741 E Louise, Palm Springs, CA

Description

This is a Plan 300 unit at Park Imperial North — the larger of the two floor plans Barry Berkus designed for the complex, with a primary bedroom, a second bedroom, and a convertible den/bedroom that in this unit is currently being used as additional living area. At 1,218 square feet, it is one of the largest of Park Imperial North’s condos, which run from roughly 1,092 to 1,218 square feet. It is also the same size as many of Meiselman’s single-family homes, which were between 1,200 and 1,800 square feet. It may have a compact footprint, but Berkus designed it to feel much larger.

His design principals, are visible throughout the unit. Clerestory windows draw diffuse light deep into the interior without sacrificing wall area — a sensible solution for the desert, and one that keeps the rooms feeling bright without glare. A wall of floor-to-ceiling glass connects the main living space directly to the large, fully enclosed, private patio, making the patio feel like an extension of the living area. The unit’s original Jalousie windows are still intact — adjustable louvers that catch the desert breeze and let air move through the unit, a detail that’s increasingly rare in Palm Springs condos where aluminum replacements have long since taken over. The original terrazzo entryway is still intact, creating a visual runway of composite stone that grounds the entry sequence with something genuinely material underfoot.

What gives this unit a distinct physical position within the complex is its end-unit siting. Direct street access — no exterior corridor, no shared breezeway — means the entry reads more like a private entrance to a house, not a condo. The patio, at approximately 700 square feet, is the largest in the community, and a private passage connects it directly to the pool area. From both the interior and the patio, there are unobstructed views of the San Jacinto Mountains.

Recent updates include new flooring throughout, a remodeled kitchen with new appliances, new HVAC, a new water heater, newer updated bathrooms, new closet doors, and fresh paint. The owners were careful to preserve the original jalousie windows and terrazzo entry in the renovation.

Neighborhood

Park Imperial North is one of the more architecturally specific developments in the Meiselman archive — and one of the few that isn’t a single-family tract. Meiselman built 51 attached condo units here, arranged in small clusters across roughly five acres, with two pools, a spa, shade pavilions, and a network of quiet desert-landscaped pathways connecting them. The scale is deliberately low, and the site plan preserves the openness that makes it feel less like a dense complex and more like a collection of small houses that happen to share walls.

Berkus was twenty-six when he designed it, fresh from an apprenticeship with William Cody and steeped in the principles of Richard Neutra and Conrad Buff. The results show: wide overhangs, honest structure, and floor plans that use the third-bedroom den option to give owners real flexibility without inflating the square footage. The Gold Medallion designation the complex earned on opening — signifying all-electric construction with full GE appliance packages, including the “Mark 27” range and terrazzo walkways extending through to the patios — gave it an edge in the resort-home market of the early 1960s. Park Imperial North was the second residential condo development in Palm Springs to be sold on the mid-century resort-living concept.

The complex sits at the corner of Vista Chino, Via Miraleste, and Louise Drive in the Racquet Club Estates area — a short walk from Palm Canyon Drive and the center of downtown Palm Springs. The location is genuinely close-in for a development that still reads as a desert hideaway. Modernism Week tours have included the complex in recent years, which has helped bring a new generation of MCM enthusiasts through the gates. For a development that spent decades as something of a local secret, the attention is well-earned.

Is This Your Home?

If you own or have owned a unit at 741 E Louise Drive in Palm Springs, the Meiselman Registry would love to hear from you. We’re building the most complete archive of Jack Meiselman’s work in Palm Springs, and homeowner memories, original documents, and on-the-ground details are an irreplaceable part of that record. Claim your home and join the Registry here.