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Photo ©Darren Bradley When I first visited El Rancho Vista Estates in 1999, it was a sad experience, and more than a bit frightening. I was even concerned about getting out of my car. Its turnaround today, to one of the most beautiful and intact modernist neighborhoods in the Coachella Valley, is a shining example of how preservation can work for a community.  Photo ©Darren Bradley The neighborhood was originally designed by two of my favorite Palm Springs architects, Don Wexler and Richard Harrison, for the developer Roy Fey in 1960.  Photo ©Darren Bradley Like many of the Alexander tracts designed by William Krisel, El Rancho Vista Estates was intended as a way to bring innovative modernist design to the working classes.  Photo ©Darren Bradley Wexler even lived in one of the homes, himself, for a time, and still owns it.  The homes are classic examples of desert modernism. Low-slung, with open floor plans, walls of glass to the backyards to blur indoors and ou...

UTS Kuring-gai. Photo ©Darren Bradley The architect stated that the natural landscape was so beautiful, it should not have been built on. But he did it anyway. And I'm very glad he did.  Photo ©Darren Bradley This brutalist school is built to complement the beautiful bushland granite cliffs that it sits on, and does a nice job of it.  This facade really only ever sees the sun during the longest summer days. I need to return to photograph it then. Photo ©Darren Bradley Originally designed and built as a teacher's college, UTS Kuring-gai was designed principally by David Turner from 1968 through 1971, with Bruce Mackenzie as the landscape architect. It is one of the most beautiful, elegant examples of brutalist architecture you'll ever see.  Photo ©Darren Bradley The building is an architectural representation of the sandstone cliffs that it sits on. Photo ©Darren Bradley So his goal was to make the building as compact as possible, and disturb the natural landscape as littl...