Modernism Week 2015 Opens in Palm Springs
http://www.decor-ideas.org 02/14/2015 03:43 Decor Ideas
Fans of modern architecture are flocking to Palm Springs, California, to attend Modernism Week, the city’s annual celebration of modernist architecture, design, fashion, arts and culture, which runs through February 22. The ode to modernism, now in its 10th year, features more than 200 events, including home and neighborhood tours, films, lectures, parties, a designer show house and a 20th-century design show and sale. A number of events are sold out — tickets went on sale in November, and popular tours fill up fast. But if you’d like to attend, there’s still much you can do, as well as unofficial parties and happenings at Coachella Valley hotels and other sites. Here’s a look at some of the area’s homes, events and sights on view this year and at past Modernism Week events.
Palm Springs has been called an open-air museum of modern design because of its abundance of noteworthy 20th-century architect-designed buildings. As the popularity of midcentury modernism has grown in recent years, so has the desert resort city’s attraction as a design-tourism destination.
Last year the nonprofit Modernism Week attracted 45,000 attendees from around the world, up from 5,600 in 2008, and more are expected to attend this year. A smaller Palm Springs design festival launched last October.
Photo by David A. Lee
Double-decker architectural bus tours of midcentury modern and desert Spanish neighborhoods cover a lot of territory at Modernism Week and offer visitors an over-the-fences view of gated compounds. Some highlights on the tours this year include Richard Neutra’s Kaufmann Desert House and Donald Wexler’s Steel Houses, as well as the homes of stars such as Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley.
Noted midcentury architects who worked in Palm Springs include William F. Cody, John Lautner, A. Quincy Jones, Neutra, Hugh Kaptur, William Krisel and Wexler.
Modernism Week this year honors Neutra with a star on the Palm Springs Walk of Stars at the Palm Springs Art Museum’s new Architecture and Design Center. Lautner, Jones, Wexler and Kaptur are among past honorees.
Home and garden tours and neighborhood architectural walking tours give Modernism Week visitors an up-close look at local treasures.
Photo by David A. Lee
Photo by David A. Lee
Midcentury sofas, ceramics, paintings and more are on display at the Palm Springs Modernism Show & Sale at the Palm Springs Convention Center from February 13 to 16.
Photo by David A. Lee
Eighty-five furniture, decorative and fine-arts dealers from around the world will be selling 20th-century design objects at the exhibition, which kicks off Friday evening with a gala party.
Photo by David A. Lee
For the second year, interior designer Christopher Kennedy has put together a designer show house in conjunction with Modernism Week. This year’s house features rooms decorated by more than a dozen designers. Pictured is a living room in the 2014 house.
The pool area of the 2014 Christopher Kennedy Compound offers a sweeping view of the mountains surrounding Palm Springs. This year’s home is on the fairway of the Indian Canyons Golf Resort.
Starting in the 1920s, Palm Springs became a magnet for architects who, influenced by the European Bauhaus movement, helped develop a streamlined style known as desert modernism. These architects made use of modern materials and construction techniques — and the temperate desert climate — to design simple but elegant indoor-outdoor structures with clean lines and large expanses of glass, steel, stone and concrete.
Photo by David A. Lee
Swiss-born Albert Frey (1903–1998) designed more than 200 buildings, including Palm Springs City Hall. In 1964 the architect — who had worked for Le Corbusier in 1920s Paris — completed his Frey House II, seen here, on a San Jacinto Mountains hillside overlooking the Coachella Valley.
Photo by Dan Chavkin
The swimming pool and deck of Frey House II form the roof of a carport.
Photo by David A. Lee
In the early 1960s, Wexler and Richard Harrison built a tract of seven partially prefab steel and glass houses designed to be affordable and easily reproduced. Production of the houses ended with a rise in the price of steel. The Wexler Steel Houses are on the National Register of Historic Places.
Photo by Dan Chavkin
Wexler has designed numerous residential, commercial and civic buildings in Palm Springs.
Palm Springs has designated the Cody-designed Abernathy Residence, a pavilion-style home built in 1962, a historic site. As a student, Cody worked for architect Cliff May, and he went on to design country club clubhouses, hotels, homes and commercial buildings throughout the West.
Photo by David A. Lee
The A-frame Swiss Miss houses, in the Vista Las Palmas neighborhood, are said to resemble chalets with a touch of South Pacific tiki hut. The novel homes were designed by Charles DuBois in the late ’50s and early ’60s.
Photo by Dan Chavkin
A midcentury home with an infinity pool is perched on a hillside above the city.
Photo by David A. Lee
Sparse landscaping and an open design suit homes on the desert floor.
Photo by David A. Lee
Photo by David A. Lee
Photo by David A. Lee
A classic Ford Mustang fits in with its midcentury modern neighborhood.
Photo by Gregg Felsen
Visitors enjoy Palm Springs’ balmy weather outside a home at the foot of the mountains.
Photo by David A. Lee
Owners of vintage trailers from around the West show off their restored beauties during Modernism Week at the Vintage Travel Trailer Show on February 21 and 22.
Photo by David A. Lee
Frey and John Porter Clark designed the Aerial Tramway Valley Station, with its soaring kite-shaped roof, in 1963. The former gas station now houses the Palm Springs Visitors Center. The center will be illuminated February 15 for a benefit to raise funds for the cross-country relocation of Frey’s 1931 Aluminaire House to Palm Springs.
Guided tours of the restored Sunnylands Center & Gardens on the 200-acre Annenberg estate and golf course in Rancho Mirage are available throughout the year. Los Angeles architect A. Quincy Jones designed the midcentury modern residence, and Wiliam Haines and Ted Graber did the interior design. The home was for Walter and Leonore Annenberg, who entertained U.S. presidents, British royals and Hollywood stars there.
Benefit VIP twilight tours of the Hotel Lautner are being offered at Modernism Week. Lautner designed the former Desert Hot Springs Hotel, which was built in 1947 and renovated in 2011.
Evening falls over Palm Springs and the Coachella Valley. Modernism Week parties and tours continue in the city after dark. The exteriors of significant architect-designed buildings along Palm Canyon Drive are lighted up as part of the “Illuminated Modern” exhibition.
Photo by David A. Lee
Tell us: Have you been to Modernism Week or toured Palm Springs’ midcentury modern sites? Share your stories and pictures.
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