Palm Springs, the mecca for mid-century architecture and design

Jun 28

The history of Palm Springs

Palm Springs was discovered more than 2,000 years ago by a peaceful tribe of Indians known as the Cahuilla.

The Cahuilla lived without encountering any Europeans even into the 1700s to early 1800s because of the isolation.
It changed when California became a state in 1850 and the United States government sent a survey to the area to map out natural hot springs.

20 years later, in 1876, The United States government split the parcels of land between the Agua Caliente tribe and the Southern Pacific Railroad.

John Guthrie McCallum was the first non-Indian to set home in 1884. He came with his family to heal his son’s tuberculosis as a new study showed that a dry and hot climate was beneficial to their health.
A couple of years later, he decided to promote the desert as a health retreat and sell some lands in the area. He opened the Palm Springs Hotel in 1886 to welcome future potential landowners.

This is when Nellie Coffman, a wealthy businesswoman came with her husband to build The Desert Inn in 1909 and…. added a swimming pool without knowing how much it would do.

Pearl McCallum, the only surviving child in the family opened a few years later, The Oasis Hotel (rumors said that she wanted to compete against Nellie Coffman).

The city of Palm Springs started to welcome more visitors and more hotels were being built, such as El Mirador Hotel with its Olympic pool and its observation windows, tennis, and golf courts.

Palm Springs, the Hollywood of the desert:

At this point, the word started to spread, and in the 1920s Palm Springs became a playground for politicians and Hollywood celebrities where most of them were meeting at El Mirador Hotel, as they had a “two-hour rule” that required actors under contract to be available within two hours from the studio.
Palm Springs is luckily located 1h50mins away from Los Angeles. It became even more famous in the entrainment business as paparazzi were only reimbursed for their travel expenses up to a range of 100 miles and Palm Springs is located 107 miles from Los Angeles.

Actors were able to have extramarital affairs, gays could meet all scandals that were happening in the area were kept as secret.

Palm Springs, the best holiday retreat!

Coachella Valley offers more than 350 days of sunshine in a year.

Politicians, actors, singers came to Palm Springs to relax by the pool or natural hot springs, sunbathe in the winter months or play golf as there are nowadays over 125 golf courses in the area.
The Coachella Valley climate was perfect for hotels to develop swimming pools in their properties, using those on the front of their brochures to promote Palm Springs activities.

Postcards were showing brilliant pool decks, with beautiful people swimming in crystal clear water, mid-century architecture like the Olympic swimmer and actress Esther Williams.

According to the Palm Springs Historical Society, they were more than 900 commercial pools in the city by 1955. Less than 10 years later the number added up to 2,000 pools being the highest number of pools per capita in the country with was 1 pool for every 6 residents.

Today, they count over 50,000 pools in the nine cities of The Coachella Valley and this number keeps on increasing over the years.

*Palm Springs swimming pools on Google Earth*

*1960s Buff & Hensman House. Photo by Roger Davies*

*“Poolside Gossip” at the Kauffman House by Slim Aarons*

Palm Springs Architecture

Pearl McCallum owned most of the land in the area that she inherited from her father and added a close in every contract that will have her approve any construction on the land, and in her time, the mid-century modern architecture just started. It boomed all across America from 1945 to 1969.

Palm Springs's mid-century modern architecture could be recognized easily by sharp lines, asymmetrical designs, geometrical shapes, minimal decoration, dimension, and its connection with nature.

This architecture offers wide-open spaces and an emphasis on bringing the outdoors in with large floor-to-ceiling windows.

The biggest collection of mid-century modern homes can be seen in Palm Springs as some of the world’s most famous architects built homes, hotels, and other structures in Palm Springs such as Albert Frey, William Cody, E. Stewart Williams, Richard Neutra etc…

Some common materials in modern homes include steel, concrete block, iron, and glass. More conventional building materials like wood, brick, and stone were used in more straightforward ways to show off their natural beauty.

Palm Springs’ world-famous architecture welcomes every year the Modernism Week to celebrate midcentury modern design, architecture, art, fashion, and culture.

Modernism Week features more than 350 events including the Modernism Show & Sale, Signature Home Tours, films, lectures, etc…