Archinect - News

Palm Springs Art Museum announces the Aluminaire House's public opening and permanent exhibit

2023-09-29T18:07:00-04:00

The Palm Springs Art Museum has shared an update on the future of the Aluminaire House three years after acquiring the Albert Frey and A. Lawrence Kocher masterpiece to its permanent collection.

The home, which had been lingering in a local storage space since 2017, will now be reassembled and displayed in the museum's south parking lot. ADA compliance mandates had postponed the project even further after the museum was forced to refabricate many of the materials used in its construction, an effort that was not made possible until recently thanks to an ongoing $2.6 million capital campaign effort. According to the museum, $2.3 million in funding has been generated so far.

The house will be erected and placed on view in February 2024, following the opening of a retrospective exhibition of Frey’s other modernist designs around the Coachella Valley on January 13, 2024.

Aluminaire House™ on-site at Palm Springs Art Museum, 2023. Rendering by Claudia Cengher | Courtesy of the Palm Sprin...

Kim Kardashian and Tadao Ando meet on Palm Springs dream home design

2023-04-07T16:38:00-04:00

Apparent Japanese architecture aficionado Kim Kardashian recently traveled to the country to meet with Pritzker winner Tadao Ando, according to an Instagram post made by the celebrity mogul Thursday.

Ando is designing a private residence for Kardashian in the Palm Springs area, the details of which were first uncovered by Vogue magazine last year. In her post, Kardashian implied its construction was set to break ground soon, though she was sparse on other design details aside from sharing what appears to be a rendering of a grey cast concrete structure that more closely resembles a contemporary art museum than a home.

Ando has designed several celebrity residences over the years, including a $75 million compound for fashion designer Tom Ford and the Malibu home currently owned by Kardashian’s troubled ex-husband following a $57.3 million post-divorce splurge. Kardashian is also reportedly in talks with Kengo Kuma for another vacation residence at an undisclosed American lakeside loc...

Disney unveils further details for planned Cotino community in the Coachella Valley

2023-03-27T17:03:00-04:00

Disney’s planned “Storyliving” community is gaining traction after the company released an update featuring additional details about their new Cotino project located in Rancho Mirage, 11 miles east of Palm Springs, California.

As KTLA reported this weekend, the scheme will come with a host of amenities “thoughtfully inspired by Disney Imagineers.” A midcentury-influenced member's clubhouse named for the fictional Parr family from Disney’s “The Incredibles” franchise will now grace the development as a centerpiece to Cotino’s 1,700 homes, a town shopping center, and Grand Oasis manmade water feature.

Image courtesy Disney Parks

Disney says: “The main entertaining room will take inspiration from the movie and will feature a towering indoor/outdoor rockwork fireplace. Additional spaces will include five bedrooms, a kitchen, dining room, boardroom, and an art studio. Along Parr House's exterior, an elevated patio will present stunning views of the grand oasis and the surrounding mountain...

Desert X 2023 features work that highlights the social and ecological consequences in our changing world

2023-03-18T10:00:00-04:00

The fourth edition of Desert X kicked off earlier this month in Southern California’s Coachella Valley with 12 site-specific installations that focus on ecology and the global social and economic consequences of climate change.

Artists were challenged by the “desert, its beauty, harshness, and ever-changing environment,” according to the event’s founder and President Susan Davis. Their responses included evocations of childhood memory, Native American customs, free trade, conspiracy theories, and popularized notions of the American West, among other inspirations.

Desert X 2023 installation view, Hylozoic/Desires, Namak Nazar, photo by Lance Gerber, courtesy of the artist and Desert X.

“Desert X 2023 can be seen as a collection of artistic interventions that make visible how our energy has a transference far beyond what we see just in front of us in our own localities,” co-curator Diana Campbell says. “From deserts to floodplains, finding, building and developing tools and tactics to...

Albert Frey’s futuristic Aluminaire House is still holed up in desert storage limbo

2022-04-26T13:26:00-04:00

The Albert Frey Aluminaire House that was donated and shipped to the Palm Springs Art Museum about five years ago will remain disassembled in its shipping container for at least another year or longer. Key issues raised by the city may keep visitors from ever walking through the Aluminaire House, even when reconstructed.

Frey’s experimental 1931 house (created in partnership with A. Lawrence Kocher) first came into the museum’s coffers in 2020 after a six-year bout in storage and a $600,000 gift, which was supposed to go towards its permanent installation on a corner plot on the Palm Springs Art Museum’s campus.

