THE DESERT SUN
FEBRUARY 16, 2018
Frey had been in New York casting about for a job after completing the Aluminaire house. The Aluminaire had been a revolutionary idea, designed together with Kocher, and assembled modern living from readily available pre-made parts. That seems quite natural now, too, but employing simple, industrial materials in their unadorned state was completely novel in the early 1930s. A. Lawrence Kocher wanted to help his Swiss friend, but fresh out of projects, sent him to the little village of Palm Springs to assist his brother, Dr. J.J. Kocher, by having Frey design the doctor’s office building. Frey arrived at his unusual destination, a whole continent away from the New York architecture scene, and became entranced. The little town embraced him back. Over the next six decades, Frey would design dozens of buildings.