Albert Frey (architect)

Albert Frey (/ˈfreɪ/ FRAY; October 18, 1903 – November 14, 1998) was a Swiss-born architect who established a style of modernist architecture centered on Palm Springs, California, United States, that came to be known as "desert modernism".

In 1928, Frey secured a position in the Paris atelier of the noted International Style architect Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret.

Frey was one of two full-time employees of the atelier and coworkers included Josep Lluís Sert, Kunio Maekawa, and Charlotte Perriand.

Upon completion of his work on the Museum of Modern Art in 1939, Frey and Marion returned to California to resume his collaboration with Clark, which would continue for nearly twenty more years.

Known as an escape for the Hollywood elite and a winter haven for east coast industrialists, Palm Springs emerged post-war as a resort community for a broader segment of the American populace with more leisure time than any previous generation.

Newly designed structures along Palm Canyon Drive are now being fitted with Frey-styled accents, including butterfly rooflines, glass walls, rock facings and exposed ceilings.

By embracing the American idiom while incorporating the modernist philosophy influenced by Le Corbusier, Frey produced a new regional vernacular.

[8] The Palm Springs Art Museum mounted an exhibit entitled "Albert Frey: Inventive Modernist" scheduled to run January 13, 2024 – June 3, 2024, curated and designed by Brad Dunning, in conjunction with their reconstruction of Aluminaire House.