The PSAM and its staff are however working closely with DW Johnson to address previously unforeseen mandates for ADA accessibility and temperature control, a process which will involve the refabrication of many of its metal panels and cost upwards of $2 million, according to the director’s statements in The Desert Sun.

Previously on Archinect: Albert Frey's Aluminaire House acquired by the Palm Springs Art Museum

“There’s a big difference between a building that’s installed temporarily for an exhibition and a permanent building,” museum director Adam Lerner explained of his institutional predicament. “[It] is like somebody left a puppy at your doorstep. And you’re like, well, I have other p...

Are Airbnbs and ultramodern architecture killing the vibe in Joshua Tree, California?

2022-04-14T13:13:00-04:00

Tensions over visitors, some of whom will, inevitably, want to claim a piece of the desert themselves, has been a part of the area’s story for years. But as the pandemic has boosted Joshua Tree’s allure for travelers, transplants and investors, it has magnified old conflicts and created new conundrums.

Numbers of short-term rentals have doubled in Joshua Tree and the neighboring community of Yucca Valley, presenting an existential crisis to some of its inhabitants dismayed at the new boom in development to meet the demands of the market. Even the tree species that the town is named for is under threat by overdevelopment (or so says the Center for Biological Diversity, whose petition is currently under review by the California Fish and Game Commission.)

Part of the draw is the growing number of Instagram-friendly architectural showpieces that have been spun off into midcentury-inspired camp compounds and Disneyfied planned communities. A rental typology may be developing around the trend entirely, characterized by maximized space for lodgings, matte finishes, and materials like mirrored glass and corrugated steel. Their appeal is nevertheless lost on some local desert dwellers, ...

Albert Frey's Aluminaire House acquired by the Palm Springs Art Museum

2020-09-04T12:15:00-04:00

The Palm Springs Art Museum has announced its acquisition of Albert Frey and A. Lawrence Kocher's Aluminaire House, a futuristic prefabricated home that will be installed at the foot of the museum adjacent to a new public park.

The Desert Sun reports that the nonprofit Aluminaire House Foundation, the group that trucked the disassembled house from the East Coast to Palm Springs in 2017, hopes to finally erect the structure once again sometime next year.

Site plan for the RIOS-designed Palm Springs Downtown Park showing the Aluminaire House in the lower left corner. Image courtesy of RIOS.

The house was originally exhibited in New York in 1931 and changed locations several times, ultimately ending up on the campus of New York Institute of Technology before architects Michael Schwarting and Frances Campani created the Foundation as part of an effort to find a permanent home for the building. After raising the necessary funds, the building was shipped across the country and has sat in ...

Archinect's Virtual Event Guide for the week of June 22-25th

2020-06-22T14:53:00-04:00

Today's featured virtual event happenings, from Archinect's Virtual Event Guide, address issues from resiliency, mass timber, community engagement, residential design, art, public art, urban design, Palm Springs modernism and bamboo.

Are you hosting a virtual lecture? Presentation? Tour? Interview? Happy Hour? Submit it for consideration by clicking here.

Are you an expert in an arena that's especially important right now? Let us know if you would like to work with Archinect to host an online event.

The Future City: Urban Resilience and the Power of Data
Monday, June 22, 2020 7:30 PM BST
Our societies are surrounded by an abundance of data in both the online and physical world. Has data the power to help us understand better our communities and complex reality? Can data help us create new tools to manage urban risk and design resilient cities?
Click here to attend and/or register

Time to reconnect with nature: Timber offices of the future
Tuesday, June 23, 2020 | 12:30 PM – 1:30 PM BST...

Director Alysa Nahmias on László Moholy-Nagy and The New Bauhaus

2020-02-13T13:43:00-05:00

On this episode of Archinect Sessions, we’re sharing a conversation I had with Alysa Nahmias, the director and producer of the documentary film “The New Bauhaus.” We recorded this conversation last month, poolside, a few hours before the film premiered to a packed house in the Annenberg Theater at the Palm Springs International Film Festival.

Panel discussion following the screening at the Palm Springs International Film Festival, photo by Paul Petrunia. From L-R: Alysa Nahmias (director/producer), Miranda Yousef (editor), Ashley Lukasik (co-producer), & Erin Wright (producer)

Alysa, a trained architect-turned-filmmaker, made her directorial debut in 2011 with Unfinished Spaces, a critically acclaimed documentary about the unfinished National Art School in Cuba.

