Palm Springs’ Week to Shine

With its palms and its pools, mountain vistas and spas, Palm Springs is an unhurried town where even denizens of high-speed Los Angeles manage to relax.

Things speed up, though, February 14-24 when Palm Springs Modernism Week fills the town with 100 or more events, including bus tours, tours of individual houses and neighborhoods, cocktail parties, oh-so-serious lectures, films, a Modernism show and sale, displays of vintage trailers, and more.

And don’t worry. The fabulous ‘Retro Martini Party’ may be sold out, but many other events still have tickets, says Ron Marshall, president of the Palm Springs Preservation Foundation, whose events include ‘Steel Modern After All These Years,’ a tour of three steel houses built in 1937, 1962, and 2012.

If people in town seem more friendly than usual during the big week, Marshall knows why.

“There are people from all over the world coming,” he says. “They see [Palm Springs] with fresh eyes, and we catch that enthusiasm all over again. All of a sudden we’re the center of attention, and every person in town becomes an expert in architecture!”

For more on Modernism Week, click here.