Loading…
We use cookies. We use cookies, including analytics, to improve your experience.
JOURNAL
LOCAL INTELLIGENCE
Palm Springs holds one of the densest concentrations of intact mid-century modern housing anywhere in the country, and Modernism Week is the stretch when the doors open. It lands in late winter. The core of it is tours: neighborhood bus routes, walking tours, talks, and private houses letting strangers through for a few hours.
The mistake people make is treating it as something you can drop in on. Most of what makes it worth the trip is ticketed and capacity-limited, and the tours that get written about sell out early. Arriving that week without tickets gets you a crowded downtown, full restaurants, and the same architecture you could have looked at on a quiet Tuesday in November.
If you miss the tickets, the self-guided version still works. Twin Palms and Deepwell Estates south of downtown are flat streets of 1950s tract houses that are pleasant to walk in the cool months. Old Las Palmas and Vista Las Palmas at the north end below the mountain have the largest lots and the most photographed houses. The Palm Springs Art Museum's Architecture and Design Center, in a restored bank building on Palm Canyon Drive, runs year-round.
This is one of two or three weeks a year that fill Palm Springs completely. Homes go months ahead, minimum stays get longer, and rates rise across the whole city rather than only near the tour routes. A large house, or several bedrooms on one level, is a six-month decision rather than a six-week one.
Dates move year to year. Confirm this year's on the official event site before you book anything around it, and read the minimum-stay window on the listing so you are not paying for nights you did not plan on.
The tradeoff is straightforward. This is the busiest the city gets, in its best weather. Parking downtown on a weekend evening becomes a real problem, traffic slows on Palm Canyon Drive, and dinner without a reservation is unlikely. If architecture is not the reason you are coming, the weeks on either side are calmer and noticeably cheaper for the same sunshine. If it is the reason, ask your local manager which neighborhoods the tours are running through. Staying inside that loop means walking to the first stop instead of parking twice.