Midcentury Mates: Palm Springs Architecture and Goldie, My Oldsmobile

Goldie and the Distinctive Block Pattern at Robinon's

I've been driving Goldie, my 1962 Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight six-window hardtop sedan (that's a mouthful!) this week.  I so enjoy just looking at this car parked in different places, and swung by the former Robinson's department store on Palm Canyon Drive in Palm Springs for a quick snapshot.  The Robinson's store (now The Alley) was designed by architects Pereira & Luckman (Pereira also designed the Transamerica Tower in San Francisco).  



A little bit about the building from Palm Springs Preservation Foundation:
Constructed from 1957-1958 at a cost of $280,000 on land purchased from Palm Springs pioneer Pearl McManus, the J.W. Robinson Department Store Building was designed by the Los Angeles-based architectural firm of Charles Luckman Associates and William L. Pereira. Located on the southwest corner of South Palm Canyon Drive and West Baristo Avenue, the pavilion-style modernist building is dramatically elevated from the street level by four long horizontal concrete steps that create both a sense of arrival and impart a sense importance to the building. The building  won the AIA’s “First Honor Award” for 1958.

This structure was declared a Class One historic site in November of 2012.

Photo of Robinsons from approx 1966