This vibrant bank by architect Rudy Baumfield, based on Le Corbusier's famed Ronchamp chapel, is next in our series profiling Palm Springs' many impressive mid-century buildings during the city's Modernism Week.
Constructed in 1959, the Bank of America building takes cues from a design built five years earlier by Swiss-French architect Le Corbusier, as noted on a plaque on its wall. The bank's bulky overhanging roof and curved lines are representative of the Notre Dame du Haut chapel in Ronchamp, France.

Formerly known as the City National Bank, the Bank of America building is covered in aqua-coloured tiles across its rounded south facade. The structure is more organically shaped than the geometric lines typically associated with modernism, but still fits with the style for its non-traditional form and lack of ornamentation. Located at 588 South Palm Canyon Drive, the bank is the shape of an obtuse triangle with rounded corners in plan ? markedly different from the squared Wells Fargo Bank nearby.
Photo by Thom Watson, Flickr
The surrounding area forms Palm Springs' small financial district, a place where architects vied to create impressive banks in the 1960s, and a hub of activity in the Coachella Valley at the time.
The white-pillared Coachella Savings & Loan bank, now a Chase branch, was also built at the time and designed by Ohio-born architect E Stewart Williams to resemble Oscar Niemeyer's presidential residence in Brasilia.
Photo by Thom Watson, Flickr
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