Green Fairway Estates, Palm Springs, California

The Green Fairway Estates is an Alexander Construction Company housing development in Palm Springs, California.

Designed and constructed in the mid-century modern style of the period, the Green Fairway Estates tract is perched on the edge of Tahquitz Golf Course in the southern part of the city. The fairway homes begin near the corner of Lakeside Drive and Brentwood and snake their way down the street continuing on to a portion of Pebble Beach. Each home was built according one of nine master floor plans, each theme being repeated only two or three times due to the limited number of homes that were constructed prior to 1965 -- the year that the Alexanders died in a plane crash. Fortunately for the development, however, a number of Green Fairway Estates were completed prior to or soon after this terrible accident.

The Green Fairway Estates are in many ways the "Brigadoon" Alexanders of Palm Springs, as very few people -- even die-hard modernists -- know about the neighborhood. Many of the Green Fairway homes are executed in an Asiatic or South Pacific style, influenced no doubt by the sense of Eastern exoticism being brought home by World War II soldiers. Construction features include A-frame roofs, lava rock facades, Aztec motifs, and other "exotic" features. With floorplan names like The Royal Singapore and The Maracaibo, the whimsical ideals and themes of the period are in full force.

The architect responsible for these models was architect Donald Wexler -- architect of the Palm Springs International Airport and the now famous North End steel homes. The area surrounding the tract was originally surveyed and developed by the Westview Development Company in 1958. Westview Development Corporation was operated by Chicago residential and commercial developer Morton Zuckerman (president) and vice-president Frank Bogert, mayor of Palm Springs. In charge of sales was realtor and developer George Gannon. The designer of the golf course was Lawrence Huges.