Modernism Week’s signature February Event is an annual celebration of mid-century modern design, architecture, art, fashion and culture which features more than 350 events. It has always been a goal of mine to get to the Desert for this amazing experience and since Lee and Margaret have never been to Palm Springs, hello... where else would we be today?!

The mission of Modernism Week is to celebrate and foster appreciation of mid-century architecture and design, as well as contemporary thinking in these fields, by encouraging education, preservation and sustainable modern living as represented in the greater Palm Springs area.
We began our day at the West Elm House, an idea home created to inspire and guide architecture and design enthusiasts when it comes to the art of modernizing a midcentury home for the way we live today.
"Back by popular demand for the third consecutive year, this is the Home Tour you don’t want to miss (and it's free)!"
"Join us for the Big Reveal of this Midcentury to Next-Century Transformation of another iconic Palm Springs home. In celebration of Modernism Week, Acme House Company has once again partnered with West Elm and local makers, artisans and craftspeople to create their third annual Living Showroom - a luxury vacation rental paradise where it’s all about relaxing in the sunshine."



A super groovy treat was bumping into Julie (my modernism kindred spirit) and her friend, Eva. It is truly a small world.






To get our historical bearings, we visited the McCallum Adobe Museum (1884). There we found really great exhibits displaying Palm Springs’ colorful life told through hundreds of historical photographs (dating from the 1880s to the 1980s), letters and paintings from the early pioneers who made the town what is today. We then watched an informative 20-minute video about the City’s beginnings and headed out to explore.
I so love Lucy and her life here in the desert. Fun history.
This is the last of the original street signs, constructed of local stone. It was installed when the streets were renamed in the 1930s. Such a cool find.
A must visit was to SHAG. I love this artwork that is promoting the Week.


Another shopping experience was at famous Trina Turk, super groovy!

Bob Hope's house stands alone on a hilltop. What I now find interesting is that the architect, John Lautner, is the same creator of the house that Julie and I ogled on Balboa Island last weekend.
And how about the Orbit In. Architect Herbert and his wife, Gayle Burns reportedly moved to Palm Springs the year before the Hideaway hotel was built (originally the Town & Desert Apartments). The years 1946-'47 were a hallmark era of modernist construction in this desert town. The Burns built the Town & Desert to live in and rent to snowbirding friends, and then added two other hotels a few doors down in the 1950s.
Loved the Cork & Bottle Building (1935), a great example of depression era Art Moderne.
Theodore and Claire Morse had their residence crafted in 1960.




The last part of our day was a focus on architect Albert Frey.
We were here to be among the first to see the restored hillside Cree House (1955), which features some of architect Albert Frey’s signature characteristics: a spectacular siting, a jutting balcony with fiberglass railings, and thin roof overhangs. Nicholas Lawrence Design, in partnership with Knoll, has outfitted the house with Knoll furniture and vintage accents for public tours during Modernism Week.
Also unique were the industrial colored asbestos-cement sheets used to wrap around the outside of the house. The encelia-green-striped asbestos-cement sheets remain a distinctive feature of the home’s design. “The house is typical in the industrial materials Frey used. The color plan — beige, tan, sage green — they’re the colors of the desert, bringing the outdoors in.”


An important centerpiece of the house is the fireplace, built from rock sourced around the property. It’s the only strong vertical element, passing through the horizontal mass of the house and anchoring it to the hill on which it sits.
Check out  the copper-colored General Electric fridge (it also came in teal and pink) was never replaced. It is so cool that it's a cupboard. Practical.
This has been restored completely with the original kitchen, from the Modernfold sliding partitions to the Atomic Age gas oven by Western Holly with a porthole in the middle that makes it look more like a washing machine than an oven.

“Albert Frey was known for his fascination for designing homes using what, at the time, were state-of-the-art industrial materials. So now we may see yellow corrugated fiberglass panels and think they’re unattractive, but in the early ’50s, this was quite avant-garde. Fiberglass wasn’t in common usage until well after World War II.”

This was a special place in which to end our Palm Springs adventure... being among the first to see the restored hillside Cree House, "The Forgotten Frey" called that not because anyone ever really forgot about it, but because hardly anyone has ever seen it. But we did and we'll remember this day forever!