Conference To Focus On Cool Architecture

Fans of retro, space-age style, as well as aficionados of all things new, modern and experimental, will converge on Palm Springs this weekend for a conference that explores the architectural past, present and future of the city with one of the nation's highest concentrations of mid-century modern buildings.

Dwell Magazine's Dwell on Design conference will bring together designers that shaped 1950s desert cool and new architects taking that vision into the 21st century. Architectural tours will mix the old with the new, and attendees will clink glasses at the mountaintop Elrod House, the villain's lair in the James Bond movie "Diamonds are Forever."

Palm Springs has always been this cool, hip place. In the '70s and '80s, a lot of that was lost, but it's coming back," said Phillip K. Smith, founder of the Art Office architecture firm in Indio. "There are architects buying land out here or in Desert Hot Springs or Yucca Valley and building the house they always wanted to build. People look at our desert as a great laboratory of design."

Smith is one of the moderators of the event, which features luminaries such as Donald Wexler, who designed the Palm Springs airport and other public buildings, and William Krisel, who helped build the Ocotillo Lodge and other desert landmarks.

Michela O'Connor Abrams, president and publisher of Dwell, came up with the idea for the conference while vacationing here last April. The city is experiencing an architectural resurgence, and more people around the world are finding inspiration in its signature style, she said.

About 250 people have registered in advance, coming from all over the West, she said.

"They are just fascinated," she said. "How did a place like this become the highest concentration of modern anywhere in the United States? What does it look like? And how do you preserve it? There are a lot of lessons."

Smith, a native of the Coachella Valley, said that more and more young people have flocked to the area, bringing with them an appreciation for its unique look.

Both Smith and architect Mark Kirkhart have incorporated some of the city's mid-century style into their projects.

Kirkhart, founding partner of DesignARC and an event speaker, began projects in the Palm Springs area 10 years ago. He and developer Dennis Cunningham saw a market for new, reasonably priced modern homes that drew inspiration from that past, he said. Kirkhart has helped design award-winning projects like 48@Arenas and The Biltmore Colony in Palm Springs.

Modern architecture in the desert will have to adapt to rising land prices, he said. Most of his projects work to preserve openness and a connection with the outdoors but with town homes and condos rather than the sprawling estates of the 1950s, he said.

Smith said the conference will address ways of making modern living affordable, lessons that can be applied well beyond the desert.

"What I hope people take from this conference is a higher level of consciousness about design," he said.

"If I was someone coming out here from Kansas City, I would say this is what I want to happen back in my hometown. I would look at it as a form of inspiration."

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