the story

Yucca Valley, California

2020, the beginning

Panorama House owner standing with a shovel on the undeveloped desert property in Yucca Valley, surrounded by Joshua trees and distant mountains.

In early 2020,

we purchased five acres

in a quiet part of Yucca Valley,
near Joshua Tree.


I had studied design at Otis/Parsons and spent the previous twenty years working in fashion, so I decided to design the house. I’m Julie Park, and Panorama House became my first ground-up residential project.

The design process took about eight months, followed by nearly a year of drawings, engineering, and permits. We broke ground in April 2022.

  • Early construction of Panorama House in Yucca Valley, showing desert site preparation and the Blue Sky Building Systems steel framework taking shape against the Mojave Desert mountains.
  • Construction of Panorama House in Yucca Valley, showing a metalworker installing structural steel beams and the exposed steel framework against the Mojave Desert mountains at sunset.
  • Panorama House under construction in Yucca Valley, showing its distinctive cantilevered roofline above exposed steel wall framing, with the Mojave Desert mountains and afternoon sun beyond.
  • Construction details at Panorama House showing a custom metal column connection beneath the exposed roof framing and members of the building crew gathered inside the unfinished steel-framed interior.
  • Panorama House under construction in Yucca Valley, showing TJI engineered wood roof joists spanning the steel-framed structure, surrounded by the Mojave Desert and distant mountains.
  • Interior construction at Panorama House showing a worker finishing drywall and a bathroom shower and bathtub area coated in red waterproofing membrane before tile installation.
  • Those diagonal cuts weren't simply a decorative choice. They demanded precision, additional labor, and a willingness to execute something unconventional. This is exactly the kind of craftsmanship you wanted Panorama House to embody.
Long shadow of the Panorama House owner photographing the rocky Mojave Desert ground in the afternoon sunlight.



Building in the desert proved far more difficult than I expected. Local contractors were booked years out, and an early construction team left us with major setbacks. Instead of pausing the project, I stepped in as the general contractor and began sourcing materials, coordinating trades, and managing the build myself.

By late 2022, we were framing the house. The roof became the defining challenge. Each corner of the structure sits at a different height, so every joist had to be cut at a different angle and length. It was complicated, expensive, and at times genuinely frightening to build, but it gave the house the wingspan and floating quality that now define it.

From a distance, Panorama House appears almost to have landed in the valley. The house sits above the ground, and from inside, the uninterrupted views create the feeling of floating over the desert.

I became the GC!

Photo by guest Alethea Cheng Fitzpatrick


Once the structure was complete, I could finally focus on the interiors. Fleetwood windows and sliders frame the landscape throughout.

I mixed vintage pieces from Denmark and Sweden with contemporary design, Reform cabinetry, custom furniture, Piero Lissoni, Georg Jensen, Alessi, and artisan ceramics. Curved forms and globe lighting soften the architecture's sharper geometry, including a custom thirteen-foot credenza and a vintage Louis Weisdorf Turbo pendant in the living room.

Interior design details at Panorama House featuring an Eames Hang-It-All rack, Clay Canoe ceramic sculpture, Louis Weisdorf Turbo pendant light, and Reform kitchen cabinetry with Georg Jensen tableware.

A house that seems to float

Two workers preparing rocky desert soil with shovels during the landscaping of Panorama House in Yucca Valley, with a grading tractor and Joshua trees in the background.

The Desert, Brought in

Flowering Yucca rostrata with a tall stalk of creamy white blossoms in the desert landscape surrounding Panorama House in Yucca Valley, California.
View beneath the cantilevered roof overhang at Panorama House, with a concrete walkway extending alongside native Mojave Desert landscaping and distant mountains at sunset.


Outside, I worked with a local landscape artist to create a garden that felt native to the site rather than imposed on it. Desert plants, large boulders, and the surrounding terrain became part of the architecture itself. The floating spa deck perched above the valley became one of the most special places on the property.


Overhead view of Panorama House's private spa deck in the Mojave Desert, featuring a circular Bullfrog hot tub, Emu lounge chairs, Colosseo side tables by Naoto Fukasawa for B&B Italia, and an Adara fire table.
Close-up of a young cholla cactus with reddish spines growing among desert rocks and gravel at Panorama House, casting long shadows in the afternoon sunlight.


The house passed final inspection just four days before Christmas 2023.

It took three years to complete and demanded more from me than I ever expected. Countless setbacks, difficult decisions, and moments when walking away would have been easier. But I kept going.

Today, Panorama House is exactly what we hoped it would become: quiet, peaceful, slightly otherworldly, and deeply connected to the desert around it.

Our desert spaceship of a home.

Stay Here

inquire@staypanoramahouse.com