WHITE SHADOWS: RANCHO MIRAGE’S MOROCCAN-THEMED ESTATE

White Shadows: Courtyard Photo, Tim Street-Porter

Among Palm Springs' spectacular architecture is the mid-century Moroccan-themed “White Shadows” in Thunderbird Heights. The white marble compound with a Marrakech-style open center courtyard, fountain, arched portals, and slender columns could have been the backdrop for a Talitha Getty photoshoot. Designed for Weyerhaeuser lumber heir Thomas Davis and his wife Dottie by the architectural firm Eggers and Wilkman, it featured interiors and custom furnishings by the British-born T.H.Robsjohn Gibbings.

White Shadows: Living Room showing T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings’ design and furnishings

Photo, Maynard Parker, 1957

Robsjohn Gibbings' lyrical mix of modern and classical Greco-Roman elements was perfect for the sparse elegance of the stately oasis. After entering the house via the atrium, the foyer led to the living room, dining room, and lounge. Robsjohn Gibbings selected a color palette of yellow, citrine, orange, and pink with gold lacquered furniture for the living room, grounding the space with a V'Soske carpet. Geometric carved walnut grilles pierced the light casting shadows on the white marble. Dottie called the home White Shadows.

T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings’s Three-Tiered Floor Lamp designed for White Shadows

Photo, Modern Auctions

In addition to the Davis Estate, Robsjohn Gibbings designed the interiors and furnishings for many other significant houses across America. Among his clients were publisher Alfred A. Knopf, socialite Thelma Chrysler Foy, and tobacco heiress Doris Duke. He also worked on the Georgian-styled Bel-Air mansion known as Casa Encantada, twice established as the most expensive home in America. Completed in 1938, he created over 200 pieces of furniture for the house in his timeless manner, which he called "sans Epoque." Robsjohn Gibbings became Aristotle Onassis' designer in the 1960s, moving to Athens, where he died in 1976 at 73.

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