Oct 24, 2026·Norman Williams
The architect houses of Tamarisk Country Club
At Tamarisk, the architect's name is the listing's claim until the records say otherwise.
Short answer
Tamarisk Country Club in Rancho Mirage has houses tied to William Cody, Steve Chase, and S. Charles Lee, whose name is on Tamarisk West. Some of those attributions are documented. Others are listing claims. Before you pay for a name, verify it in permits and archives, because the premium only holds if the next buyer can verify it too.
Tamarisk West (S. Charles Lee)
Preservation Mirage, the Rancho Mirage preservation group, says Lee and his son-in-law George Keiter developed Tamarisk West starting in 1964, next to Tamarisk Country Club, and that Lee kept a home there. Palm Springs Life describes it as a 1964 condominium subdivision organized around shared desert gardens and an S-shaped pool. Lee is better known for his movie theaters. Here he built small. That a house sits in Tamarisk West does not make every unit a Lee design. Check the permit.
William Cody at Tamarisk
Cody is the name most buyers come to Tamarisk for, and the most famous story is Sinatra's. The Desert Sun and Architectural Digest both report that in 1954 Sinatra bought a small house beside the 17th fairway of Tamarisk, on Wonder Palms Road (now Frank Sinatra Drive). Per the Desert Sun, Cody designed it in 1952 for another client, and Cody also designed Sinatra's later expansion. That compound is still a private residence, not a house you shop for. It does show why Cody's name carries weight on these fairways.
Steve Chase houses
The Palm Springs Art Museum says Chase started at Arthur Elrod Associates in 1967 and opened his own firm in Rancho Mirage in 1980. His own 1981 house is in Thunderbird Cove, per Palm Springs Life. At Tamarisk, I treat any Chase attribution as a claim until the permit or his firm's records back it.
Newer construction vs the originals
Tamarisk has a mix of original houses, heavily remodeled ones, and newer builds. A remodel can keep the bones and lose the details that made the architect's name worth paying for. When a listing says "by Cody," my next question is how much of what Cody drew is still standing.
Verifying attribution
Here is my order of operations:
- City building permits and plans on file. The original permit often names the designer.
- The Palm Springs Art Museum Architecture and Design archive, which holds collections from many desert modernists.
- Published work: monographs, period magazine coverage, and survey documents.
- The seller's own documentation, which I read last because it is the most motivated source.
If none of those confirm it, the house is "in the style of," and I price it that way. My full process is in the architectural homes guide.
What Tamarisk sells for
CDAR/FlexMLS closed sales cover every sale in the Tamarisk subdivisions that closed November 18, 2024 through September 14, 2026: 55 sales, 47 single-family and 8 condos.
| MLS subdivision | Sales | Median price | Median $/sq ft | Median DOM | Median year built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tamarisk Country Club | 17 | $2,185,000 | $649 | 29 | 1986 |
| Tamarisk Heights | 10 | $1,169,000 | $596 | 71.5 | 1973 |
| Tamarisk West | 9 | $1,000,000 | $381 | 26 | 1972 |
| Tamarisk View Estates | 6 | $1,387,500 | $521 | 84 | 1979 |
| Tamarisk Ridge | 4 | $2,470,000 | $542 | 76 | 2007 |
| Other Tamarisk subdivisions | 9 | ||||
| All | 55 | $1,325,000 | $565 | 44 | 1979 |
What the listings say about the architects
This is a remarks screen: I searched each listing's public marketing remarks for Cody, Chase, and S. Charles Lee. It shows what sellers claimed, not what the permits prove.
- William Cody: 0 of 55 listings mentioned him.
- Steve Chase: 0 of 55.
- S. Charles Lee: 5 of 55, all in Tamarisk West, built 1964 to 1972. They sold at a median $1,000,000 and $395 a square foot, against $364 for the 4 Tamarisk West sales that did not mention him.
So in two years, no Cody or Chase house came to market at Tamarisk with the name in the listing. The Lee name shows up, but it does not lift Tamarisk West anywhere near the club's $649 a square foot. Small numbers, so read it as direction.
My take
I used to call Tamarisk one of the best places in the valley to shop for a real architect house. The data says to be more precise. In two years, not one listing at Tamarisk mentioned Cody or Chase. The name buyers come for is mostly not on the market. What is on the market is Tamarisk West, where 5 listings named S. Charles Lee and still sold at a median $395 a square foot, well under the $649 the club houses got. To me that reads as opportunity: the Lee name is not priced in. Buy one for the house and the history, not as a pedigree trade, and verify the attribution before you pay anything for it. I have also watched people pay a premium for an attribution that came from one sentence in a listing. I will not do that for a client. Pay for the name when the paper backs it. Otherwise, pay for the house in front of you.
Membership and fees are on the Tamarisk Country Club page. For the club next door, see my Thunderbird Country Club guide, and for the city, Rancho Mirage.
FAQ
Which architects designed homes at Tamarisk Country Club?
Where was Frank Sinatra's Tamarisk house?
How do I verify that a house was designed by a named architect?
Does an architect attribution raise the price?
Do I need a membership to buy at Tamarisk?
Data note
CDAR/FlexMLS closed sales, all Residential closed sales in the Tamarisk subdivisions (Rancho Mirage), November 18, 2024 through September 14, 2026, n=55 (47 SFR, 8 condo), grouped by the MLS Subdivision column. Architect figures are a keyword screen of public Marketing Remarks only (Cody; Chase; S. Charles Lee), not verified attribution. Method: medians computed in pandas from raw rows of CDAR/FlexMLS closed sales (export pulled October 24, 2026). $/sq ft is closed price divided by MLS approximate square footage.
Norman Williams, Compass. DRE 02051057.