Beautiful Virgin Islands

Wednesday, Oct 08, 2025

A Writer’s Prefab Retreat Sits Lightly Upon the Land in Joshua Tree

A Writer’s Prefab Retreat Sits Lightly Upon the Land in Joshua Tree

Thoughtfully inserted into a desert landscape, a low-impact, two-bedroom prefab home by Cover embraces the outdoors in minimalist style.

It was love at first sight for Los Angeles–based writer Leslie Longworth when a friend introduced her to a five-acre lot for sale in Pioneertown, a tiny historic community in Southern California. Surrounded by mountains and otherworldly views of Joshua Tree National Park-and with only a dirt road for access-the remote property was the perfect place for a writer’s retreat.



Located three miles down a dirt road, the remote property is surrounded by cactus, juniper, mesquite, scrub oak, Joshua trees, and dramatic piles of boulders.

Intent on preserving the pristine environment as much as possible, Leslie turned away from traditional site building and started researching prefabricated housing as a low-impact alternative. She came across the Los Angeles prefab startup Cover, and although the company had yet to complete their first build at the time, "everything clicked" from the moment she spoke to founder Alexis Rivas.

Spurred by her enthusiasm and vision, the startup made a special exception for Leslie-it usually focuses solely on accessory structures in Los Angeles-and designed and built a two-bedroom, two-bath house in the desert two-and-a-half hours away from the city.



The minimalist facade is composed of floor-to-ceiling windows and light gray fiber cement panels secured with a proprietary blind mounting system.

"Once Alexis agreed to come to the desert, I felt confident the land would captivate him…and it did," says Leslie. "The Mojave has a magnetism unlike anywhere I’ve ever been, and our land-which we feel wildly blessed to be the stewards of-has its own powerful vibration and magic. I think he said yes in the first five minutes of being there."

The happy partnership also gave Cover the opportunity to prove the capabilities of their fully integrated panelized building system in a standalone primary house-as well as their system’s performance in a harsh desert landscape.



To shield the residence from the harsh southern sun-and to provide privacy from the main road-the architects minimized openings along the south facade, aside from the entrance door.



Named "Sol to Soul," the modern two-bedroom house opens up along the north side to embrace the desert landscape.

As a provider of turnkey designs, Cover created a completely custom house and took care of the permitting, manufacturing, site work, and installation. The home was delivered complete with fixtures, finishes, Wolf Sub-Zero appliances, and a state-of-the-art radiant heating and cooling system.



As with all Cover projects, Leslie’s home features floor-to-ceiling windows, Wolf-Sub Zero appliances, integrated storage, and minimalist track lighting. The open-plan living areas are arranged axially toward views of the valley.

The project took about two years to complete, with the majority of the time spent preparing the foundation and utility work-which included connecting the home to the power grid with a new underground service line, drilling a new well for water, and installing a waste management system with a septic tank and leech fields. The manufacture of the panels, which were built in Cover’s factory, and on-site assembly took only six months to complete.



The light-filled living room on the east side of the house is furnished with an Opium day bed and Christian Liagre chairs for Holly Hunt.

"Designing around the endangered Joshua trees, boulders, and the view was extremely difficult," says Thomas Heyer, lead designer at Cover. "We were able to overcome it through a combination of more rigorous 3D mapping using drone imagery and handheld photos, and by leveraging our panelized building system to modify the design of the home to integrate with the property."



To match the modern architecture, Longworth furnished the dining area with a teak table by e15 and Voxel chairs by Karim Rashid for Vondom.



A peek inside the second bedroom.

Floor-to-ceiling, low-e windows with automatic integrated shades blur the line between indoors and out and "maximize the potential for awe" of the landscape, per Longworth’s request. In addition to the use of hydronic heating and cooling, the home further reduces its energy footprint with low-e windows, low-flow fixtures, and passive solar orientation that shields the interiors from the harsh desert sun. Longworth plans to add solar panels to her home in the future.



Thermory Wood lines the shower pan area in the smaller bathroom with an east-facing view.



A Wyndham Collection freestanding tub anchors the master bath. Low-flow fixtures are installed throughout.

"We are particularly happy with how the floor-to-ceiling windows frame the boulders, especially in the master bathroom," adds Heyer. "The goal of the project was always to use the proximity of the large rocks and elicit a sense of continuity by framing them in the various rooms."



Sol to Soul floor plan

Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
×