Loading…
We use cookies. We use cookies, including analytics, to improve your experience.
JOURNAL
LOCAL INTELLIGENCE
The museum sits downtown at the base of the mountain, close enough to Palm Canyon Drive to walk to from most downtown rentals. The permanent collection runs to modern and contemporary work and Western American art, but the reason it matters here is the architecture and design holding — in a city that is itself an argument about mid-century design, this is where the drawings, models and furniture live.
The building is worth a minute of attention before you go in. It is a serious piece of Palm Springs modernism in its own right, set into the hillside with stone walls that pick up the mountain behind it.
The museum also runs an architecture and design center in a separate downtown building — a converted bank on Palm Canyon Drive that is one of the more photographed facades in the city. If the architecture is what brought you, that is the one to prioritise.
This is the best indoor afternoon in Palm Springs, which makes it the right move between roughly one and four o'clock when the sun has made outdoor plans unpleasant. In summer that window widens considerably.
The Agua Caliente Cultural Plaza is a short walk away and tells the story of the tribe whose land the city sits on, including the hot spring the town was named for. Pairing the two makes a genuinely good half day out of what people often treat as a rainy-day backup.
Opening days vary by season and the museum closes on some weekdays, so check before you walk over. Admission is free at certain times each month, which is worth knowing if your dates line up. There is paid parking nearby and free street parking a few blocks out; on Thursday evenings, when VillageFest closes Palm Canyon Drive, walking is the only sensible approach.