The Wall Street Journal - 23.08.2019

DURING MODERNISM WEEKin Palm Springs,
when thousands descend on this small desert town
in California to bask in Midcentury Modern archi-
tecture, a coveted ticket is a tour of Frey House II,
Switzerland-born architect Albert Frey’s landmark
hillside residence.
But what about the first house Frey designed in
Palm Springs—the one that set him on the path as
a pioneer of Desert Modernism? In 2015, it sat un-
inhabited, mutilated by additions, with stained car-
pets and a gas leak. Local hotel owner Marina
Rossi spotted it while house-hunting and bought it
for $745,000, not knowing it was designed by the
architect.
She wondered about her new house’s prove-
nance. Because her hotel is in the historic district,
notfarfromFreyHouseII,shehadbecomeaware
of the local architectural landscape. When she
called her contacts at the historical society, they

excitedly reported that she had ac-

quired what is known as the Guthrie

House, built in 1935 soon after Frey

first moved to town.

“It’s a hidden gem. It was the first

house he learned how to build in the

desert,” says Joseph Rosa, director of

the Frye Art Museum in Seattle, who

extensively interviewed Frey for his

book “Albert Frey, Architect.” The ar-

chitect died in 1998.

For the following three years, Ms.

Rossi, now 55 years old, and her

daughter, Avalon Rossi, 25, worked on

a $600,000 renovation of the house.

Their aim was to revive the original de-

sign while bringing it up-to-date.

The previous owners had altered

what was a simple two-bedroom,

adobe-like 1,600-square-foot house

composed of three cubic volumes

framed in wood and covered in plaster.

They had carved out arched openings

in the front, turned a garage into a bar

and elongated the bedrooms to double

PleaseturntopageM4

A Forgotten

Gem Rises

In the Desert

A mother-daughter team rescues

Frey’s first Palm Springs house

BYNANCYKEATES

The 1935 Guthrie

House was in

ruins when Marina

and Avalon Rossi

began a yearslong,

$600,000

restoration to

bring back its

original design,

with updates.

BYCANDACETAYLOR

Big Creek Ranch, also above, has an eight bedroom house on 4,850 acres.

PATRICK STRATTNER FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL (2)

Purchase/Restoration: $1.345 million

Tim Murphy, a Bozeman, Mont.-based ranch broker at Hall & Hall.

IN A WIDE-BRIMMED STRAW HAT,Tim Murphy walks nimbly across a

fallen tree trunk suspended 6 feet above a creek, then turns and mo-

tions for me to follow. He has spent the past few minutes explaining

where a guesthouse could be built on this wooded 10,600-acre

property high in Montana’s Pintler mountains, but getting to the

spot where he envisions the main house requires crossing the

runoff-swollen creek. Eyeing the narrow trunk, I decide to take

his word for it.

Known as Miller Lake Ranch and on the market for $19 mil-

lion, the property is 40 minutes from Butte’s Bert Mooney Air-

port, followed by a bumpy 10-mile drive along a dirt path. Sev-

PleaseturntopageM6

DECADES AGO,a generation of America’s wealthiest, raised on televi-

sion shows like “Howdy Doody” and “The Lone Ranger,” headed west

with dreams of owning some of the country’s most prestigious

ranches. Now, as those John Wayne-loving baby boomers age out

of the lifestyle or die, they or their children are looking to sell

those trophy properties.

That generational changing of the guard has led to an over-

supply of ultraluxury ranches on the market. Nowhere is the

glut more apparent than in Colorado, where some of the big-

gest and most storied properties are located.

Jeff Buerger, a local ranch broker with Hall & Hall in Colo-

PleaseturntopageM7

BYKATHERINECLARKE

Rocky Mountain Buy

Ranch brokers brave grizzlies and complex water

rights to sell ranches in a tougher market

20

Number of ranches

priced at over $20

million in Colorado,

according to a Wall

Street Journal

analysis

A slew of trophy ranches are for sale, amid rising

costs and less interest in the cowboy lifestyle

BRENT BINGHAM FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL(2); JANIE OSBORNE FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL (MURPHY) ISTOCK/GETTY IMAGES (MOUNTAIN ICONS); PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY WILLIAM DUKE

$18.25 Million

Meryl Streep cuts

price of NYC

penthouse.

M3

Help Wanted

When managing

your home

requires full-time

hire.M2

HOMES|MARKETS|PEOPLE|REDOS|SALES

BIG CREEK RANCH

Near Steamboat Springs, Colo.

Listed in 2009: $59 million

Listed today: $39.9 million

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. Friday, August 23, 2019 |M1