Sunnylands: The Camp David of the West
Near Palm Springs, California
In nineteen sixty-three, media mogul Walter Annenberg paid just under nine hundred thousand dollars for nearly two hundred acres in Rancho Mirage. He hired architect A. Quincy Jones to design a midcentury modern retreat, and named the completed estate Sunnylands after his family's Pennsylvania summer home.
Dwight Eisenhower, by then out of office, was the first president to visit, in nineteen sixty-six. Since then, most commanders in chief have come, though not all. Ronald Reagan signed the precursor to NAFTA here. George H. W. Bush held a state dinner for Japan's prime minister on the grounds. Barack Obama used it to host the president of China.
The Annenbergs left two hundred million dollars to maintain Sunnylands as a high-level diplomatic retreat. The estate opened to the public in twenty twelve. It is sometimes called the Camp David of the West, though it gets considerably more sunshine.
