Mural dedication at ‘place of hope and healing’ brings opportunity for public reminder of Palm Springs’ ties to sister city

Artist Alejandro Olmo never imagined when he was commissioned to help transform the walls of a building in a hidden courtyard off North Palm Canyon Drive that he would one day help strengthen the ties between Palm Springs and its newest sister city. On Friday evening, that’s exactly what happened.

In 2003, Olmo was living in Mexico when developer Shaul Mizrahi discovered his work and asked him to create a Mexican street scene on an interior wall of what is now a private building in the western portion of The Corridor housing one of several Michael’s House locations in the city.

That work, titled “Calle de San Miguel,” has been an inspiration to staff and patients, but largely hidden from public view.

On Friday, as Michael’s House kicked off its alumni weekend, Olmo was on hand to help unveil “La Casa de Miguel” on the public-facing east wall of that building. It marked 20 years since he first created the piece installed on the interior wall.

The buildings surrounding The Corridor’s courtyard house a popular coffee shop — Koffi — the Just Fabulous bookstore and retail shop, a salon, and a pair of restaurants. But behind closed doors on the property is the Michael’s House outpatient clinic, described Friday evening as “a place of hope and healing” that thanks to Olmo’s artwork “celebrates the culture of Mexico in the heart of our city.”

More than 8,000 people have received help breaking the cycle of addiction since Michael’s House was founded 30 years ago by Arlene Rosen, whose son Michael battled addiction and was found dead at 25. It has multiple locations throughout the city, including the outpatient clinic at The Corridor, which Mizrahi brought back to life in 2002.

Key to fulfilling his vision for the property was a fateful trip Mizrahi took to the Mexican city of San Miguel de Allende. It was there, he said, that he drew inspiration from the baroque Spanish architecture found in the colonial-era city.

“It felt like I had stumbled upon the lost city of Atlantis,” he said during remarks at the mural dedication Friday evening.

It was a similar feeling shared by the founders of the Palm Springs Sister Cities, who chose San Miguel de Allende as the first city to partner with under the revamped sister city initiative in June 2022. A formal agreement between the two cities was signed in Palm Springs in February.

Olmo was both surprised and delighted to learn that the city he has called home since first being asked to produce artwork by Mizrahi was developing formal ties with the city that inspired that artwork. When Michael’s House decided to commemorate the moment with a new mural, he said it was his opportunity to bring outside what had been relatively hidden inside.

“I’m so proud of the little houses that are on the inside, private wall,” Olmo said prior unveiling the new artwork that took roughly three months to hand carve and paint. “I made all these little facades inside, and I recreated those little houses and brought them outside.”

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If you go: The Corridor Courtyard, described as “super cute and clean hidden courtyard off the main street” is located at 515 North Palm Canyon Drive. Aside from being able to enter it via North Palm Canyon Drive, it’s also accessible from entryways along West Chino Drive and West Alejo Road. The mural is on the building to the far east of the courtyard. More information on Michael’s House is available here.

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