Palm Springs Audio Walking Tour

Highlights

• Tramway Gas Station

  Ahead of you a wedge of roof lifts off the desert floor — the Tramway Gas Station, a landmark former Enco service station at the foot of Tramway Road in Palm Springs, California. Tramway Road is the only route up to the base of the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway, and this building was meant to be the first thing a visitor saw when arriving from the north on State Route 111.

• Colony Palms Hotel

  Behind a low wall on North Indian Canyon Drive, the Colony Palms Hotel has sheltered people who wanted to be somewhere else since 1936. This hotel is the place to explain the two-hour rule.

• Palm Springs Art Museum

  Tucked against the mountain at 101 North Museum Drive, the Palm Springs Art Museum has been a visual and performing arts institution since 1938, when it opened as the Palm Springs Desert Museum. It opened as a modest natural science and Native American art collection and grew into the institution the Coachella Valley now builds its cultural calendar around.

• Downtown Park

  Where a shuttered shopping mall once sealed off this block, Downtown Park now opens it back up to Palm Springs. The Desert Fashion Plaza opened here in 1982, turned its back on Palm Canyon Drive, and slowly emptied until the city was left with a shuttered box in the middle of downtown.

• Isabelle

  Steel layers stack into the figure of a woman here: Isabelle, by the German artist Julian Voss-Andreae, unveiled in front of the Rowan Hotel on March 29, 2018. The figure of a woman measures roughly twelve feet by twelve feet by ten feet and carries internal LED lighting, so it changes character between afternoon and evening.

All 14 stops

• Tramway Gas Station (Chino Canyon)

  Ahead of you a wedge of roof lifts off the desert floor — the Tramway Gas Station, a landmark former Enco service station at the…

• Colony Palms Hotel (Movie Colony)

  Behind a low wall on North Indian Canyon Drive, the Colony Palms Hotel has sheltered people who wanted to be somewhere else since 1936.

• Palm Springs Art Museum (Museum Drive)

  Tucked against the mountain at 101 North Museum Drive, the Palm Springs Art Museum has been a visual and performing arts institution since 1938, when…

• Downtown Park (Museum Way)

  Where a shuttered shopping mall once sealed off this block, Downtown Park now opens it back up to Palm Springs.

• Isabelle (Tahquitz Canyon Way)

  Steel layers stack into the figure of a woman here: Isabelle, by the German artist Julian Voss-Andreae, unveiled in front of the Rowan Hotel on…

• Agua Caliente Cultural Plaza (Section 14)

  Your feet are over a mineral hot spring here at the Agua Caliente Cultural Plaza, 140 North Indian Canyon Drive, between Andreas Road and Tahquitz…

• Agua Caliente Women (Palm Canyon Drive)

  Bronze women keep watch over this corner — Agua Caliente Women, by the American artist Doug Hyde, installed in Palm Springs.

• Palm Springs Walk of the Stars (Palm Canyon Drive)

  Underfoot, the Golden Palm Stars run the length of the sidewalk: the Palm Springs Walk of the Stars, a walk of fame set into downtown…

• Plaza Theatre (La Plaza)

  Neon and a restored marquee mark the Plaza Theatre at 128 South Palm Canyon Drive, the anchor of La Plaza and the most argued-over building…

• La Plaza (Downtown)

  Arcades and shopfronts face the sidewalk at La Plaza, originally Palm Springs Plaza and also known as La Plaza de California, an on-street, open-air shopping…

• Statue of Sonny Bono (Plaza Mercado)

  Water and bronze mark the corner at Plaza Mercado, where a statue of the musician and former Congressman Sonny Bono — the Sonny Bono Memorial…

• Village Green Heritage Center (Downtown)

  Two of the oldest buildings in town share one narrow lot here at the Village Green Heritage Center, a park on South Palm Canyon Drive…

• Santa Fe Federal Savings and Loan (South Palm Canyon Drive)

  Glass, thin steel and deep overhangs mark Santa Fe Federal Savings and Loan Association, later American Savings and now the Palm Springs Art Museum Architecture…

• Coachella Valley Savings No. 2 (South Palm Canyon Drive)

  Concrete arches open upward from the ground here at Coachella Valley Savings, known over the years as the Coachella Valley Savings and Loan Association, Washington…

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