Most major resorts seem to be located either at the beach or
near recreational opportunities in the mountains or near lakes. Palm Springs is
a little different being located in the desert in one of the hottest places in
the country during the summer months. The attraction here is similar to that of
Arizona – warm sunny weather compared to almost anywhere else in the U.S. during
the winter months and lots of golf courses. Like all of Southern California,
though, being in any way attractive as a place to live, winter, or vacation,
though, is entirely dependent on consumption of lots of water that comes from
far away. The lush vegetation and green lawns and gold courses in the desert
seem almost surreal, an ultimate human transformation of the natural landscape
to appeal to our aesthetic sensibilities.
Palm Springs and the towns around it in the Coachella Valley
are also known as the residences, I suspect only the winter residences, of
celebrities. I don’t seem to hear about
it as much anymore, but I recall when I was younger reading or seeing things on
TV about the homes of the rich and famous in the area – Gerald Ford, Frank
Sinatra, Dinah Shore, Bob Hope and more.
These people were important enough in
making the area famous that each one of them has a major boulevard in the
Coachella Valley named after them. I may be getting up there in age, but they
are also all folks who were more famous to my parents’ generation than mine.
Millennials and Zoomers are all probably like “Bob who?” and “You mean,
Dinosaur?”
The other thing Palm Springs is especially famous for is as
one of the biggest concentrations of classic Mid-Century Modern architecture
anywhere in the world, a post-WWII style emphasizing sleek lines, horizontality,
openness, and glass influenced by Bauhaus and International styles…and in my
opinion to some degree by Frank Lloyd Wright’s Prairie style. While I find many of the famous and high-end
examples of this style to have a impressive beauty in clean lines and creation
of continuity between indoor and outdoor space through extensive use of glass,
I’ve also seen some lesser examples of the style that used inferior materials
that look cheap and dated. I knew someone who bought a house in the style in
Denver about eight years or so ago who hoped to get it designated as a historically
significant property to increase its resale value.
I honestly thought it would have
just made a great scrape-off.
Palm Springs has many of the highest quality examples of the
style by the most famous architects, though, many of which are visually
stunning, at least to the degree that you can see them, many being private
homes largely obscured behind walls and shrubbery. Unlike Beverly Hills, there’s no narrated bus
tour of the homes of the stars or the famous houses, but the visitors center
does offer maps of some of the most significant mid-century modern buildings in
the area for individual exploration, included homes once owned by Frank Sinatra
and Dinah Shore.
Downtown Palm Springs is long and narrow and mostly low rise
except for one hotel, a mix of Spanish colonial and mid-century modern
architecture containing lots of stores and galleries as well as restaurants and
bars. It’s pleasant but in my view not too distinctive. I suppose it might be different if I were
into shopping and browsing through art galleries, but since I’m quite averse to
shopping a quick wander up and down the strip, a cold Negra Modelo at a Mexican
cantina, and two slices of pizza were enough of downtown for me before I went
to the art museum. And what’s that with
that weird art installation of giant babies crawling around in a submerged
field?
One of the leading Palm Springs attractions listed online is
Moreton Botanic Gardens, located on the south side of town on the way to Indian
Canyons. I really like plants, but in
contrast to The Living Desert with its extensive gardens representing different
desert floral regions in North America and Africa, I found Moreton to be small
and rather underwhelming. The plants are well labeled and there’s a good variety
of native species represented by an individual specimen or two, but it’s not a
major draw.
2025-02-09