Modernism Week: A Queer Eye on Palm Springs’ Mid-Century Obsession
Locals in Palm Springs know we’re a city that celebrates mid-century modern architecture all year, because we are living it 365 days a round. But Modernism Week is our most coveted signature annual event, held every February in the heart of the California desert – and again (but a much smaller version) every October.
Modernism Week is the world-renowned celebration of Midcentury architecture, design and culture. It draws over 100,000+ attendees annually for its 10-11 day February festival, and features over 500 events. It features tours of iconic homes like Frank Sinatra’s "Twin Palms" and the Edris House, the Palm Springs Modernism Show, and their signature double decker architectural bus tour. From tours and parties to talks and walks, it's smart, sophisticated, inspiring – and it has long been deeply, unapologetically queer, even in the shadows. 🏳️🌈
For gay men planning a Palm Springs getaway, Modernism Week is a front-row seat to cultural curiosity and the city's heartbeat. The aesthetically pleasing clean lines and open floor plans of Desert Modernism tell a story about who built this place, who claimed it, and who keeps coming back. We wouldn't have it any other way!
A Desert Love Affair: How Palm Springs and Modernism Found Each Other
Palm Springs' relationship with modernist architecture began in the 1920s, though it didn't truly hit its stride until the post-war boom of the 1940s and 50s. Since the city is blessed with year-round sunshine, flat desert terrain, and a steady stream of Hollywood's most design-forward clientele – it naturally became the ideal laboratory for a new way of building and living.
Architects like Albert Frey, Richard Neutra, John Lautner, and Donald Wexler were hired and got to work – simply because they were the “best” in the business at the time. For them, Palm Springs became their modernism canvas.
They began designing homes and civic buildings that did something radical through refusing to compete with the landscape. Instead, they invited it in. Floor-to-ceiling glass walls framed the San Jacinto Mountains. Roof overhangs tracked the arc of the desert sun. Swimming pools weren't just amenities – they were architectural gestures.
The result was a city that looked, and still looks, like nowhere else on earth. When mid-century modern fell out of fashion elsewhere in the 1970s and 80s, Palm Springs held onto it – partly by necessity, partly by instinct, and partly because the people who loved it most were not about to let a good thing go quietly into the night.
Many of those people, in large part, were gay men.
The Queer Legacy Behind Desert Modernism
Here's something that often gets glossed over in the glossy architectural coffee table books: the preservation of Palm Springs' mid-century modern heritage was, at its heart, a deeply queer project.
By the 1980s and early 90s, Palm Springs was experiencing a critical inflection point. Older celebrities had moved on, vacation patterns had shifted, and a lot of those gorgeous mid-century homes were selling for prices that would make your jaw drop – in the best possible way. Gay men, many of them coming from Los Angeles and San Francisco, saw the value immediately. They bought the homes, restored them lovingly, and in doing so, became stewards of an architectural legacy that the broader culture hadn't yet learned to appreciate.
This wasn't just a real estate trend. It was a reclamation of life as it once was here when it began with closeted icons – Rock Hudson, Liberace, Greta Garbo – and allies retreating to the desert to live their best lives in privacy. As the queer legacy of mid-century Palm Springs makes clear, the intersection of LGBTQ+ identity and Desert Modernism runs far deeper than décor. The open, indoor-outdoor design philosophy of these homes – built for gathering, for entertaining, for living freely – aligned beautifully with how gay men wanted to live their lives: expansively, authentically, and with great taste.
Today, nearly 50% of Palm Springs' permanent population identifies as LGBTQ+. The city has a majority-queer city council, its own LGBTQ+-focused radio station (KGAY 106.5 FM), and a social fabric that doesn't just celebrate inclusivity – it was built around it. That's not a coincidence. It's a community that was deliberately, lovingly constructed over decades. 👨🏼🤝👨🏻
What Modernism Week Actually Is (And Why It's Worth the Trip)
If you've never been to Modernism Week, picture eleven days of architecture tours, vintage car shows, film screenings, cocktail parties, design exhibitions, home tours, and lectures – all set against the backdrop of one of the most architecturally significant cities in the world. It has grown from a modest celebration into one of the premier cultural events in the American Southwest.
The programming is genuinely impressive in its range. You might spend a morning on a guided walking tour through a neighborhood of restored Wexler homes, grab lunch at a design pop-up, and end the afternoon at a rooftop happy hour that happens to have a view of the San Jacinto Mountains. Evenings tend toward the social and celebratory – which, in Palm Springs, is basically the default setting regardless of what week it is. 😎
Modernism Week also offers a Mini Modernism Week in October for those who can't make the February event – a slightly smaller, equally well-curated version of the main affair that tends to attract the serious architecture devotees rather than the festive weekend crowd. Both are well worth experiencing.
The Homes: Hollywood Glamour Meets Desert Ingenuity
Part of what makes Modernism Week so compelling is the access it provides to private homes that would otherwise remain hidden behind their cactus hedges and security gates. The annual home tours are a true highlight – a chance to see, up close, how the principles of Desert Modernism play out in real domestic spaces.
These aren't museum pieces. Many of the homes on tour are actively lived in by people who bought them specifically because they believed in the lifestyle they represent – indoor-outdoor living, natural light as interior design, a seamless relationship between private space and the desert beyond. For anyone who has spent time in a generic condo or a builder-grade suburban home, walking through a well-preserved mid-century modern in Palm Springs is a genuinely clarifying experience.