Light-Space Modulator, László Moholy-Nagy, 1922–1930. Photographed at the Art Institute of Chicago. Image from The New Bauhaus courtesy of Opendox. Art courtesy of the Moholy-Nagy Foundation. Director: Alysa Nahmias. Photog...

John Lautner's Bob Hope House gets a new lease on life

2019-06-06T14:06:00-04:00

Thanks to the deep pockets of venture capitalist Ron Burkle, the [Bob Hope House] is being remade to reflect the architect’s original vision. Lautner protégé Helena Arahuete, who worked with him for 23 years, has stripped the interiors and rebuilt the inside with natural materials. Swan faucets, wallpaper and carpet are out. Quartzite flooring, African mahogany and Brazilian granite are in — as is the shape-shifting light that transforms the house during the course of the day.

Comedian Bob Hope, when presented with a model of his 24,000 square foot Palm Springs home by architect John Lautner in 1969, had but one comment to reflect his admiration of and bewilderment towards the proposal: “Well, at least when they come down from Mars they’ll know where to go.”

Exterior of the Bob Hope House.

The monumental home was built as conceived, albeit with an extraordinary amount of minor material revisions requested by Hope and his wife Dolores. While Lautner and Arthur Elrod, the interior designer originally hired for the job before his untimely death, had envisioned a minimalist interior to direct attention to the home's sweeping vistas, the couple had something different in mind. According to the LA Times, "Dolores Hope wanted an ultra-glamorous interior suitable for Hollywood-style entertaining and golf tournament after-parties."

Interior of Bob Hope House.

After the couple had passed - Bob in 2003 and Dolores in 2011 - the house was put on the market for $50 mil...

Taco Bell to open a hotel in Palm Springs

2019-05-16T19:38:00-04:00

Get ready for “Bell”hops and Baja Blasts, Fire Sauce and Sauce Packet floaties, because The Bell: A Taco Bell Hotel and Resort is opening for a limited time in Palm Springs this August, meant for 18+ superfans. Complete with exclusive Taco Bell menu items and plenty of surprises, The Bell is sure to be the spicy twist of your summer. So pack your swimsuit, mark your calendars and start the countdown, because The Bell is about to make all of your taco dreams come true.

for a limited pop-up run this August, Taco Bell will open a hotel in Palm Springs (not to be confused with their permanent wedding chapel in Las Vegas).

Photo courtesy of Taco Bell

The Taco Bell-themed hotel is just one example of many recent strategies for well-established brands to develop interactive spaces as methods of promotional marketing. We recently covered a more permanent version with the recently opened Shinola Hotel in Detroit.

Modernism Week remembers the legacy of modernist landscape architect Dan Kiley

2019-02-19T18:21:00-05:00

Kiley was among the most important, influential, and idiosyncratic landscape architects of the 20th century and the designer of more than 1,100 projects. Yet today his work is not well known outside of the field of landscape architecture and, to a lesser extent, the architecture profession. Despite his renown and importance, his legacy remains fragile.

There are many amazing architects and designers whose work sadly remains unnoticed due to the lack of exposure and presence outside of certain circles. With Modernism Week well underway the traveling exhibition "The Landscape Architecture Legacy of Dan Kiley" makes its debut in California's unmatched modernist getaway, Palm Springs. Housing one of the largest collections of modernist architecture and landscape architecture, the exhibition of Kiley's work during Modernism Week is an appropriate fit.

The practice may not receive as much praise or recognition; however, the importance of landscape architecture was emphasized thanks to the works of esteemed designers such as Kiley, Caldwell, and Jensen. The beautiful blend and appreciation of horticulture, ecology, art, and design are what these incredible designers sought to create. The history of landscape architecture can be dated back to Europe in the 18th century when royal families hired designers to transform the grounds and land...

William Krisel, Pioneer of Mass-Produced Mid-Century Modernist Housing, Dies at 92

2017-06-06T18:49:00-04:00

Esteemed mid-century modern architect William Krisel, known for his use of the butterfly roof, died in Beverly Hills on Monday at the age of 92.

Working largely in Southern California, Krisel designed over 30,000 homes in the region. Some of the architect’s most influential work was built in Palm Springs, California, a desert haven for modern architectural experimentation in the ‘50s and ‘60s. Krisel is best known for pioneering the modernist tract house, a response to the rise of post-war suburban developments. Employing brightly colored and patterned facades with a variety of asymmetrical roof forms, Krisel delivered modernist design principles on a mass-scale.

