Palm Springs

The architects who built Palm Springs: Albert Frey

When you look at the low, long and linear forms of Albert Frey’s buildings, which appear modern, but also instantly at one with the arid landscape of the USA’s Coachella Valley, it is hard to believe that this founding father of...

How Donald Wexler and William Krisel turned Palm Springs into a Hollywood retreat

Pat Rizzo and his Orchestra up the tempo and the dance floor swells with men in retro casuals and women with red lipstick and Mad Men hairdos. It’s the annual gala benefit at the Canyon Country Club, the big ticket...

The architects who built Palm Springs: Hugh Kaptur

Few of the creatives who came to define Palm Springs’ particular brand of modernism actually came from the Coachella region. Hugh Kaptur, one of the Californian town’s most prolific architects, was no exception, hailing in fact from the cold expanses...

Kate Ballis’ candy-coloured dreamscapes hit the sweet spot in Los Angeles

Kate Ballis’ otherworldly infrared photographs of Palm Springs first caught our eye last autumn when we met the artist in the desert resort city, where she was working on the next instalment of her series Infra Realism. The Melbourne-based photographer...

Palm Springs pays homage to architect Herbert W Burns

This weekend the Palm Springs Preservation Foundation will pay homage to the work of Herbert W Burns, the self-taught architect whose iconic apartment hotels and residences have become part of the canon of desert modernism. In what promises to be...

Californian artist Phillip K Smith III in five surreal installations

The light-based installation works of the artist Phillip K Smith III might typically be fleeting, temporary creations that are set against exceptional nature backdrops, but five of Smith’s most arresting outdoor works are now newly immortalised in a fresh tome...

Kate Ballis’ spellbinding infrared vision of California

Ace Hotel and Block Shop unveil capsule collection at Modernism Week

Textile company Block Shop – creator of the beloved Commune Wall mural at Ace Hotel in Palm Springs – has created a print-tastic capsule collection to ring in Modernism Week. Founders (and sisters) Lily and Hopie Stockman have been Ace...

Palm Springs according to Phillip K Smith III

Who better to share their guide to Palm Springs than Coachella Valley native, the American artist Phillip K Smith III, who creates his site-specific light-based works from his studio in Palm Desert, which is close to the mid-century modernist mecca...

Palm Springs Modernism Week 2018 preview

Palm Springs Modernism Week, which runs from 15–25 February 2018, has announced its 11-day programme of mid-century modern architecture, interiors, culture, parties and plenty of opportunities to knock back a martini. Explore what this microcosm of mid-century modernism has to offer in...

Ripple effect: the Palm Springs hotels making waves for 2018

There must be something about all that sunshine and blue-on-blue sky, but Palm Springs has long lured a particular tribe of traveller – savvy, design-conscious, and fastidious about their choice of lodgings. Aiding the cause is the area’s haul of...

Tom Blachford brings Palm Springs houses and classic cars into moonlit focus

Palm Springs is the sort of place where taglines like ‘modernist Mecca’ and ‘hedonist hideaway’ get bandied around ­– and for good reason too. The resort city emerges from the desert like a gleaming oasis of mid-century jewels, palm trees...