Newport Beach's Kerfoot House by William Cody

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Cody did not allow the building doesn’t get in the way of enjoying life. The Kerfoot house is open, airy, and invites a relationship with nature and sunlight. Here the residents can move from indoors to outdoors easily, from the comfortable living room with light filtering in through tall windows, to outdoor gardens focused on trees and modern art. The client’s upstairs art studio offers light and distant views.

What distinguishes Cody as an architect is how hard he worked to achieve this sense of effortless flow. He loved the Palm Springs social scene, partying into the night at nightclubs and country clubs with business magnates and Hollywood stars like Desi Arnaz, but after the parties ended late at night he would head to his office to work. He would study each project on the drafting boards, leaving notes for his staff. Always he worked to shave down the size of a beam, or the roof plane, or the window detail to an absolute minimum to achieve the strength needed and the visual gracefulness he admired.

For all its simplicity, Cody’s work is also rich and varied. The Kerfoot house’s simple framework is enriched by natural wood, ceramic tile, and translucent glass screens that bring a warmth and variety to its experience.

During his lifetime, William Cody’s work was not widely known outside Palm Springs, though he built in Texas and Arizona. The appreciation of Palm Springs Modernism in general that began around 2000 finally brought much-deserved attention to all the extraordinary architects who worked there in the midcentury. The long awaited book Master of the Midcentury: The Architecture of Willam F. Cody by Catherine Cody, Jo Lauria, and Don Choi was finally published in 2021.

Similarly, Orange County’s excellent midcentury architects like Lamont Langworthy, Herbert Brownell, Chris Abel, Fred Briggs, and others are only beginning to be recognized. With them we can celebrate Cody’s contributions to Orange County. Besides the Kerfoot house, he designed the Corona del Mar Elementary School (1946, now gone), Laguna Beach Unified School District buildings, and a 1964 Beach Pavilion at Irvine Cove. They are all part of the distinctive architecture that, when preserved, enhances the quality of life in Orange County.

By Alan Hess