Visit Palm Springs Gets What It Paid For

I wonder this morning what the tourism and modernism people in Palm Springs are thinking after they read this article in the Guardian. Penned by architecture critic Oliver Wainwright, it is about his recent visit to Palm Springs.

After talking about Bob Hope's house. he moves on to the Alexander homes in Palm Springs.  And this next paragraph certainly caught my eye.

“The architects had a sincere and modest agenda conceiving a remote suburban paradise for the lower middle class when they were built,” says architectural historian Nicholas Olsberg. “Now they are trophy homes for mostly gay Los Angelenos. People redo the kitchen, neutralise anything quirky, put in a few Bertoia chairs, rent them out and use them for a couple of weekend parties every year"

Gay Trophy homes? Pretty classic.

What makes the article even more entertaining is that Mr. Wainwright's travel from the UK for this piece was paid for by Visit Palm Springs, the local tourism bureau. While I have never liked the practice, it is common in the travel press and as long as it is properly disclosed, it meets accepted journalistic standards. Plus after these closing paragraphs, I doubt they will invite Mr. Wainwright back.

That so much period architecture remains intact here is something of an accident. The surrounding desert land was always so cheap that, when the modernist bungalows became unfashionable, developers simply built on plots further out. But such is the current fetish for 50s nostalgia, there seems to be little thought given to what’s coming next. A gargantuan mall and hotel complex is currently rising out of the ground in the centre of the city, in the form of a crass out-of-town box, while much recent development follows the clichéd Jetsons-meets-Flintstones desert vernacular, with stick-on boulders and angular canopies.

Still, perhaps it’s a fittingly lobotomised aesthetic for this strangely lifeless town, a place where little happens but stewing in the heat by the pool, cosseted from reality by a pristine blanket of midcentury design. As Dunning puts it: “It’s where LA comes to get over a hangover. And often doesn’t go back.

The man certainly knows how to turn a phrase. Lobotomised aesthetic!! Indeed! It is certainly a testimony to his integrity that Wainwright writes what will outrage some in Palm Springs. The official reaction to this will be of course to ignore it. Except for me, no one will link to it. Why it may not even merit a thumbs down from the Desert Sun's editorial page.

I am probably the only one brave, er stupid, er crazy enough to bring this to your attention. While I personally don't agree with all the author's conclusions, it is nice to see a different point of view once in a while.

Steve Kelly can be reached at skelly@rrbroadcasting.com or followed on Twitter @skellynj