Da Vaal Estates

Located in the Tamarisk Country Club area, Da Vaal Estates, a midcentury modern architectural condo development, was designed in 1960 by Val Powelson and built by contractor Robert Marx.  Referred to as the original Desert-X, it consists of five one-story, four-unit condominium buildings, each based on a four-pointed star.  Although each home was in a four-unit complex, there are no common walls, the only adjoining areas are at the core of each "X", where 150 square feet of private storage could shelter a golf cart and recharging outlets. Da Vaal's clever layout gives homeowners an extra level of privacy as well as a sense of space and the X-shape buildings make an ingenious use of the two and half acre site, originally a grapefruit orchard.  Powelson and Marx planned the apartments so that each yard would have its own grapefruit trees, which are still a part of the community.  In a 1961 interview, Robert Marx explained that Powelson wasn't fond of right angles.  This aversion is displayed in the design of the Da Vaal Units.  At one end, a triangle contains the master suite which includes a dressing room area and bathroom with a fashionable Roman tub.  At the other end, a second triangle incorporates the guest bathroom and bathroom suite.  In between, is the open plan living area which is a spacious 32 foot long from point to point, with an open bar kitchen at one end, a fireplace and walls of glass with views to the private yard and the community grounds on either side.  A steep pitched and beamed tongue-and-groove ceiling rising up to 14 feet adds to the internal drama.​

 

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Da Vaal Estates Home Tour: Midcentury Modern Marvel | Modernism Week