PHOTOS: Stone’s indoor-outdoor dwelling on the outskirts of Joshua Tree

By Barbara Thornburg

Robert Stone — former punk rocker, studio artist and now architect — has built a one-bedroom retreat called Rosa Muerta on the outskirts of Joshua Tree. Chrome columns rise from the sandy desert floor to support a ceiling plane clad with mirrors. Stone left the arid landscape that surrounds the property unaltered. “My architectural practice is more related to how artists work,” he says. “I’m trying to do something amazing here. I learned as a kid doing my music that you have a right to come up with something brand new.”