the uninitiated, modern architecture seems to be one concept, but in fact it is layered with different styles: prairie, art deco, international, art moderne, roadside vernacular, mid-century, googie, modern builder, contemporary builder, shed, and contempoWhen I told my twenty-something son that his mother and I would be traveling to Southern California to research a story on mid-century modern architecture, he snickered, “How can they call that modern? It’s so old-fashioned.”

“How else would you describe linear homes of glass, stone and steel?” I asked. “Whatever,” he replied, dismissing the topic. And so, I drove south questioning whether the dream homes of my youth, promoted then as the houses of tomorrow, were yesterday’s story.

On arrival in Palm Springs, we checked into the Movie Colony Hotel, conceived by architectural pioneer Albert Frey in 1935. We, in our 50s, were the oldest guests there. Sweet revenge! Our son’s contemporaries had discovered what he hadn’t and we soon would, that mid-century modern architecture is as hot today as when it was introduced, with a new generation of retro-focused X-gens embracing its austere beauty. Modern? You bet it is, and Palm Springs and Los Angeles are where the best examples can be found.

To the uninitiated, modern architecture seems to be one concept, but in fact it is layered with different styles: prairie, art deco, international, art moderne, roadside vernacular, mid-century, googie, modern builder, contemporary builder, shed, and contempo

ribe linear homes of glass, stone and steel?” I asked. “Whatever,” he replied, dismissing the topic. And so, I drove south questioning whether the dream homes of my youth, promoted then as the houses of tomorrow, were yesterday’s story.

On arrival in Palm Springs, we checked into the Movie Colony Hotel, conceived by architectural pioneer Albert Frey in 1935. We, in our 50s, were the oldest guests there. Sweet revenge! Our son’s contemporaries had discovered what he hadn’t and we soon would, that mid-century modern architecture is as hot today as when it was introduced, with a new generation of retro-focused X-gens embracing its austere beauty. Modern? You bet it is, and Palm Springs and Los Angeles are where the best examples can be found.

To the uninitiated, modern architecture seems to be one concept, but in fact it is layered with different styles: prairie, art deco, international, art moderne, roadside vernacular, mid-century, googie, modern builder, contemporary builder, shed, and contempo

n Palm Springs, we checked into the Movie Colony Hotel, conceived by architectural pioneer Albert Frey in 1935. We, in our 50s, were the oldest guests there. Sweet revenge! Our son’s contemporaries had discovered what he hadn’t and we soon would, that mid-century modern architecture is as hot today as when it was introduced, with a new generation of retro-focused X-gens embracing its austere beauty. Modern? You bet it is, and Palm Springs and Los Angeles are where the best examples can be found.

To the uninitiated, modern architecture seems to be one concept, but in fact it is layered with different styles: prairie, art deco, international, art moderne, roadside vernacular, mid-century, googie, modern builder, contemporary builder, shed, and contempo

d-century modern architecture is as hot today as when it was introduced, with a new generation of retro-focused X-gens embracing its austere beauty. Modern? You bet it is, and Palm Springs and Los Angeles are where the best examples can be found.

To the uninitiated, modern architecture seems to be one concept, but in fact it is layered with different styles: prairie, art deco, international, art moderne, roadside vernacular, mid-century, googie, modern builder, contemporary builder, shed, and contempo

the uninitiated, modern architecture seems to be one concept, but in fact it is layered with different styles: prairie, art deco, international, art moderne, roadside vernacular, mid-century, googie, modern builder, contemporary builder, shed, and contemporary folk. All of these styles can be seen in California.

In any other part of the world, modernist architecture is the odd exception or is dismissed as being naively anachronistic, but in Southern California – particularly in Palm Springs and Los Angeles – its examples are maintained, restored, preserved and their importance elevated to cultural landmark status. Support for modernism, there, is evidenced in countless ways.