Showing posts with label Palm Springs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Palm Springs. Show all posts

Sunday, April 16, 2017

Picking Through the Morgue: Racquet Club Drive, Palm Springs - One of the Ultimate Mid Century Style Guides


 
Any art student, industrial or interior designer worth their weight in salt will tell you that a morgue is an extremely useful tool. It's a place to store your ideas, fabric scraps, inspirational photos, magazine clippings, etc. Kind of like an old-school Pinterest. And I hate Pinterest. I have a folder on my hard drive that has in it all manner of interesting things. If I see something I like, it goes into my morgue so I can find it again later if I like something about the image, color scheme, house, building, hardscape, or landscape. Then, when I'm modelling in Sketchup, I can quickly brows my morgue file for that thing that I forgot.

We were in SoCal visiting family over the winter break a few months ago - so yes, this post is overdue. My wife's family lives in DHS, a small town situated just to the north of Palm Springs at the base of the San Bernardinos where the 62 snakes its way up toward Joshua Tree. So we were close to some lovely mid century houses to go gawk at. That was one of our list of to do's while we were there: 1) gawk at mid century houses on Racquet Club, 2) hit Long Beach Flea Market and antique stores, 3) hit PS antique stores (which are overpriced now, but nicely stocked with more credenzas than you can shake a stick at), and 4) hit the local thrift stores.

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/f4/e7/0b/f4e70bdcf5a82415852c5657623ed200.pngPalm Springs is one of the meccas of the Mid Century Modern ethic. From the visitor's center in an awesome 1950's service station (shown to the right as it was back in the day, Mt. San Jacinto behind), where you can fill up on gaudy T-shirts, PS mugs, bumper stickers, and fridge magnets. The Palm Springs Modernism Week, which happens once a year in mid February, is a weeks-long celebration of mid 20th century architecture, celebrity, automobiles, clothing, and, of course - furniture; in short, pretty much everything vintage. The first time I went to modernism week was either 2011 or 2012, and it was fantastic. The show - the showcase of largely furniture, glass, and jewelry cost something like $20 bucks to get in to, came with a nice glossy program, and had some amazing pieces - including a Bill Curry hexagonal shelving unit for Design Line. There is a company in England now that reproduces almost exact copies of that, but they won't ship to the US. Bastards.