Three Eras, One Vision

When our clients in Palm Springs open their 1976 Sackley-Chase collaboration to hundreds of visitors during Modernism Week, they understand something essential about preservation: it lives in the present tense. The custom patio umbrellas positioned throughout their property aren’t there despite the home’s pedigree—they’re there because of it.

The architecture tells its own story through jagged travertine and soaring ceilings, through Steve Chase’s infinity mirrors at the pool’s edge and Stan Sackley’s signature glass corners framing the fairway. But between the meticulously restored interiors and the golf course beyond, the umbrellas create what every great design collaboration requires: places to pause and experience it all.

On opening night, as nearly 400 guests move through spaces where 1970s vision meets contemporary living, the outdoor areas become as essential as the rooms themselves. The umbrellas shade conversations about cork wallpaper and disco powder rooms, about preserving travertine floors and updating steam showers. They mark the spots where architecture becomes lifestyle, where a home built by one couple for another finds its third chapter.

The original builder returned that night after three years away, stepping into his family’s former home to find it both familiar and transformed. Outside, where a hand-painted horse from a defunct amusement park stands sentinel and new landscaping honors minimal 1970s plantings, the umbrellas do what good design has always done: they make space for life to unfold.

Some collaborations span decades. Others span a single perfect desert evening. The best ones understand that luxury outdoor umbrellas aren’t about covering the past—they’re about shading the future.