
On Sunday, the Palm Springs Art Museum introduced its new Architecture and Design Center, Edwards Harris Pavilion. Its inaugural exhibition commemorates the Class 1 Historic building’s original architect, E. Stewart Williams, offering a visual glimpse into his 50-year career.

The center is housed inside a classic midcentury International style building that Williams, a prominent figure of Desert Modern style, originally designed as a 1961 Sante Fe Federal Savings & Loan.

Los Angeles-based firm Marmol Radziner restored the 13,000-square-foot modernist structure, which stands elevated above street level in glass and steel. Floor-to-ceiling windows that look over the cityscape and the San Jacinto Mountains frame its glass pavilion. Marmol Radziner based redevelopment designs on old black-and-white photographs of the building and Williams’s original drawings.The building’s main level features a gallery space for architecture and design exhibitions and curatorial offices. The lower level of the building serves as a study center and meeting space.

“Palm Springs has the world’s greatest concentration per capita of midcentury modern architecture, and so it is a natural fit for the Palm Springs Art Museum to increase its commitment to architecture and design through exhibitions, educational programs, and research,” said Steven A. Nash, executive director of the museum, in a press release issued by Resnicow Schroeder Associates.

Read more about Marmol Radziner by following this link.
