Palm Springs history: Stan Bitters, 'caveman' behind the iconic Ace Hotel installations

Distinctive architecture was approved by the Palm Springs Planning Commission in April 1965 for a 4½-acre site. Boasting spectacular mountain views it was big enough to make a splashy architectural statement. The Cal-Ru company proposed a 211-unit Westward Ho Hotel, restaurant and bar on the southwest corner of Camino Real and East Palm Canyon Drive.

There would be sheets of glass for walls similar to what architect Rufus Nims designed for Howard Johnson’s motels across the country. His notion was that motorists could see through the building, like mid-century ranch houses, and know at a glance the place was open. The Palm Springs site was adjacent to the main drag and the concept worked perfectly. Even at night, when lit from within it, would most certainly attract attention of those driving by.

There would be a dramatic roof line featuring a fat fascia like architects Armet and Davis’ designs for the many Denny’s restaurants popping up around Southern California. The planning commission was even told the operator of the restaurant would indeed be Denny’s. The impossibly thick fascia would make any driver stop and stare.

The prospective hotel had been through a few other city reviews and was finally approved. No mention of the architect was made.The brochure for the Westward Ho Hotel notes the chain started with the Las Vegas site in 1963, then Palm Springs in 1965, and San Diego in 1968. The low-rise, two-story site plan enveloped a central pool with surrounding easy parking. The large outdoor spaces made the place feel especially gracious.

The Palm Springs Westward Ho Hotel was an important addition to accommodations in the resort town. Outside, the pool and grounds created an ambiance of lazy sunbathing for tourists. Inside, its intimate and particularly low-lit bar tucked behind the restaurant became a hot spot for locals, particularly those not wanting to be seen out alone with someone else’s husband. Throughout the 1970s it was notorious as a place to go while having an affair.

The Westward Ho Hotel was the latest in design when it was approved in 1965. Since, it has undergone several remodels and is now incarnated as the Ace Hotel and Swim Club and despite its innovative architectural design, its most avant-garde, (daresay hip,) architectural feature is actually the Stan Bitters ceramic art installations. They are timeless but have roots in the mid-century and are the defining feature of the place.

Stan Bitters is a now a renowned artist, but then he was a guy trying to make ends meet doing whatever artistic work he could find. His sculptures and installations are characterized by their distinctive textures and organic aesthetic despite being found in many ordinary buildings like banks, office parks and hotels.

The New York Times noted in 2014 that Bitters is often listed as one of the key players in the organic Modernist craft movement of the 1960s as he worked to have his pieces included in the built environment.

Bitters studied at UCLA and the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles, where he honed his skills as a sculptor and determined that clay, the literal earth, was his medium of choice. His early work emphasized clean, simple lines, but he quickly evolved and began incorporating organic materials such as straw, twigs, and rocks into his clay, resulting in surfaces that were richly textured and highly unusual.

Garden Design magazine called Bitters “a 21st century caveman” saying he “shapes earth, water, and fire into primal ceramic forms.” The article, written by David Keeps, explains that in 1959 Bitters signed on as a designer for Hans Sumpf, the largest producer of adobe brick at the time. Bitters recalled, “They gave me twenty tons of clay and asked me to produce a sellable object.” He pounded and pushed, mashed and maneuvered birdhouses, pots, tiles, planters, friezes and windchimes from the clay.

Keeps reports “Sizable commissions followed, including an iconic fountain titled ‘Dancing Waters’ in a shopping mall designed by landscape architect Garrett Eckbo. In 1969, Bitters completed a fantastical 300-foot-long high-relief mural for the Fresno headquarters of Duncan Ceramic Arts, a manufacturer of products for hobbyist potters. The mural featured circular medallions in carnival colors, elements that intentionally echoed folkloric Scandinavian and Mexican crafts, the work of designer Alexander Girard, and the optimism of the hippie era.”

Bitters published his philosophy in a 1976 book, “Environmental Ceramics.” In it he explains, “There were a lot of how-to books at the time and my quest was to enlarge the thinking and capacity to go beyond making the small hand-held teacup. I saw ceramics as a centerpiece – indoors or outdoors –something that lasts forever with texture and color that engages you visually and physically, a presence that can be felt and touched. In contrast to pristine marble and bronze sculptures you set aside to view from a distance, my material allows you to be involved in it.”

His large-scale installations are indeed centerpieces and they don’t just draw attention, they demand it. His pieces are as dramatic and distinctive as the landscape itself.

Integrated into the built environment and specifically reflecting the unique qualities of site, they are often made up of hundreds of individual ceramic pieces. His works are distinctive. Incredibly, Stan Bitters himself is coming to Palm Springs for Modernism Week.

Seven decades into his career, Bitters is the last of the ceramic abstract expressionists of the mid-century. The Modernism Week website describes Bitters as “creating works now rooted in the history of California design, such as ceramic tile screen, slab fountain, ceramic mural, not to mention garden elements like the thumb pot, bird house, and mushroom table and stools. These are works that have gained him popularity among midcentury collectors today.”

His large-scale works, like that at the Ace Hotel in Palm Springs, are unique among ceramicists. Bitters will discuss his work and then a short documentary, “Stan Bitters Modern Primitive” directed by Francesca Di Amico and Claudia Unger will be shown. Tickets to this presentation by Bitters himself are at modernismweek.com along with an incredible array of other fascinating lectures.

Tracy Conrad is president of the Palm Springs Historical Society. The Thanks for the Memories column appears Sundays in The Desert Sun. Write to her at pshstracy@gmail.com.

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: History and art of the Ace Hotel and Swim Club in Palm Springs