Sunday Escape - The Volcano House

South California. In the western Mojave Desert, in a place called Newberry Springs landed the aliens. Maybe. Take a look at building a flying saucer perched at a height of 50 meters on an extinct volcano, located halfway between Los Angeles and Las Vegas and say if this neo-futuristic building does not seem to come from a distant planet. Its story begins in 1968 when the architect Harold Bissner Jr. is hired by Vard Wallace to build a retreat. The man is an aircraft-mechanics genius who made a fortune selling drafting machines and airplane parts during World War II, but it is also the first to patent the skateboard. His desire is to have an house that looks like the dome-shaped information center built in 1965 at the nuclear generating plant at San Onofre, but that incorporated even astrology and fishing, two of the engineer's passions. Bissner turns the dream into reality. 

The architect designs and builds "Volcano House" on a cone of volcanic slag in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by a moat 5 feet wide and 2 feet deep. The white dome, extended 2,206 square feet, full of sliding glass doors, has on its summit an observation deck that offers a 360 degree view of the desert and is ideally placed to observe the astronomical wonders of the night sky. The interior of the spaceship's time capsule in which time has stopped: open space, vaulted ceilings, two bathrooms, two bedrooms with large windows that go from floor to ceiling and, above all, a treasure trove of last mid-century design pieces in very good condition, such as a chair Eames Lounge and several "bowtie" appliques. Vard Wallace sells "Volcano House" in 2000th building, after having changed a few owners, is donated to Chapman University in 2010.