Hacienda Riviera: Desert Hot Springs 2009

The desert climate is interesting because it simultaneously destroys and preserves. This beautiful mid-century neon sign for the now abandoned Hacienda Riviera is located on Hacienda Avenue in Desert Hot Springs, California. The wind and sand have stripped away much of the paint subduing the original colors and revealing the artists brush strokes in the lettering. The neon tubing has been destroyed by vandals or the elements. However, because of the dry air, the structure is not rusting, so there’s a lovely sad sense of arrested decay. Remarkably the sign is completely graffiti free.