For 10 days each February, the desert city of Palm Springs becomes an oasis for devotees of modernist design. Now in its ninth year, Modernism Week offers visitors access to more than 100 events that run the gamut from architecture lectures and documentary screenings to gallery exhibitions and cocktail receptions, all paying tribute to 20th-century design.
The venue for Modernism Week is apt. During the United States’ post–World War II economic boom, Palm Springs was at the heart of the midcentury modernist m…