Mix Hollywood glamour with a post-WWII housing boom and you get one of the largest concentrations of mid-century architecture in the world – everything from movie star mansions to commercial buildings to everyday homes.

Palm Springs became popular in the 1930s with movie stars who were looking to avoid the paparazzi but stay within the 120 miles they were allowed to travel outside of Hollywood studio grounds. Stars including Frank Sinatra, Marilyn Monroe, Bob Hope, Kirk Douglas, and Cary Grant all purchased hideaway homes here and plenty more partied in its glamorous resorts. Elvis and Pricilla honeymooned in Palm Springs.

After Pearl Harbor, one of these glamorous resorts, the El Mirador Hotel, was converted to a hospital for soldiers injured in the Pacific. The airfield was used for the Air Corps Ferrying Command’s 21st Ferrying Group, and the surrounding desert became a training ground for General Patton’s troops prior to the North Africa invasion.

Once the war ended, this mix of Hollywood money and a spike in middle-class suburban home ownership lead to Palm Spring’s growth as a center of modernism.

Palm Springs’s modern architecture has its own vibe, termed desert modernism, which emphasizes the indoor/outdoor lifestyle of Southern California with lots and lots of windows and sliding doors. There are plenty of on-line tours available to help you explore for an hour or two. The best place to start is at the Palm Springs Visitor Centre. Originally an Enco Gas Station, it was built in 1965 and intended to be the first building encountered by travelers approaching the city from the north. Its distinctive modernist roofline was designed to provided shade for the gas station attendants.

Many gas stations of the time had these distinctive cantilevered roofs, including one down the road, which is the only modernist gas station still pumping gas in Palm Springs.

Other commercial developers got in on the action, and there are plenty of modernist buildings downtown, including these banks:

Another, formally a Santa Fe Federal Savings & Loan and now housing a satellite of the Palm Springs Art Museum, was one of the first to include a drive through window and expansive glass walls:

The rich and famous hired architects to build modernist get-aways, including Frank Sinatra

and Dinah Shore (now owned by Leonardo DiCaprio):

It wasn’t just the rich. Architects also catered to the expanding middle class, and driving around town you encounter wonderful examples of these smaller middle class homes, both detached and condos (such as the South Pacific-inspired Royal Hawaiian). Many of these homes contain pre-fab elements designed to lower expenses. Alas, they are definitely not in a middle class budget any longer!

If you are continuing up to LA, make sure to find time to stop at one of the city’s still functioning modernist eateries, like Pann’s or the oldest surviving McDonald’s in Downey. Called “Googie” architecture in LA after a former Hollywood coffee shop, they are amazing relics of the past.

Unfortunately, the 1961 Theme Building is no longer a restaurant, but the observation deck may be open on weekends. If not, you can still see the space age building when arriving or departing LAX.

A stop at LA’s Petersen car museum is the perfect place to pick out your dream car to park in front of your modernist home. So many beautiful models to choose from!