Appreciating the Modern Home at Modernism Week – October 2022

When 2022 rolled around there were two festivals I was so excited to see return after a 2 year hiatus  – TCM Film Fest and Palm Springs Modernism Week. As soon as possible I grabbed tickets to each and eagerly awaited their arrival. TCM went off without a hitch but when Modernism Week arrived…I was sick. Struck down with a bad cold I had to miss the whole event and I was so disappointed. Luckily, there’s a second event in the fall, Modernism Week – October (formerly Fall Preview) and this time I stayed healthy and made my way out to the desert for some midmod fun.

Modernism Week is all encompassing and there are a number of films, lectures, exhibits, shows and tours to choose from. Generally, I like to mix it up but since I missed the spring festival I decided to stick with my favorite activity for the fall – the home tour. There’s no home tour like a Modernism Week home tour and this year I attended two super fun ones.

First up, it was Welcome to the MODERN Neighborhood Home Tour featuring 6 unique homes spread throughout multiple historic neighborhoods in Palm Springs. Often, a Modernism Week home tour will focus on one of them but this tour actually featured 5 distinct neighborhoods, from the tony Racquet Club Estates to the hip Sunrise Park and to the equestrian friendly Los Compadres, providing a diverse array of homes to tour.

Of course the exterior of each home was distinctly Mid Century Modern but once inside they could not have been more different, from the quirky and cute…

to the ultra glam…

to Palm Beach fabulous…

and equestrian fun.

After traveling all over town I was ready for a final tour which would feature only one home albeit a pretty special one.

The House of Tomorrow which debuted in 1960 was designed by William Krisel for the Alexander Family. Though that’s quite the pedigree it was know by another name for many years – the Elvis Honeymoon Hideaway. In 1967 Elvis and Priscilla Presley leased it for their honeymoon and elevated it to its now iconic status.

In fact, for years the home was open for Elvis-centric tours and I always intended to visit but, as things go, I never got around to it. That may have been a good thing as, although it was presented frozen in time, much of the house was in need of extensive restoration. In 2020, a pair of architects purchased it and set about restoring and repurposing it as a modern family home.

Although much of the home has been modernized for 21st Century living it still retains much of its classic features and I had fun visualizing Elvis and Priscilla hanging out as I walked through it.

These two fantastic tours were such a fun jump back into Modernism Week that I almost don’t mind that I missed the spring session (almost). As frequently as I visit Palm Springs it never ceases to amaze me and I find new wonders at every turn. I’ll be popping vitamins until next spring so I can make sure to return to Modernism Week for more fun mid-century modern adventures.