Palm Springs is famous as a mecca for the international jet set. But the city has also attracted its share of eccentrics and mavericks who have left an architectural legacy that remains unsurpassed for its originality and international influence. Palm Springs Modern examines the impact that architects and designers have had on the desert oasis, primarily from the 1940s to the 1960s, when they created one of the most important concentrations of modernist architecture in the world.

Palm Springs came into its own architecturally after the war when it became a haven for such modernists as Richard Neutra, who was already practicing the International Style in Los Angeles. Many other distinguished architects have left distinctive marks in the desert: Albert Frey, John Lautner, E. Stewart Williams, William Cody, John Porter Clark, and Craig Ellwood. Palm Springs Modern features examples of mid-century modernism at its most glamorous, some of them the residences of prominent figures who commissioned weekend getaways in the desert including Frank Sinatra, Walter Annenberg, and Raymond Loewy. Adèle Cygelman's insightful text, a foreword by architectural historian Joseph Rosa, contemporary color photography by David Glomb, and the celebrated archival black-and-white work of Julius Shulman all capture the distinctly modern allure of America's famed desert playground.