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Two Okies in the Mecca of Mod

Modernism Week in Palm Springs

We'd been hearing about this desert city full of Mid-Century Modern architecture for years. But it's difficult to comprehend until you actually experience that cool-building-on-every-corner aspect of Palm Springs, California. The celebrities who frequented this city in the Forties, Fifties and Sixties built cutting-edge homes to use as their Winter retreats. Today this city of approximately 45,000 is awash in well preserved examples of Streamline Moderne, International, Brutalist and Postmodern architecture.

And fortunately for us the civic leaders appear to understand the power of architecture as a tourist attraction. Preservation has saved many important buildings, and many commercial structures are protected from any visual alterations or possible "remuddle" jobs. New construction also leverages the  modern look by incorporating classic Fifties styling cues like a butterfly roof or aluminum brise-soleil.

If you love modern architecture you'll enjoy visiting Palm Springs. Unless it's August.

That's why Modernism Week, held each February since 2006, is a perfect time to make that jaunt to the Coachella Valley. You'll find a week and a half of cocktail parties, gallery openings, car shows, home tours and a convention center full of cool furnishings for sale. The show & sale is held the first weekend of Modernism Week, and is actually the event that started it all. Vendors from all over bring new and used furniture, artwork, jewelry, posters and more to tempt your modern tastes.

We enjoyed our visit, had an absolute blast, met some great folks and returned home with some great memories. In addition to a slew of photos (see below) we also shot some great video and hope to present a recap of our trip in the near future! A few of the highlights for us included:
  • Architectural tours from an authentic British double-decker bus. Gary Johns (above) narrated our tour of the finest example of residential and commercial architecture Palm Springs. The highlight of this highlight: noted architect Don Wexler was on board with our group!
  • An exhibition of classic travel trailers- and not all of them were Airstreams either. There were a couple of the classic Spartan trailers, made in Tulsa at the Spartan Aircraft factory!
  • Uptown gallery hopping on Friday night- which was understated in the official program as only three shops- turned out to be half the storefronts lining the main drag of Palm Springs! Another great street event is the city's Village Fest held on Thursday evenings.
  • The display of Braniff uniforms and memorabilia was also impressive. In addition to the 30-plus year collection of air hostess uniforms, there were some great ephemera and a video loop of classic Braniff commercials. This was especially interesting for us since Braniff had such strong ties to this part of the country-- their first route was between Oklahoma City and Tulsa.
  • Charles Phoenix and his slideshow was a riot. He has collected vintage slides from yard sales and adoring fans to create his Retro Americana Road Trip.
Now here's a few photos from our trip. Enjoy!



View all photos...

Comments

Felipe said…
Sounds awesome! Did you get to see Sinatra's house? I am hoping to make it to Palm Springs on one of our upcoming L.A. trips.
JRB said…
We only saw it from the bus.

Oh, by the way... don't screw around if you want to go on the home tours! They fill up fast. Fortunately you can purchase tickets online in advance and the volunteers do a great job keeping everything straight.
You've reinforced my desire to go out there - do you know the dates for next year's show?
Sharshy said…
Hi Rex. Loved the Braniff video. Do you know anything about the story surrounding the pink hair/bubble photo? I was a hostess and someone got very creative with that. We couldn't, of course, have gotten away with that back then, albeit we were quite progressive in our style!
Sharshy said…
Hi, Rex...do you know the story behind the pink hair/bubble photo. We would never have been allowed "pink" hair, albeit we were very progressive in our style back then! Love the video!
JRB said…
The pink hair poster was a promotion for an exhibit of Braniff Airlines memorabilia and flight attendant uniforms. Details here...

I don't think they were suggesting it was historically accurate.

The Recent Past

Oklahoma State Capitol Bank

On the Trail of Julius Shulman: Stop 2 "This is a bank," the sign outside the futuristic building read. According to legend a prankster added a strategic question mark and echoed the sentiment of many passers-by: "This is a bank?" That was back in 1964 when it opened. Today the Arvest on Lincoln Boulevard looks a bit less Jetsonian, mostly due to replacement of structural glass below the "saucers," but it's still an unusual bank. Designed by Robert Roloff of the architectural firm Bailey, Bozalis, Dickinson & Roloff, the State Capitol Bank caused quite a stir in Oklahoma City when it opened. Heck, it's still pretty shocking today! Originally the flying saucers appeared to hover above the building (as seen in this vintage postcard). All the glass that made that effect possible also made heating and cooling an expensive proposition. Security concerns also mandated replacement of those windows with solid materials and small square portholes

Visit to the Prairie Chicken House

This unique house on the edge of Norman, Oklahoma is known to most as the prairie chicken house. Designed by Herb Greene in 1960, he preferred to call it simply the Prairie House .  Thanks to the  Prairie House Preservation Society  (PHPS) it is now possible for the public to experience one of Oklahoma's most unusual architectural treasures. 

The Bruce Goff House in Vinita

We were recently surprised to learn about a Goff-designed home just an hour away from Tulsa in Vinita, Oklahoma. Vinita is probably best known to OK Mod readers as the home of the Glass House on I-44, also known as (shudder) the World's Largest Largest McDonalds . Anywho, turned out the Goff house was on the market, and the owner was more than happy to let us have a look around. We took a short drive up the turnpike one Sunday afternoon to meet the realtor, snap some pictures, ask some questions and enjoy another one of Bruce Goff's unique creations. The home is known as the Adams House and was built in 1961. The 3,700 square foot home is arranged in a circular floor plan with a large sunken "conversation pit" at the center. Rising up from this pit is a large metal fireplace, its chimney surrounded by skylights, which dominates the entire house. Rooms surround the perimeter with folding accordion doors acting as walls. To maintain some semblance of privacy an inner