With the promise of a gorgeous day in the desert, Steve and I headed back to Palm Springs for Modernism Week (we secured our tickets in January). Being COVID cautious, we chose two outdoor events. What a groovy day.
FYI- 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 as represented in the greater Palm Springs area.Part one of our day was the experience called Fins and Tails – Classic Private Car Collection.The tour gave us the opportunity to view a large collection of restored classic American and European collectable cars that are now in private ownership. The oldest was this LaSalle (1937). LaSalle was an American brand of luxury automobiles manufactured and marketed, as a separate brand, by General Motors' Cadillac division from 1927 through 1940.Steve thinks this was once his dad's car.In the 50s and 60s, modern design was everywhere, expressing the exuberance of the new post war prosperity. Modern Architecture was no longer for the wealthy and expanded with the growing middle class driving their new cars out to their new suburban modern homes. The automobile industry was equally forward thinking, designing the cars of the future for today with big fins, exotic modern styling and big engines to help rocket you off into the coming space age!Today, as so many people come to Palm Springs to restore mid-century modern homes, they realize that one of their most important and fun home accessories is a beautiful vintage car parked in the classic modern carport (hence so many cool cars here).Some cars were garaged and most had informative, entertaining flyers held on by the windshield wipers. This 1964 Mercury Park Lane had features we would not have known about without the flyer.I thought this guy's license plate printed shirt was just perfect for this occasion.We both agreed that this 1956 Dodge Sierra station wagon was our favorite.This style-leading 1956 Dodge Sierra seats 8. "Powered by a 314ci V8 with push-button automatic transmission, the Sierra was the top of the class in terms of wagons from Dodge. This is an extremely rare finned station wagon designed by Virgil Exner."I want it!Our last stop was in a garage full of cars from the 1970s. It even had music from that decade playing.Most cars had interesting interiors, unique features and all seemed to have an 8 track player. Can you dig it?For some reason, this Dodge Dart Swinger just seemed the perfect way to end Part 1 of our very swinging day.
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1 comments:
I will have to check our Modernism Week one of these days! (I mean one of these years...)
Palm Springs has so much to offer. Love it there!
Also, I love your fins pic.
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