Modernism Week: Palm Springs, 2024

Modernism Week is a world-class, eleven-day celebration of midcentury modern design, architecture, art, fashion, and culture in Greater Palm Springs. Each year, more than 120,000 attendees participate in over 350 events. And, this year, I was one of them!
I was honored to have been invited by our partner, Ferguson, an acclaimed wholesale distributor of plumbing, HVAC, waterworks and supplies. Such a treat! The inspiration, networking and awe-inspiring architecture were fabulous.
The mission of Modernism Week is to celebrate and foster appreciation of midcentury architecture and design, as well as contemporary thinking in these fields, by encouraging education, preservation and sustainable modern living.
Highlights of the festival include the Modernism Show, Signature Home Tours, films, lectures, Premier Double Decker Architectural Bus Tours, nightly parties, live music events, walking and bike tours, tours of Sunnylands, fashion shows, classic cars, modern garden tours, a vintage travel trailer exhibition, and more.

Midcentury Modern Architecture

Palm Springs has one of the largest concentrations of preserved mid-century modern architecture in the world. Talented young visionary architects came to Palm Springs and interpreted Modern architecture in a way that best suited the desert environment and leisure living. In fact, Palm Springs had long been a hideaway for L.A. glitterati who commissioned avant-garde desert homes during the ‘50s & ’60s. Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe and Frank Sinatra are Hollywood legends who all called Palm Springs home.

Desert Modernism

While at the Palm Springs Art Museum/Architecture and Design Center, we learned about Albert Frey (1903-1998), the Architect who helped established the modernist Palm Springs architecture that became known as Desert Modernism.

Desert Modernism is an interpretation of the Modernist or International Style, tailored to suit the Palm Springs indoor/outdoor lifestyle. People flocked to Palm Springs for the stunning fall/winter weather and wanted to spend their time outdoors. Desert Modernism is recognizable by its minimalist clean lines and the seamless blur of indoor and outdoor space. Rooflines are often flat or butterfly-wing v-shaped (dubbed “butterfly” roofs). Floor plans were open with lots of windows and sliding glass doors that bring the outside in. Beautiful breeze blocks temper the desert heat and attached carports rather than detached garages fulfilled the need to shelter the automobile.

Below are some of the highlights from our trip. My favorite? The Interior of the Christopher Kennedy home and the exterior of the Pink House.

Staci Munic Show Home and Design Lab

Interior designer, Staci Munic, showcased her newly renovated residence and design studio for a special home tour and poolside cocktail party. So fun!

Situated in Indian Canyons, the home is adorned with wedding cake frosting stucco and mint chip stone. It features an umbrella roof line, light filled interiors, indoor outdoor living, and breathtaking mountain views.

The gracious dwelling provides the ideal setting for living and working the resort lifestyle, while at the same time exuding a party vibe and restful retreat.

The neighborhood, designed in the late 1960s by architect Charles Du Bois, was built in the early 1970s by Roy Fey, one of the first real estate developers to embrace the new concept of condominium living.

Dr. Alexander Home Tour

Historic, original, and spectacular, this home is a midcentury modern dream. Designed by architect Walter S. White for psychoanalyst Dr. Franz Alexander, the Alexander residence, appears to hover over the boulder-strewn site. The result is a structure that seamlessly integrates into its natural surroundings, enhancing views of the valley while creating numerous indoor-outdoor connections.

Dramatic architectural elements like V-shaped steel supports, a swooping tongue-and-groove ceiling reaching toward the mountains, plus a double-height atrium—with an open-tread black steel staircase designed by Albert Frey—are but a few of the incredible details that bring the residence to life.

Christopher Kennedy Home Tour

This 3,348 square foot single family home boasts 4 bedrooms and 3.5 bathrooms and a view to die for. With a color palette of turquoise, chartreuse and blue (selected by the homeowner), the home is bright, cheerful and open. Whimsy artwork, unique lighting fixtures and patterned grass cloth wall treatments make this home fun and comfortable yet sophisticated.

The Pink House

So nicknamed for its famous pink doors, the Pink House or the playful Villa Sierra by TV set designer-turned-architect James McNaughton, reveals in its colorful take on midcentury modern Hollywood Regency design.

This iconic midcentury desert ranch offers expansive public rooms of grand proportions and floor-to-ceiling windows that blur the boundary of inside and outside. The manicured grounds, towering palm trees, and captivating mountain views permeate the brilliantly designed open living space of this 5,300 square-foot home.

Styled in a chic, Hollywood Regency scheme, the home excites the imagination with its globally inspired collection of art and richly colored decor and finishings, including a Byzantine blue leather sofa, a canary yellow glass-top bistro table and pistachio green cabinetry in the gourmet kitchen. A billiard room features a powder-blue pool table set against a baroque stained-glass window and the adjacent wet bar, while a separate lounge area features an elevated, built in chaise-style lounge sofa, limited edition Claritone stereo like the one Sonny and Cher had in their Palm Springs home, and a pair of armchairs surrounding a marble fireplace with striking sculptures and grass-paper lined walls.