A MIDCENTURY TIME WRAP PALM SPRINGS' ARCHITECTURE, FURNISHINGS, HOTELS TURN BACK THE CLOCK.

Byline: Story by Eric Noland Travel Editor

PALM SPRINGS - The Kaufmann house might inspire envy as you stroll past. A sun porch perches atop this cubist indulgence of architect Richard Neutra, affording sweeping views of the San Jacinto Mountains and Coachella Valley.

A short distance away, at a shop called Bandini Johnson, you can't miss this quirky treasure: a globe whose top hemisphere flips up to reveal an ice bucket and a dozen highball glasses.

Back at Ballantines Hotel, as you wind down the afternoon on the electric-blue pool deck, the sound system might serve up vintage Tony Bennett:

`` ... But that was once upon a time,

very long ago.''

It certainly doesn't feel so long ago in Palm Springs, which in recent years has been enthusiastically embracing its midcentury heyday. A couple of days in this desert retreat and you'd be sure that Sputnik was passing overhead, Ike was on the golf course and Lucy had some 'splainin' to do on TV.

Palm Springs has been a favored retreat of the entertainment community since the 1930s, but it gained more broad-based appeal as a desert playground just after World War II. After the horrors and deprivations of that conflict, folks played hard - this, after all, was an era when people were blissfully ignorant of the harmful effects of UV rays, cigarettes, juicy steak and unadulterated gin.

A building explosion occurred then, too, but it wasn't the least bit conventional. Well-heeled winter visitors hired renowned architects at a time when modernism was taking root in some progressive cities. The concept was adapted to the desert environment, resulting in some intriguing design manifestations: boxy geometric shapes, open floor plans, flat or butterfly roofs, glass walls, breezeways, decorative concrete-block screens and liberal use of steel.

The interior decoration was often just as radical, with spindly chairs, Space Age lighting fixtures and minimalist vinyl couches.

As for recreation, well, homes were much more likely to have poolside bars than fitness rooms.

Palm Springs visitors with a spirit of adventure can still dabble in this world, and the spectrum of offerings is a broad one.

At the serious end is the Palm Springs Modern Committee, which conducts tours of some of the town's significant modernist structures - and fights tooth and nail when a title-holder seeks to raze one of them. At the other end are boutique hotels like the Orbit In and Ballantines, which employ lava lamps and rooms painted pink to offer whimsical theme parks of '50s kitsch. In between are shops stocking items that were considered cutting edge then - from bright-colored plastic tableware to bedroom headboards with built-in eight-track tape players.

The fascination with all things midcentury is understandable on some levels. ``You have people from their 40s on up, baby boomers, who grew up with it, relate to it, have an affinity for it, because this is what their parents bought and did,'' said Robert Imber, a founding member of the Palm Springs Modern Committee and a guide for its tours. ``Maybe they hated it. But even though it isn't warm and fuzzy, there's a nostalgia about it.

``And young people are drawn to it because of the simplicity of the era.''

To delve into Palm Springs' midcentury revival, it's probably best to begin with the buildings themselves.

The committee produces a map that includes more than four dozen important structures, and if you want to seek them out on your own, most can be seen on an afternoon's drive around town. (Be warned, though: An earlier version of the map, fraught with errors, has been photocopied endlessly. To spare yourself some frustration, be sure to track down the current map - it's in full color and costs $5.)

Palm Springs was a crucible of design in the 1950s, and an impressive roster of noteworthy architects tinkered within its city limits. But Albert Frey, Richard Neutra, Stewart Williams, John Lautner, William Cody and others didn't just breeze into town and design a private home here and there. They tended to fall in love with the desert, too, and in the quest for subsistence, they accepted all kinds of commissions - for homes, banks, government buildings, filling stations, firehouses, churches.

As we sit here at the dawn of the 21st century, it might be amusing to consider their work as ``modern,'' but at the time it represented a radical departure from the ranch, Spanish Colonial and arts-and-crafts designs that prevailed in Southern California.

