Palm Springs gives up its private houses for four days every October, and the 2026 dates are set. Modernism Week October runs Thursday the 15th through Sunday the 18th, the fall companion to the larger festival the city stages in February. This is the smaller, more deliberate edition, more than 50 tours, talks, dinners, and parties built around the desert's midcentury architecture. Tickets went on sale August 1, and the marquee tours tend to go fast.
What is Modernism Week October?
Think of it as the intimate version. The February festival runs eleven days and lists hundreds of events. October folds that into one long weekend and trades scale for access, opening homes and neighborhoods that stay closed to the public the rest of the year. Lisa Vossler Smith, the festival's chief executive, has added a run of new curated events for 2026, including a Fall Dining Series inside notable rooms and a late-night program called Modernism Week After Dark. Much of it is walkable from downtown, and many tours check in at the Palm Springs Art Museum, where parking is free.
The 2026 featured homes: the Marquee, the Kirk Douglas Estate, and Frey House II
Each year the festival names one house its Featured Home. For 2026 that is the Marquee at Twin Palms, a 1957 residence in the city's first modern neighborhood, reworked by H3K Home + Design and staged so the original architecture still reads clearly. Tours run all four days.
The harder ticket is the Kirk Douglas Estate, opening for Modernism Week October for the first time. Hollywood provenance and desert modernism sit in one house here, and access like this does not come around often. Then there is Frey House II, the glass-and-steel house Albert Frey built for himself high on the hillside above the city, with a boulder that runs straight through the living room. It sells out every year. The 2026 edition adds a twilight reception, which is the best hour to watch the valley go gold and then dark below the glass.
What is new in 2026?
Two firsts stand out. Modernism Week is running its own tour of the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway, the 1963 landmark that pairs Albert Frey's Valley Station with E. Stewart Williams's Mountain Station, two of the architects who set the desert's visual grammar. The other is Blue Skies Village, the gated Rancho Mirage community with a clubhouse by William F. Cody, open for a guided look at its interiors and grounds.
The Fall Dining Series puts dinner inside rooms worth the visit on their own: Eight4Nine in the Uptown Design District, the long-running Trio, King's Highway at the Ace Hotel & Swim Club, and Mr. Lyons. After Dark carries the night on at the Amigo Room inside the Ace and at Spirit Animal in Hotel Zoso.
How do you actually see the architecture?
By bus and on foot. The Premier Double Decker Architectural Bus Tour is the signature ride, an open-top loop past the landmarks that runs all four days. Themed versions trace Sinatra and the Rat Pack, the houses that defined the city, and a twilight route once the light softens.
The walking tours are where the neighborhoods come alive. Twin Palms Estates was the first modernist tract in Palm Springs. The Movie Colony was Sinatra's neighborhood. Vista Las Palmas holds a celebrated run of Alexander homes, the tract houses that George and Robert Alexander built with the architects William Krisel and Dan Palmer, to a standard the rest of the country is still copying. If you have ever wondered why a modest post-and-beam in Las Palmas trades the way it does, an hour on one of these tours makes the case.
The Modernism Show and the social calendar
The Palm Springs Modernism Show fills the Convention Center with dealers in vintage furniture, lighting, art, and objects, more than 50 of them from across the country and abroad. The Preview Party on Friday, October 16 lets collectors in before the public, with cocktails and re-entry all weekend, and the show opens to everyone Saturday and Sunday. Around it: a progressive dinner through three houses at Cotino, the new Disney community on the Rancho Mirage shore, sunset at the Lautner Compound, and the Casual Concours, a relaxed car show themed this year to the hundredth anniversary of Route 66.
Frequently asked questions
When is Modernism Week October 2026?
October 15 to 18, 2026, Thursday through Sunday, with morning, afternoon, and evening events each day.
How is it different from the February festival?
February is the flagship, eleven days and hundreds of events. October is a compact four-day edition, smaller and more intimate, with early access to a select group of homes and neighborhoods.
Do tickets sell out?
The popular ones do. The Featured Home, Frey House II, and the Premier Double Decker Bus Tour tend to sell out well ahead. Tickets have been on sale since August 1, so book early.
What are the featured home tours this year?
Three: the Marquee at Twin Palms, which is the official Featured Home, the Kirk Douglas Estate, and Frey House II, which adds a twilight reception in 2026.
Where do the tours start, and where do you park?
Many begin at the Palm Springs Art Museum, which offers free parking. Home and neighborhood tours list their own check-in points with the ticket.
Why this weekend matters if you love Palm Springs design
Palm Springs built its name on this architecture, and it is still the reason a great many people buy here. Norman Williams and Jacqulyn Stanton of The Stanton Williams Group at Compass work these neighborhoods every week, from the Alexanders of Vista Las Palmas to the estates of Old Las Palmas and the Movie Colony, and they are happy to point clients toward the houses worth seeing, on the market and off. Start at stantonwilliamsgroup.com.
