A decade ago, Palm Springs’ modernist architecture was just another part  of the landscape, viewed by some as antiquated and expendable.

Today, with the debut of the first Modernism Week, including nine days of events, tours and lectures by experts around the world about local architecture, it’s clear things have changed.

Even though some historic buildings still remain at risk of demolition, supporters of modernism have shown that the area's historic architecture is hardly expendable.

It has become a tourist draw of its own.

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In the mid-1990s, preservationists had to fight tooth and nail to save the 1955 Fire Station No. 1 Frey co-designed with Robson Chambers, which was slated to be destroyed and replaced by a parking garage. In 2002, the Frey/Chambers Alpha Beta Market (1960) was demolished.

But since then, modernism, and Frey in particular, has exploded in a big way, and Modernism Week will feature several events, including an all-day symposium, that highlight Frey's contribution to architecture, in the desert and in the world at large.