William Krisel, Noted Modernist Architect, Signs Books and Attends Screening Tonight

Palmer & Krisel

William Krisel

​William Krisel, who designed more than 30,000 living units in Southern California, signs books and attends a screening in Newport Beach tonight of a documentary about his 51-year career as an architect.

Known for his "modernist" single-level homes in the Palm Springs area, Krisel conceived an experiment known as "The House of Tomorrow" that became the honeymoon suite for Elvis and Priscilla Presley and the home of his developer friend, the late Bob Alexander.

Check it out after the jump . . .

Look Magazine photo courtesy of Palmer & Krisel

Hell, I'd be happy with the car.

​​Below is the Royal Desert Palms (Twin Palms) home that was also designed by Krisel and inhabited by Alexander and his wife.

Palmer & Krisel

Nice pad!

​Incidentally, the photo was shot by Julius Shulman, the late architectural photographer who got the big screen treatment in Visual Acoustics: The Modernism of Julius Shulman, which screened at the 2009 Newport Beach Film Festival and later at a joint NBFF-Orange County Museum of Art Cinema Orange presentation.

William Krisel, Architect screened at this past April's Newport Beach Film Festival and is getting a second run tonight as part of Cinema Orange at the Newport Center museum. Krisel and author Alan Hess will sign copies of Forgotten Modern: California Houses 1940-1970 and take questions from the audience after the screening.

The evening begins with a museum tour at 7 p.m., the book signing at 7:30 and the 8 p.m. film program, which opens with the short doc 15 Minutes of Fame: Portraits From Ansel Adams to Andy Warhol.

Here's the poster for tonight's event:

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