Photo by Darren Bradley/Courtesy of Darren Bradley.

“The concept for offering the builder various roof lines — flat, gables, inverted butterfly or whatever — is something that he sort of brought to the table so that they could essentially have very similar floor plans but have homes that looked quite different,” said Chris Men...

Doug Aitken among artists in Palm Springs-adjacent art show, "Desert X"

2017-02-23T19:53:00-05:00

Amid the dust and clamor is the steel skeleton of Aitken’s “Mirage,” which takes the form of a 1960s-style suburban California ranch house. The seven-room structure, to be fully mirrored on the outside and inside, is perched on a hillside with city and desert views, which are key to the piece. The structure has gaping holes where doors and windows might be, and its interior walls are built on angles to reflect the sky and contrasting surrounding terrain...

What does the desert in Riverside County have to offer aside from a massive annual music festival, the sleek modernism of Palm Springs, and the ethereal vista of untrammeled nature? Well, starting on February 25th, it has the Desert Exhibition of Art, or Desert X for short.

Exhibitors in the self-guided, wide-ranging exhibit (you should plan on driving) include Doug Aitken, Sherin Guirguis, and Claudia Comte, who has created a 110-foot long stucco/wood sculpture that is part wall, part meditative exercise. Maps are available at the Ace Hotel; the exhibition will be up until April.

Brooke Hodge named Palm Springs Art Museum's first Architecture & Design Director

2016-04-05T18:29:00-04:00

The Palm Springs Art Museum has named Brooke Hodge as their very first Director of Architecture & Design. Hodge comes by way of the Cooper Hewitt in New York, where she served as the Deputy Director since 2014, but is already well-versed in the southern Californian architecture and design milieu, having also been the Director of Exhibitions and Publications at Los Angeles’ Hammer Museum, as well as the Curator of Architecture and Design at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Los Angeles.

Hodge's name may also be familiar for her curatorial work at other institutions. Last year, she curated "Provocations: The Architecture and Design of Heatherwick Studio", displayed at the Hammer in Los Angeles, the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas, Texas, and the Cooper Hewitt. She has also curated shows featuring the works of Frank Gehry and Dame Zaha Hadid.

Palm Springs is itself an architectural treasure chest, generously populated with midcentury modern homes styled with the distinct flair o...

"Man of Steel" Donald Wexler, desert modern icon, dies at 89

2015-06-29T15:31:00-04:00

'His signature style helped bring Palm Springs to the international stage and his body of work is still as fresh today as when first created...'

Aptly nicknamed a "man of steel", Desert Modern-style architect Donald Wexler was known for his affordable sleek steel homes and was one of the principal figures who influenced Palm Springs' iconic modernist aesthetic that has increased in popularity in the last 15 years or so, attracting thousands of visitors from around the world. Described by close colleagues as a modest and insightful man, Wexler passed away at the age of 89 this past Friday, June 26 in his Palm Desert home. The Desert Sun reports that he died after dealing with an undisclosed brief illness.

Born on Jan. 23, 1926 in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Wexler made his way to Southern California after graduating from the University of Minnesota. In California, Wexler worked as an apprentice for Richard Neutra for nine months before moving to Palm Springs when he landed a job in William Francis Cody's firm. In 1952, Wexler established Wexler & Harrison with Richard Harrison, a colleague he met at Cody's firm, but the two w...

California's desert resorts struggle to abide by drought measures while maintaining a lush 'oasis' look

2015-06-11T14:39:00-04:00

For decades, tourists have been coming to Southern California's Coachella Valley, drawn by spectacular mountain vistas, great weather and lush landscapes. Those landscapes have been, for the most part, man-made — an artificial oasis in a land of desert. [...] As California enters a fourth year of drought and state and local water officials unveil a series of conservation dictates, at least some hotels in the valley — big and small — have begun launching water conservation measures.

Have an idea for how to address the drought with design? Submit your ideas to the Dry Futures competition!

NPR's Morning Edition discusses Eichler for the masses

2015-03-17T17:34:00-04:00

Single-story homes, with open spaces, floor-to-ceiling glass walls and clean, serene lines. Bernie fell in love. He paid $30,000, and raised three children in the house. In fact, Parents Magazine once said an Eichler was the best house in the U.S. for raising children.

