Overview

Located near Palm Springs, California, in a community known as Rancho Mirage, Sunnylands was built in the early 1960s by Walter and Leonore Annenberg, two of America's leading philanthropists. Envisioned by noted California architect A. Quincy Jones and the renowned interior design team of William Haines and Ted Graber, the estate has come to be regarded as an icon of midcentury modernism. The grounds at Sunnylands include twelve man-made lakes and a golf course surrounded by hundreds of eucalyptus trees, olive trees, and oleanders, all set against the majestic backdrop of the San Jacinto and Santa Rosa Mountains. Housed within the estate are exceptional collections-modern sculpture, paintings and works on paper, the Steuben Glass collection, decorative arts, Chinese art, and one-of-a-kind Mayan and Hindu objects-framed by furnishings in a style known as Hollywood Regency. Sunnylands became known as a gathering place for American presidents, British royalty, world-famous artists, writers, actors, and other noted achievers. President Dwight D. Eisenhower and his wife, Mamie, often joined the Annenbergs at Sunnylands. President Nixon used the estate to work on his State of the Union Message in 1974, and nearly every U.S. president since has paid a visit. Sunnylands: Art and Architecture of the Annenberg Estate in Rancho Mirage, California tells the story of the celebrated home-how it came to be commissioned, details of its design and construction, acquisition of the extensive collections of art and objects, changes over the years-and includes comments by noted guests. A foreword by Kathleen Hall Jamieson positions Sunnylands within its geographical and social setting, and an afterword by the late Anne d'Harnoncourt provides a firsthand account of what being there was like. New photographs and drawings commissioned especially for the book expand upon archival plans and photographs to complete this richly detailed portrait of an extraordinary place.

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9780812241617

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David G. De Long is Professor Emeritus of Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania. Kathleen Hall Jamieson is Professor of Communication at the Annenberg School for Communication of the University of Pennsylvania, Director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center, and Program Director of the Annenberg Foundation Trust at Sunnylands. Anne d'Harnoncourt (1943-2008) was director and chief executive of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

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