The Steel Development House Program was an experiment in pre-fabricated light gauge metal construction for the residential market in Palm Springs. In 1961 a steel house prototype with one interchangeable 1,600 SF floor plan with 3-roof options was established. Though 54 homes were planned after the successful sale of the first 3, only 7 were built.
By 2012, 6 of the 7 homes had been restored. The last of those 7, was taken by our team. Working with a set of original plans, our team systematically catalogued all changes to the original plan and grounds. We then undertook selective demolition to identify if key structural components were buried under remodels or completely removed. The greatest effort was to simply remove years of indifferent additions. Restoration of the light gauge steel frame and cladding was very straightforward; our team would come to think of the restoration’s work as more like restoring a fine automobile, than a house.