New desert research center
The former Borrego Desert Club, which opened in 1950, sits on a slope with sweeping views of Borrego Springs, Calif. It is being donated to UC Irvine for the study of the desert ecosystem and the relationship between human development and the natural environment.
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Enjoying the grand piano in the spacious lounge of the 1950s-era Desert Club are, from left, Diane Pataki, director of UC Irvine’s Center for Environmental Biology; John Scranton, the property seller; Jim Dice, a desert senior scientist at Anza-Borrego Desert State Park; and Gail Sevrens, acting superintendent of the state park system’s Colorado Desert District.
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The empty pool will be refurbished and filled again when the Desert Club becomes UC Irvine’s desert research center. When the club opened in 1950, it was envisioned by boosters as the social hub of an upscale resort community that would rival Palm Springs as a desert playground for the rich. But by the late 1950s, the Desert Club was fading.
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Walking on a trail on a protected parcel above the Desert Club are, from left, Gail Sevrens, acting superintendent of the state park system’s Colorado Desert District; Jim Dice, a desert senior scientist at Anza-Borrego Desert State Park; Diane Pataki, director of UC Irvine’s Center for Environmental Biology; and John Scranton, the property seller.
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Audrey Steele Burnand, whose late father-in-law, vintner Alphonse A. Burnand Jr., was among Borrego Springs’ early investors and promoters, is buying the former Desert Club and donating it to UC Irvine as a research center. She also is providing funds to modify the building to fit the needs of students, including an annex with bunk-bed-style sleeping quarters for two dozen.
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Beyond the patio lights at the Desert Club are ocotillo, creosote and sage bushes that are native to Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. UC Irvine hopes to have the property ready for students by winter 2012. Diane Pataki, director of the school’s Center for Environmental Biology, already has a project in mind: a look at how the pumping of groundwater has harmed the native mesquite trees.
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