The Aluminaire House to relocate to Palm Springs

2015-03-13T14:27:00-04:00

When it was unveiled in New York City in April 1931, the starkly modern Aluminaire House was an overnight sensation that emboldened an architectural movement. Designed as a case study by architects A. Lawrence Kocher and Albert Frey, the three-story house, which was built in 10 days, became the first all-metal prefabricated house in the U.S.

After Sunnyside Gardens was a no-go, it looks like the Aluminaire House will be heading to sunny Palm Springs, California, according to an announcement by Palm Springs Mayor Steve Pougnet during a fundraising event at Palm Springs Modernism Week last month. The Aluminaire House Foundation plans on placing the all-metal prefab house right across the Palm Springs Art Museum to become another modernist attraction in the city -- where Frey lived and practiced from 1935 to his death in 1998.

Previously: The Aluminaire House looks to Sunnyside Gardens as its possible new home

Baby Boomers pass the mid-century baton in Palm Springs

2015-02-26T09:49:00-05:00

Along the highways leading from Los Angeles into the Coachella Valley desert, there are two types of sign-posts. One is the rocky, harsh faces of the imposing mountains – the closer the mountains are cut to the side of the road, the narrower the perspective and the less intimidating the surrounding desert seems, like blinders on a horse. The other is literal sign-posts, glowing lollipops of fast food restaurants, gas stations, motels and casinos. Floating above their signifieds like geotags on a satellite image, they make their offerings known – food! gas! fortune! In the desert’s harsh environs, it’s too risky to venture into the unknown, so best stick with the drive-through cheeseburger.

But then, suddenly there are neat rows of palm trees. Scattered lights on the nightscape coalesce into boulevards and fall in line with landscaped desert palms, manicured gravel patches, and curated cacti. And then there are the mid-century modernist dollhouses, amidst equally inspired gas station...

Palm Springs Art Museum A+D Center draws hundreds

2014-11-10T14:16:00-05:00

Hundreds flocked to downtown Palm Springs Sunday for the grand opening of the Palm Springs Art Museum's Architecture and Design Center, an ode to the city's unique — and timeless — mid-century modern designs. The center opened with "An Eloquent Modernist," an intimate depiction of the work of E. Stewart Williams, the acclaimed architect whose designs defined desert modern style in Palm Springs throughout the 1950s, '60s and '70s.

Previously: Palm Springs: New Architecture and Design Center to open in November

Palm Springs: New Architecture and Design Center to open in November

2014-08-29T13:51:00-04:00

Each year Palm Springs dedicates a week to celebrating Midcentury Modernism architecture in the desert city. Now, it has more reason to celebrate. The Architecture and Design Center, Edwards Harris Pavilion, is set to open Nov. 9. It will provide a place to showcase the sleek style pioneered by architects such as Richard Neutra, Donald Frey and E. Stewart Williams. The project is an expansion of the Palm Springs Art Museum, which also is housed in a Williams building.

Workshop Kitchen + Bar by SOMA - Best Designed Restaurant in the Americas

2013-11-08T21:26:00-05:00

When it comes to dining out, it's no question that the architecture and interior design matter just as much as the food you're eating. As a fun Friday project, we're featuring the Workshop Kitchen + Bar by SOMA in Palm Springs, CA. The project recently won Best Designed Restaurant for the Americas region in the international 2013 Restaurant & Bar Design Awards we covered back in September.

Previously: Winners of the 2013 Restaurant & Bar Design Awards

Bob Hope Estate in Palm Springs Is Up for Sale (for $50m)

2013-03-08T13:43:00-05:00

The huge Palm Springs estate of Bob Hope, the comic icon of midcentury film and television, and his wife, Dolores, is being brought to market for the first time this month, at an asking price of $50 million. Perched high in the exclusive Southridge community, with panoramic views of the Coachella Valley, including the city of Palm Springs and the San Jacinto Mountains, the 23,366-square-foot home was designed in 1973 by the California Modernist architect John Lautner.

Tom Kundig on the Frey House II

2012-03-16T18:09:00-04:00

Mr. Kundig first visited Frey House II about 25 years ago. "The design is a bit strange, but it completely resonated with me," he said. "I'm influenced by architecture that toes the line between rugged and beautiful, that demonstrates how they can be the same thing." He notes that Mr. Frey's simple design nodded to the local vernacular of humble miners' shacks.