It's hard to put into words what it feels like to stand in a house designed by Albert Frey, with the mountain as your backdrop and a January breeze moving through a space that was designed (70 years ago) to receive it exactly this way. But we'll try: it feels like someone understood something important about how we deserve to live, and then built it.
For gay men who are already drawn to design, craft, and intentional living, that feeling tends to hit especially hard.
Explore Homes in Palm Springs
Modernism Week After Dark: The City in a Different Light
One of the most underrated aspects of Modernism Week is what happens when the sun goes down. Desert evenings in February are cool, clear, and genuinely beautiful – and Palm Springs, lit against the darkening mountains, is something to see.
The mid-century buildings that define the city take on a different quality at night. The Kaufmann Desert House glows. The glass-walled homes illuminate like lanterns. Palm Canyon Drive hums with energy but never quite loses its composure. There's a specific magic to walking through a city whose bones were designed to be beautiful — and realizing that those bones look equally stunning under the stars as they do in the afternoon sun.
Several Modernism Week events are specifically designed for evenings: cocktail parties in significant homes, architectural walking tours by lamplight, rooftop gatherings with views that will make you question every life choice that led you to living somewhere with less sky. If you're planning your trip, don't treat the evenings as downtime. Treat them as highlights.
The Architecture of Preservation: Why This Matters in 2026
Preservation standards in Palm Springs are higher and more rigorously enforced than ever – and for good reason. These homes are finite, irreplaceable, and increasingly in demand. The book Palm Springs Modern, one of the first comprehensive volumes dedicated to the city's architectural heritage, helped ignite a broader cultural appreciation that has only accelerated since. Today, the homes themselves have become a revelation for many visitors: the architecture is a whole philosophy of living they didn't know they were looking for.
For those whose interest extends beyond the visit – who find themselves wondering what it would mean to actually live in one of these spaces, in this community, in this light – that question tends to have a fairly compelling answer.
Create Your Own Modernism Week Experience Year-Round
Modernism Week happens once (or twice) a year – but the architecture is a daily gift. If you want to experience the magic of Desert Modernism on your own schedule, we've built something specifically for you.
Our Mid-Century Modern Self-Guided Neighborhood Tour is Google Maps GPS-ready and takes you through the most architecturally significant neighborhoods in Palm Springs at your own pace. No tour bus schedules, no crowds – just you, the desert light, and some of the most beautiful residential architecture we have. Consider it your personal Modernism Week, available whenever you arrive.
Discover the Magic of Desert Modernism → Start Your Self-Guided Tour Here
TL;DR 😉 Why Modernism Week + Palm Springs = Peak Gay Getaway
What: Modernism Week is an 11-day festival celebrating mid-century modern architecture through tours, parties, exhibitions, and events. When: February annually (Mini Modernism Week in October). Where: Palm Springs, California – the mid-century modern capital of the world. Why it's deeply queer: Because gay men helped save, preserve, and reimagine this architecture – and the city never forgot it. Who should go: Anyone who loves beautiful design, open desert skies, great cocktails, and a community that genuinely feels like home.
Why Gay Palm Springs Is Always Worth the Trip
Palm Springs doesn't really need defending. The city has made its case beautifully for decades, and gay men have been listening. But if you're still on the fence about when to go or why Modernism Week in particular deserves a spot on your calendar, here's the short version.
Palm Springs in February is, climatically speaking, close to perfect. Daytime highs in the mid-70s, cool evenings, crisp desert air, and skies so blue they look edited. The mountains are at their most dramatic in winter light, the pools are heated, and the patio season (which never really ends here) is in full, glorious swing.
Beyond the weather, Palm Springs offers something that's become increasingly rare: a place where being gay is genuinely unremarkable. Not tolerated. Not celebrated as novelty. Just... normal. What a concept! With nearly half the population identifying as LGBTQ+ and a community infrastructure built accordingly, you can walk into almost any restaurant, shop, or social gathering and feel, without effort, that you belong. New friendships happen naturally here – over cocktails at a gallery opening, around a hotel pool, on a self-guided architecture tour that you started alone and finished with three new people you didn't know an hour ago.
That's the thing about Palm Springs that doesn't fit neatly into a travel brochure: it has a way of turning visitors into regulars, and regulars into residents. The first trip scratches the itch. The second one plants the seed. By the third, you may find yourself pricing real estate. We say that with full knowledge, because we've watched it happen – and we've lived it ourselves. 😎
Have you ever attended Modernism Week in Palm Springs? What was your favorite event or moment — and did it change how you think about architecture? Share your experiences…
Want to go deeper into what makes Palm Springs so uniquely captivating? Check out these articles from The Palm Springs Guys:
Ultimate Guide To A Modernist Getaway in Gay Palm Springs — The ideal companion piece to this article; covers tours, shopping, and how to plan a full modernist itinerary.
Palm Springs: What's Iconic, What's Changed, and What Still Matters — A deeper dive into the city's evolution and why the LGBTQ+ community remains at its heart.
Drag & Fly Tours: Anita Doll's Five Eras of Palm Springs — A fabulous and surprisingly moving history of Palm Springs told through its five distinct queer eras.
Thinking About Buying, Selling, or Relocating to Palm Springs?
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If you’re just starting to explore or simply have questions, you’re always welcome to reach out.
👉 Visit Modern Living Palm Springs or contact Glen directly.
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