The Tramway Gas Station is a landmark former Enco service station in

Palm Springs, California Palm Springs (Cahuilla language, Cahuilla: ''Séc-he'') is a desert resort city in Riverside County, California, United States, within the Colorado Desert's Coachella Valley. The city covers approximately , making it the largest city in Rivers ...

, United States, so named because of its location at the foot of Tramway Road, the lone road leading to the base of the

Palm Springs Aerial Tramway The Palm Springs Aerial Tramway in Palm Springs, California, is the largest rotating aerial tramway in the world. It was opened in September 1963 as a way of getting from the floor of the Coachella Valley to near the top of San Jacinto Peak and w ...

. It was intended to be the first Palm Springs building visitors saw when approaching the city from the north via

California State Route 111 State Route 111 (SR 111) is a state highway in the southeastern part of U.S. state of California. It is a north-south route serving the Imperial Valley, the eastern shore of the Salton Sea, and the Coachella Valley. Its southern terminus is at I ...

. The building, with its distinctive, cantilevered, wedge-shaped canopy (referred to as a

hyperbolic paraboloid In geometry, a paraboloid is a quadric surface that has exactly one axis of symmetry and no center of symmetry. The term "paraboloid" is derived from parabola, which refers to a conic section that has a similar property of symmetry. Every pla ...

on a historic marker mounted on the building) was built in 1965 and designed by Albert Frey and Robson C. Chambers. It is considered to be a prime example of

modernist architecture Modern architecture, also called modernist architecture, or the modern movement, is an architectural architectural movement, movement and architectural style, style that was prominent in the 20th century, between the earlier Art Deco Architectu ...

. The station had closed by the mid-1990s, and its fate was in doubt until its 2000 purchase by a private interest, who erected a wall around the property and converted it into an

art gallery An art gallery is a room or a building in which visual art is displayed. In Western cultures from the mid-15th century, a gallery was any long, narrow covered passage along a wall, first used in the sense of a place for art in the 1590s. The long ...

. Since 2003 it has been operated by the Palm Springs Bureau of Tourism as the Palm Springs Visitor Center. The building was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 2015.

References

External links

{{commons category, Palm Springs Tramway Gas Station
Palm Springs Visitor Center
at the Palm Springs Bureau of Tourism website Modernist architecture in California International style architecture in California Transport infrastructure completed in 1965 Buildings and structures in Palm Springs, California Tourist attractions in Palm Springs, California National Register of Historic Places in Riverside County, California Transportation buildings and structures in Riverside County, California Albert Frey buildings 1965 establishments in California Gas stations on the National Register of Historic Places in California Visitor centers in the United States ExxonMobil buildings and structures ExxonMobil history

See also

References

External links