Palm Springs Modernism Week: Weekend 2

Join DnA at Modernism Week this Sunday!

KCRW’s Jason Groman has a strong connection to midcentury Palm Springs, because his uncle Don Wexler is one of its leading architects of the period; he pioneered the use of steel in residential buildings there. So Jason always spends a few days at Modernism Week; and while there this time he put his impressions to a collage of beats to get you in the desert lifestyle mood, in this report from the festivities that took place last weekend.

He said some of the highlights included attending the opening party Modern Mambo! at the Caliente Tropics Hotel, witnessing prolific desert architect Hugh M. Kaptur (left, bottom row) get his moment in the sun with a star on the Palm Springs walk of stars (does any other town in America have a walk of design and architecture stars?) and the release of a documentary about his work Quiet Elegance. He also saw the inimitable Charles Phoenix deliver a lecture about L.A. architecture and DnA’s Mallery Roberts Morgan in conversation with Commune’s Roman Alonso (above, right); Commune designed Ace Hotel in Palm Springs (and Ace DTLA).

Remember that this coming weekend DnA’s very own Frances Anderton and Press Play’s Madeleine Brand will join the festival on Sunday to discuss living in midcentury, multifamily buildings (like the Bubeshko Apartments, left, designed by Rudolph Schindler), an oftentimes overshadowed, but essential, aspect of L.A.’s modernist legacy.

Also fashion designer Trina Turk celebrates Sunnyland Chic at a talk she will give Sunday. And DnA’s Danielle Rago and Maura Lucking are among the creators of the latest On The Road project: a series of four spatial installations that consider the liquid space of swimming pools, hosted Saturday and Sunday at The Amado pool in Palm Springs. Rago says that whether “swimming, floating, sinking, or hovering on the surface,” each pool will be a thoroughly curated installation around various ideas and themes developed and deployed by a group of LA-based architects, artists, and designers, including Katie Yeh Chiu, Kathryn Shehan, Matthew Sullivan, Benedikt Groß, Joseph K. Lee; Terry Chatkupt, Mark Lyons, and Peter Vikar.

When: Events daily until February 23, 2014

Where: Various locations in Palm Springs, CA

Tickets: Click here for tickets and event listings.