vertical cubic pavilions, each boldly painted in deep desert colors and punctuated by random trapezoidal openings and windows huddle together in both animated and natural harmony with the exaggerated and surreal surrounding landscape. This house comes from, stands outside of, and comments on both the natural and the man made landscapes. The forms may seem primitive, but they are derived from Schweitzer's former employer, Frank Gehry. The most recent custodian of the house was composer Harold Budd. The house was his muse for 20 years and the shelter under which he composed many musical pieces and poetry. “Although its aura is ethereal and unworldly, Budd's music is actually an exemplary form of humanly useful music.” An apt description of his work and one that beautifully encapsulates this historic house as well. LIVING SPACE Open living area, focused on verticality in a landscape of horizontal expanse. There is comfortable couch seating and throw blankets alongside a propane fireplace, books, games and a bluetooth speaker. There is no TV at Monument House. BEDS & BATHS -King-size bed in primary bedroom with black-out roller shades -Bathroom with a large vanity and walk-in shower KITCHEN & DINING The kitchen and dining area is surrounded by carefully placed window frames with a view of the mountains but in a cut-off angled manner, so that the desert is seen through hexilated snapshots. -Indoor dining table by Roy McMakin for Domestic Furniture and dining chairs by the architect Josh Schweitzer, with seating for 6 -OUTDOOR SPACE- The outdoor space had been arranged to optimize engagement with the desert. The orange gazebo is actually an outdoor room, a place for dining, a place of shade and one of idiosyncratic pattern. -Hot tub w/ views, hidden on a deck in the boulders -Propane fire-pit and loungers -Native & ancient landscaping surrounding the home