Inside a Desert Mansion That Looks Like a Fossil

Interior designer John Vugrin gave a tour of the iconic Kellogg-Doolittle House in Joshua Tree, California. The house, which looks like a fossil by design, was built for artist Bev Doolittle and her husband Jay, who had a fondness for fossils.

The original owner of the house Jay was fascinated by fossils. every other week when I arrived he would have another book on fossils for me so I tried to incorporate a lot of vertebrae type motifs the whole time I was building it. …

Vugrin was the protegé of organic architect Kendrick Bangs Kellogg during the 1980s when construction began. The finished mansion took nearly twenty years and its distinctive style is simultaneously primitive and modern, blending well into the high desert landscape.

The sensational build was designed by organic architect Kendrick Bangs Kellogg and his protegee John Vugrin in the 1980s taking over 20 years to complete.