Once your self-guided tour is under way, you might linger at the Williams-designed Edris House, which seems to rise from a boulder-strewn gulley on the northwest edge of town. Walls of glass frame the expansive valley below, and the rock chimney is massive, perhaps 12 feet wide.

You might be amused by a clever design element employed by Frey and his collaborators at City Hall. The front portico features a precise, round portal, and palm trees protrude through it. A short distance away, it's as if the missing circular piece has been positioned atop four pillars in front of the council chamber. Word has it the two pieces represent an exact fit.

One of Palm Springs' most distinctive architectural expressions, meanwhile, is today a source of some dismay. Frey's Tramway Gas Station, with its soaring point of a roof, still greets visitors as they approach town on North Palm Canyon Drive. But the daring 1965 structure suffers from a decision by its previous owners to build a block wall around the front of the building, which serves to shackle its sleek angularity.

The gas station is being renovated to serve as a visitor's center. Here's hoping a wrecking ball takes aim at that ghastly wall.

For an alternative to stumbling among the buildings on your own, hook up with one of the Palm Springs Modern Committee's tours. Over a period of 2 1/2 hours, you'll crisscross the town in a van while a guide points out design subtleties and provides a wealth of anecdotal information.

One bonus of the tour is that several stops are not to be found on the committee's map. They all combine to fill in the picture of Palm Springs' midcentury heritage.

Some buildings have been lovingly maintained or restored, but others have suffered greatly from remodeling projects. For example, the striking vertical louvers of the former Coachella Valley Savings and Loan (now a Washington Mutual), were carved up in one corner to accommodate an ATM.

But other significant buildings are being well cared for. Neutra's Kaufmann House, after a succession of design abominations, is now owned by an architectural historian, Imber said.

The tour took us to a dwelling in which the master bedroom is at the front of the house, in a second-story prowlike space with windows overlooking the valley below. The now-defunct Look magazine declared it the ``House of Tomorrow'' when it was built for prolific Palm Springs architect Bob Alexander in 1962. Imber described its architectural singularity - and, to his credit, never even mentioned that the home later gained fame as the honeymoon hideaway of Elvis and Priscilla Presley.

We caught a glimpse of Frank Sinatra's first house in Palm Springs, designed and built at breakneck speed by Williams in 1947 (because Sinatra insisted that it be completed by Christmas). The pool, we were told, is in the shape of a grand piano.

But we couldn't see it - nor into any of the houses on the tour. In most cases, the interiors are as interesting as the exterior architecture, but the homes are primarily in private hands. The committee occasionally is invited inside for a function at this place or that, so if you're keen for a peek within, you'd best join up.

A glimpse of the interior furnishings of the period can be found at several Palm Springs boutiques, though. They are made viable by a young Hollywood crowd that has rediscovered the charms of this desert retreat - and is fascinated by all things retro.

Head down North Palm Canyon Drive and you'll soon be chuckling over any number of outlandish items that effectively turn back the clock.

Dazzles (1035 N. Palm Canyon) carries a bar upholstered in faux leopard skin, as well as avocado-green Waring blenders, ash trays that are works of art and all kinds of tiki-god stuff for furnishing a pool area.

Sublime (402 N. Palm Canyon) offers a wondrous array of tableware, barware, clocks, hand-painted postcard prints and books on architecture and art.

Modern Way (2755 N. Palm Canyon) has the aforementioned headboard with the eight-track player, plus vintage magazines - a '39 Sunset, a '59 Playboy - and some nice art. < Galaxy 500 (1007 N. Palm Canyon) stocks vintage martini shakers and a Western Airlines tote bag.

At many of the stores, you might find yourself saying, ``Remember this? Remember this?''

Another option is Room Service (625 N. Palm Canyon), which has contemporary items designed to look as if they hail from the '50s and '60s. Linens and upholstery are thus of higher quality. In here, you might have your head turned by a bright-orange egg chair. Well, maybe.

If you'd rather just dip a toe into the midcentury time warp, linger for a couple of days at either of two playfully themed hotels, the Orbit In or Ballantines.

