PALM SPRINGS NOW

By Janet Mercel on 01.08.26

With the Palm Springs International Film Festival currently underway (Jan 2-13), The Parker is the center of the action, as usual. As the official home of the Film Awards Gala after-party for 20 years, this is where Hollywood gathers to celebrate when awards season kicks off each year. Check out our full review. 

While The Parker shines as a worthy spotlight for all who love the spotlight, the luster extends well past January. (Come April’s music festival week in the Coachella Valley, you can’t throw a stone without hitting an A+ list celebrity.) Next month in February, Palm Springs — already an architecture and design mecca — comes into full focus with Modernism Week and Intersect Palm Springs (formerly Art Palm Springs). When mid-century modern enthusiasts and architecture buffs flock to the desert, this Jonathan Adler-designed property is a particular favorite for experiencing it all. 

A visit last month for an early-winter retreat revealed why this decadent MCM funhouse will quickly become your most glamorous go-to, and the ideal home base for experiencing the city in times both quiet and less so. Plus, our favorites from past art and design weeks will have you prepped to explore the desert’s cultural riches with the best of them.

THE PARKER

In the 1960s, the scene started when it was Gene Autry’s hotel. The film and TV star (“The Singing Cowboy”) bought what was California’s first Holiday Inn and turned it into the home of his Los Angeles Angels Major League Baseball team during spring training season. You can still rent his own house, a 2-bedroom walled residence with its own event lawn and hidden speakeasy theater. In 2004, it completed a $27M renovation and became The Parker.

The fun starts at the breeze soleil entry at the drive, tall as an avalanche and just as grand. The sun shield screen is not just a showboat entrance; it’s also an efficient way of keeping energy in and desert heat out. The glossy, oversized tangerine doors are just the beginning. The zaniness permeates the mood everywhere, from the glowing DRUGS welcome sculpture, to the tiny but glossy Mini Bar in the lobby, and the desert-cozy den with firepit. Then there’s the Palm Springs Yacht Club (PSYC), the nautical-acid-trip spa, and The Boiler Room, aka the gym.

Poolside rooms, hammock rooms with private sandboxes and firepits, or garden rooms opening directly onto the tropical landscaping. The pièce de résistance are the 12 villas: discreet houses with living rooms, hanging swing chairs, mini kitchens, and walled patios ready and willing to host a Slim Aarons-worthy cocktail soirée. Lavish details like bathroom counter space and huge bureaus truly make you feel at home, and even made tasks like unpacking our favorite new weekender a joy, even if it’s just a few days and not forever. The villas have hosted countless famous faces over the years, whose names—even if we had a solid idea whose rooms we shared—we are strictly forbidden to mention…

With just 144 guest spaces spread across 13 acres, the meticulous property has that quintessential Palm Springs magic, like you’re wandering utterly alone, the Coachella Valley rising above you in the distance. Meanwhile, you’re only about a 10-minute car ride to the city center and main strip. What feels like miles of gravel pathways will have you weaving through lush hedges, pools, bocce, croquet, the racquet club, and a sunken amphitheater (stand at the top level to see the Bob Hope residence atop a mountain miles away).

The landscape design is by award-winning designer Judy Kameon, whose public-facing and private projects have included work for Isabel Marant, Nicolas Ghesquière, Balenciaga, and Sofia Coppola, has made sure everything smells like fresh lavender and sage, and most of the time all you can hear is the wind. We were quoted something like 225 total palm trees, 6 fountains, around 15 lemon trees, and 20 each grapefruit and orange on the property.

EAT & DRINK

Mister Parker: the hidden, glittering supper club experience, complete with a wine list to kill for and beef tallow butter candles with your warm bread (they made us a special veg version!).

Counter Reformation: the resident den of iniquity, an opulent bar-seat wine bar with a literal ex-confessional booth in the back for private sipping (and stirring).

Norma’s: all-day Cali-fresh, fancy diner food that will serve you a different shot of fruit smoothie special each morning.

FUN BITS

• Keep an eye out for paper merch — the color-driven UK artist Luke Edward Hall illustrated all The Parker collateral.
• They switch out the newest luxury models (Porsche, Lamborghini, Astin Martin…) every couple of months as the house “shuttle,” picking up guests to go downtown or airport drop-offs about 10 min away.
• PYSC, the spa, will offer you a cucumber infused vodka shot any time you walk in, and the gift shop is stocked with Jonathan Adler goodies.
• Ask for a complimentary art & design tour for all the intel on the house collection, like works from Hollywood photographer Bert Stern and Hungarian-French artist Victor Vasarely.

MODERNIST MUST-SEES

Venture out to visit the cultural landmarks that make Palm Springs a major design destination.

Sunnylands

This 200-acre Rancho Mirage estate was the winter home of billionaire philanthropists Walter and Leonore Annenberg, who hosted diplomats, peacemakers, and eight presidents in their 25,000-square-foot A. Quincy Jones-designed house. Today, the “Camp David of the West” houses a significant art collection of Impressionists and Post-Impressionists, with a twist: In 1991, they donated the 53-painting collection to the Met, but the digital reproductions still hang in the house in their original pride of place. The house tour and botanical gardens are like stepping into a time capsule of mid-century perfection.

Frey House II

Albert Frey’s 1964 residence is considered one of the most iconic examples of desert modernism. Perched 220 feet above Palm Springs on the slopes of the San Jacinto Mountains, it was the highest home in the city when built. An 800-square-foot tiny masterpiece with a massive boulder built right into the middle of the house. Frey was obsessed with matching the landscape, keeping a small eco footprint, and making sure the visuals blended in seamlessly. Sit on the same sofa where great conversations took place when a young Tom Ford once visited, inspired by the master architect, then dangle your feet into the pool deck that floats above the carport. You can still rent it for private, albeit small, events. 

Palm Springs Art Museum

One of our favorite museums on the West Coast, and one that deserves as much time and love as you can give it while in town. Anthony James’s “80” Great Rhombicosidodecahedron” sits at the entrance. From there, the collection spans Kehinde Wiley, Anish Kapoor, Ed Ruscha, Louise Bourgeois’s oversized spider, Helen Frankenthaler, teeny tiny Picasso sculpture, Gerald Clarke, and Faig Ahmed. Marina Abramović’s “The Kitchen V, Carrying the Milk” video installation will knock your socks off.

The House of Tomorrow (aka Elvis’ Honeymoon Hideaway)

A favorite on the Modernism Week house tour and fresh off a 21-month restoration, the house is still as bonkers as when a Look magazine article in 1962 dubbed it “The Way Out Way of Life.” You climb pebbled concrete disks over a waterfall just to get to the front door of the four interconnected circular pods. Elvis and Priscilla were supposed to get married here in 1967, but the press found out, so they fled to Vegas and came back for the honeymoon instead. The elevated primary bedroom hovers above the ground with floor-to-ceiling windows and mind-boggling panoramic views of the San Jacinto Mountains.

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