Pearlman Cabin, 52820 Middleridge Drive, Idyllwild, Riverside County, CA

STORED ON SITE. mchr
2012 Charles E. Peterson Prize, Entry
Significance: Almost a primitive hut, the modest Pearlman Mountain Cabin in Idyllwild art colony-high on western slope of Mt. San Jacinto-was built for accomplished amateur musicians who summered there. A wooden building in a wooded setting, it is essentially a circular room of music, sitting, cooking and sleeping. Two thirds of its perimeter is a solid wall with a clerestory of small rectangular windows. Lined up along this wall are a hearth, a desk for writing, a large window precisely framing an immense oak, two beds, and a tiny kitchen. The other third of the enclosure opens to the surroundings. Two wings extend out from the body of the house to frame this opening, one a terrace, the other a bedroom suite. The roof is a fattened disk with a flat circular center and tapered edges, folded down to the wall at the back, and crimped up at the large opening in the front. The construction of the roof is less complicated than its form may suggest: wooden trusses, braced at the center of the house, radiate out to support it. Across the opening, the roof rest on a row of actual tree trunks. Enormous sheets of glass set directly into these logs form a delicate screen through which one gazes with wonder at the panorama unfolding beyond.
Unprocessed Field note material exists for this structure: N1914
Survey number: HABS CA-50
Building/structure dates: 1957 Initial Construction