Marilyn Monroe slept at the latter (or so the legend goes), so the current owners have designed a room in tribute to her - pink everything, right down to the TV. There's also a heart-shaped welcome mat and a print of Andy Warhol's familiar Marilyn portrait on the wall. Other room themes include James Dean, Hawaiian surfing, movie men, movie women and '50s music.

Our suite was relatively theme-free, but perhaps should have been called the Traffic Room. Though the hotel encircles a glistening pool, two rooms (including the one we were assigned) sit on busy North Indian Canyon Drive, and the street noise was a constant and unwelcome companion.

Otherwise, the suite was pleasantly lost in the midcentury period. Its small kitchen had a black-and-white checkerboard floor, red-sparkle dinette chairs, a Wedgewood gas range and a gleaming chrome bread box.

The walls were hung with movie posters for ``Roman Holiday'' and ``To Catch a Thief.'' The bedside table held a working dial phone and a vintage Zenith radio with a carry handle - the radio took a full minute to warm up.

In the face of all this, it was surprising to learn from owner David Smith that the property also accommodates demanding 21st-century travelers, offering wireless Internet access, satellite TV and XM radio.

The strains of the latter wafted across a delightfully relaxing pool area, laying down a soothing soundtrack of Sinatra, Broadway tunes, Ray Charles. And, of course, Tony Bennett.

``... Everything was ours, how happy we were then;

But somehow once upon a time, never comes again.''

Or does it?

Eric Noland, [phone]

eric.noland(at)dailynews.com

IF YOU GO

ARCHITECTURAL TOURS: Van tours of midcentury architectural structures in Palm Springs cost $55 and last about 2 1/2 hours. Tours are offered in the morning and afternoon. To sign up for a tour, call [phone] or send an e-mail to psmoderntours(at)aol.com.

SELF-GUIDED TOURS: The Palm Springs Modern Committee has produced an excellent map ($5) that identifies 52 significant midcentury structures in Palm Springs. It can be found in some furnishing shops in town, or you can buy it in advance through the committee. Be sure to get the full-color map; some earlier versions, widely photocopied, have some inaccuracies. To buy the map directly from the committee, visit www.psmodcom.com and click on ``maps,'' or mail $8 and your name and address to Palm Springs Modern Maps, P.O. Box 4738, Palm Springs, CA 92263.

BALLANTINES: In-season rates from $169. 1420 Indian Canyon Drive. [phone]; www.ballantineshotels.com.

ORBIT IN: Operates two properties, both with stylish furnishings and an inviting ambience. The Oasis, 562 W. Arenas Road, is notable for its poolside boomerang-shaped bar; in-season rates from $209. A short distance away, the more recently refurbished Hideaway, 370 W. Arenas Road, has rates from $219. [phone]; www.orbitin.com.

OFF THE SHELF: An outstanding coffee table book on Palm Springs' midcentury modern architecture, ``Palm Springs Weekend'' (Chronicle Books; $40), was released two years ago. Alan Hess and Andrew Danish provide an exhaustive chronicle of the city's buildings, with both contemporary and archival photos. Another good architecture book, in similar format, is ``Palm Springs Modern'' (Rizzoli; $50), by Adele Cygelman with photos by David Glomb. It was published in 1999.

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Photo:

(1 -- 4 -- color) Examples of midcentury modern architecture in Palm Springs include the portico at City Hall, top, the Kaufmann House, above left, and the ``House of Tomorrow,'' above right. For a taste of the '50s lifestyle, book lodging at Ballantines Hotel - perhaps the all-pink room, left, that pays homage to Marilyn Monroe.

(5 -- 8) Among Palm Springs' midcentury offerings clockwise from above: bell tower of the Oasis Hotel, designed by Lloyd Wright, son of famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright; the Ozzie-and-Harriet-style common room of Ballantines Hotel; a former Coachella Valley Savings branch, with its distinctive inverted arches, designed by Stewart Williams in 1960; and the Room Service boutique, which sells new works made to resemble 1950s classics, such as the egg chair.

Eric Noland/Travel Editor

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IF YOU GO (see text)