Borrego Springs benefactor Audrey Steele Burnand is just about to close escrow on the William Kesling-designed Borrego Desert Club, which originally opened in February 1950 as part of a plan to make the area in San Diego County into a Palm Springs alternative. Obviously that didn't work out, and she'll be giving the old building, along with renovation funds, to UC Irvine for use as a research center studying "the desert ecosystem and the relationship between human development and the natural environment." The Club is being sold for $650,000. [Desert Club via borrego modern] [LAT]
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