Palm Springs Modern Architecture is Haute

Its village atmosphere has been preserved and embellished over the years. The downtown area with its quaint lampposts, benches, and Mexican tile-paved enclaves invites strolling among the shops, galleries, eateries, and coffeehouses. Rich in history and blessed with glorious weather, it is a prime destination of travelers from all over the world. Read more.

 Dozen Distinctive Destinations 2006
The National Trust for Historic Preservation, the United States largest private, nonprofit preservation organization, has named Palm Springs, California to its 2006 list of America’s Dozen Distinctive Destinations, an annual list of unique and lovingly preserved communities in the country. Known as Palm Springs Modern Style, the architecture of the region features highly original buildings designed and built in the 1950s and 1960s by such visiting architects as Richard Neutra.

Desert Modernism

The dramatic geographic surroundings of the Coachella Valley inspired a design aesthetic in the middle of the 20th Century now called Desert Modernism. Notable for its use of glass, clean lines, natural and manufactured resources and indoor/outdoor spaces, Desert Modernism evoked a lifestyle of simple elegance and informality. Influenced by the dictates of desert living and the intense climate, the style grew out of the architects and designer's adaptive use of inventive materials, modern construction techniques, new (post-war) technologies...and served an enthusiastic and willing clientele.

Talented architects were drawn to Palm Springs by chance and opportunity. They created notable buildings of every type: residential, commercial, civic, religious, hotels, schools, cultural, etc. They vied for the same clients and though professional competition was great there was ample room for each to succeed and express his own individuality. It was, as Donald Wexler, one of the era's architects says, "the golden age of American architecture". Even with much small town competition, strong bonds of friendship were developed among the architects that still exist today. Additionally, the well-heeled nature of "Snow¬Bird" residents brought internationally acclaimed architects who further defined Palm Springs Desert Modernism (e.g. Richard Neutra; John Lautner; Cliff May; A. Quincy Jones; Welton Becket; Gordon Kauffman, and Victor Gruen Associates).

Compiled by Robert Imber

Palm Springs: Books on Palm Springs Modernism are available through the Palm Springs Visitors Center,
( 800-347-7746).