Bob Hope looked at John Lautner's architectural model in 1969 and delivered what might be his most succinct review: "Well, at least when they come down from Mars they'll know where to go." It was a joke, of course — Hope was constitutionally incapable of not making one — but it also captured something real about the design he and his wife Dolores had commissioned. The Hope Residence, set on Southridge Drive above Palm Springs, is the kind of building that makes you wonder whether the architect was drawing plans or writing science fiction.
The house sits in a gated community above Palm Springs, with panoramic views of the Coachella Valley and the San Jacinto Mountains. At 23,600 square feet, it is not a modest building, and Lautner's design made no concessions to modesty. A large conical chimney rises from an exterior terrace, functioning as both functional fireplace and sculptural landmark. The swimming pool was shaped to resemble the likeness of Hope's profile — a gesture that balanced vanity and humor in proportions typical of its owner. The original roof was a steel frame covered in wood, a material choice that reflected the more organic aesthetic Lautner brought to all his desert work.
The Hopes hired Lautner specifically because they admired his nearby Elrod House, also on Southridge Drive, which Lautner had completed the previous year. The Elrod House had demonstrated what Lautner could do with a hillside site and a client willing to embrace radical geometry, and the Hopes wanted that energy applied to their own commission. Work on the Hope Residence began and then stalled; when it resumed in 1977, the original building plans filed with the council were still valid. During the construction process, Dolores Hope became increasingly involved in the design, which caused Lautner — known for his strong views about architectural integrity — to gradually distance himself from the project.
The house eventually sold for $13 million in 2016 to Ron Burkle, the private equity investor — the same buyer who had previously owned the nearby Elrod House from 1995 to 2003. Before reaching that price, the property had a long journey through the Palm Springs luxury market: it had been listed at $25 million in 2014, a figure that reflected both the home's extraordinary scale and the challenges of selling a 23,600-square-foot desert residence designed for one of the twentieth century's most famous entertainers.
Following the 2016 sale, the former site architect of the Hope House, Helena Arghuete, managed the remodeling. Her approach honored Lautner's modernist vision by stripping the interiors and replacing the existing décor with natural materials — an effort to recover the house's original spirit from decades of accumulated change. She was assisted by Lorenzo Jauregui, whose mother had served as the Hope family's maid for 34 years, a connection that brought personal continuity to the renovation. Father-and-son woodworkers Brian Cooney Sr. and Brian Cooney Jr. constructed twelve new doors to Lautner's design and installed African mahogany throughout the interior walls, grounding the extraterrestrial geometry in the warmth of wood.
Located at 33.79°N, 116.51°W on Southridge Drive above Palm Springs, California. The Southridge hillside is visible from cruising altitude, particularly the distinctive roof geometries of the Lautner-designed homes. Palm Springs International Airport (ICAO: KPSP) is approximately 3 miles to the northeast.