The Palm Springs Art Museum Saturday will celebrate the grand opening of the Aluminaire House, the first all-metal house in the United States.
The house, designed by Albert Frey and A. Lawrence Kocher, was originally shown as part of the Architectural League of New York’s annual Exposition of Architectural and Allied Arts in 1931, but after decades in upstate New York it was close to being demolished, according to museum officials.
It was granted a reprieve in 2016 after Modernism Week presented a panel on the historic building, which led to a campaign to move it to Palm Springs.
Modernism Week is a Palm Springs-based nonprofit created in 2005 to celebrate and foster appreciation of mid-century architecture and design.
“Modernism Week is proud to have supported Aluminaire House from the very beginning, when Mark Davis first introduced it to the Palm Springs preservation community by inviting the New York architects to tell the story of the iconic house, and for years thereafter when he worked with Tracy Conrad to champion the project,” Modernism Week chairman and co-founder William Kopelk said in a statement. “Modernism Week is honored to support Aluminaire and see it become part of the rich architectural fabric of Palm Springs.”
A ribbon-cutting ceremony is set for 2 p.m. Saturday at 101 North Museum Drive. More programming dedicated to Frey and his architectural legacy will be scheduled throughout the day.
Attendees can expect special tours of Albert Frey: Inventive Modernist in the Architecture and Design Center at 10 a.m., a screening of Frey’s 8mm home movie in the main museum at noon, and a community celebration with music, food and drinks in the Aluminaire House at 2:30 p.m.
“The museum is grateful to all of our donors, and we owe much to Modernism Week for their support of this project from the beginning through its completion,” Museum Executive Director/CEO Adam Lerner said in a statement. “We are thankful to have so many organizations in our community working together to build our reputation as a haven for modern architecture.”
More information can be found at psmuseum.org/events/aluminaire-opening.