Mid-century modern neighborhoods

The architecture is the attraction, and it is somebody's house

Palm Springs is one of the densest concentrations of mid-century residential design anywhere, and almost all of it is visible from the sidewalk. Twin Palms and Deepwell Estates south of downtown, Vista Las Palmas and Old Las Palmas to the north, Racquet Club Estates further up: these are ordinary residential streets where the houses happen to be the reason people come.

What you are looking at is mostly tract housing built quickly and well in the 1950s and 60s — low rooflines, deep overhangs, breeze-block screens, glass walls facing the mountain, carports instead of garages. Racquet Club Estates has the butterfly rooflines. Vista Las Palmas has the larger lots and the most photographed frontages.

The part visitors forget is that people live in these houses year-round. Drive slowly, stay on the public street, and keep off the driveways and out of the front gardens. A neighborhood does not stop being a neighborhood because it is on a postcard.

How to actually see it

A self-guided map and an afternoon covers more ground than a tour bus. Print or download a map of the tracts before you go out, because phone signal is fine but stopping to search at every intersection is not. Early morning and the hour before sunset give you the best light and the fewest cars.

Cycling works well here. The city is flat, the tracts are laid out on a grid, and a bike lets you stop where a car cannot.

February brings Modernism Week, when private houses open for tours, talks fill up, and the whole city books out months ahead. If you want inside a house rather than past it, that is the window — and it is also the week to book your own accommodation earliest.

If you are renting one of these houses rather than driving past them, ask which way the living space faces. West-facing homes pressed against the San Jacinto wall lose afternoon sun earlier than you would expect in winter.