Culture Watch: Architect Donald Wexler in Palm Springs

Feb. 15, 2011 4:19 PM PT

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Anybody headed to the desert in coming weeks should keep in mind a new exhibition at the Palm Springs Art Museum about the underappeciated work of the architect Donald Wexler. Now 85, Wexler is best known for a collection of crisply efficient postwar houses, including some that experimented with steel-frame construction. ‘Steel and Shade: The Architecture of Donald Wexler’ runs through May 29; a symposium on Wexler’s work and continuing influence is scheduled for Feb. 26. (760) 325-4490.

-- Christopher Hawthorne

Photo credit: Photo of a steel house by Donald Wexler, 1962, by Barbara Marshall.

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Christopher Hawthorne

Christopher Hawthorne was the architecture critic for the Los Angeles Times from 2004 to March 2018. Before coming to The Times, he was architecture critic for Slate and a frequent contributor to the New York Times. He is the author, with Alanna Stang, of “The Green House: New Directions in Sustainable Architecture.” Hawthorne grew up in Berkeley and has a bachelor’s degree from Yale, where he readied himself for a career in criticism by obsessing over the design flaws in his dormitory, designed by Eero Saarinen.