The architecture and design collection is the most recent addition to the museum’s collecting interests.

In 2011–12, the museum received from a private collector a major gift of architectural drawings, models, textiles, furniture pieces, and photographs that created a foundation from which to grow the collection.

The museum’s architectural assets, including the Albert Frey House II, the E. Stewart Williams-designed Palm Springs Art Museum, and Architecture and Design Center building, are an integral part of the museum’s permanent collection.

Highlights of the architecture and design collection include materials from the archives of Arthur Elrod, Albert Frey, Hugh M. Kaptur, Donald Wexler, and E. Stewart Williams, among others; photographs by Julius Shulman; drawings by Richard Neutra, Lawrence Halprin, Steven Holl, Robert Irwin, and Daniel Libeskind; and furniture designed by Greta Magnusson Grossman, Frank Gehry, Ron Arad, the Campana Brothers, and Paul McCobb, to name a few.