Published: March 24, 2023
Va-Va-Vintage
Inspired by the glam and groovy, Tracy Turco ’89 built an art and design empire
By Janet Siroto | Photograph by Nathan Cox
Tracy (Gilbert) Turco BFA ’89 lives a Technicolor life. She is a creative tour de force who has put her “mid-century modern meets Old Hollywood” stamp on hundreds of projects.
Tracy (Gilbert) Turco BFA ’89 lives a Technicolor life.
Her wardrobe, as seen on her Instagram feed, is a parade of polka dots, florals and feathers in brilliant tones. Her sprawling home in Palm Springs, CA, is painted a super-saturated hue called Taffy Pink, which no piece of candy can rival. The vivid vibe even extends to her work, where the artist and hotelier’s designs are ablaze with burnt orange, maraschino cherry red and lemon yellow, capturing the colors of a Sonoran sunset.
And why not? She is a creative tour de force who has put her “mid-century modern meets Old Hollywood” stamp on hundreds of projects.
And she's certainly not slowing down.
Turco is a stellar example of today’s hyphenate creatives: “I’m an artist-designer-entrepreneur-
philanthropist,” she says, leaving out a few of the hats she wears, including museum founder and fashion icon.
With her husband, real estate developer Jerry Turco, she presides over a mini-empire of Palm Springs properties — the Art Hotel, Tiki Hotel and Cheetah Hotel — each with a colorific, cute and kitschy motif. Guests feel as if they’ve walked onto a vintage movie set, one where Marilyn Monroe or Dean Martin might appear at any moment.
Down the road is the recently opened Modernism Museum, a passion project that’s already applauded in such diverse publications as House Beautiful and The Times of London. It invites visitors to tour 12,000 square feet of room vignettes capturing Turco’s beloved mid-century style.
Far-flung design clients queue up for Turco’s distinctive blast-from-the-past look, too. Her interiors can embrace a spectrum of vintage styles, from a cheeky retro mood with intense pops of color to sleek, sophisticated glam with sparkling chandeliers, velvets and touches of leopard print.
HER SPARTAN SPARK
Turco’s unstoppable energy and “why not?” spirit, she says, were ignited at The University of Tampa. When a UT rep visiting her New Jersey high school showed photos of the lush campus, Turco was immediately smitten. But when she learned about the fine arts program and the studio access, the deal was cemented: It was UT or bust.
“When I saw the campus, I said to myself, ‘That’s my home,’” she says. “It was unlike anything else visually. The art department gave you keys to go and do. That freedom of creation pulled at me.”
She arrived at UT as a standout freshman. She’d been voted “class individualist” in high school, helmed the Key Club, played on the tennis team and made the cheerleading squad.
“I’ve always been told to focus on one thing or the other,” she recalls, “but I’m that person saying, ‘Let me prove what I can do.’ I don’t believe in sticking to just one thing, ever!”
On campus, she let her crackling creative spirit and intense independence run free. The UT faculty guided her to both dive in deep and broaden her knowledge of the arts.
“I owe so much to my professors, like John Caputo, who pushed me really hard to do those things I didn’t want to do, like figure drawing or learning all about classical art,” she says. Turco logged long hours in the studios and forged a community of like-minded artists.
When she learned from a professor that there used to be Kappa Kappa Psi chapter on campus that was lying fallow, she helped rev it back to life with an arts focus. She started a T-shirt business called Art for Sanity and used some of the profits to buy pizzas for her fellow students who could be found burning the midnight oil in the studios and starving for some sustenance.
Already obsessed with Hollywood’s heyday, Turco also dove into the performing arts at UT. “For a minute, I thought I’d try to be an actress,’ she says, “but then I realized I like to be behind the scenes, creating drama there. Doing the scenery for UT productions connects directly to the Modernism Museum today. Both are about creating magical spaces.”
What Turco invested in UT didn’t go unnoticed: She showed her artwork at the Scarfone/Hartley Gallery, and she received the Connie Newton Award at the 1989 Honors Convocation ceremony before graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts.
Sweet digs! Turco's Palm Springs home is true to her palette and painted Taffy Pink. Photograph courtesy of Tracy Turco ’89.
AN ENTREPRENEUR UNLEASHED
After graduation, Turco was ready to release her creative spirit into the world. Living in New York, she created a half-dozen successful entrepreneurial pursuits. A tea connoisseur, she brewed up two popular tea companies, SalonTea and T & Co., with custom, often organic blends. Tapping her talent with words, she developed the GypChic travel guides. Her artistic inclinations weren’t forgotten, though. She also developed a line of pop-art skateboard decks, curated a fashion collection, studied interior design and became known as a hyper-creative NYC socialite.
All the while, Turco was living her best retro life. “I always watched old movies, especially Hitchcock and film noir. I just love that aesthetic,” she says. Her preferred soundtrack was vintage, too—Elvis, Etta James and Sinatra.
Her design career soon began to boom, allowing her to bring her mid-century modern vibe to interiors across the country. It thrived because of her playful style that pays homage to history but then tweaks it with an over-the-top Turco touch. Her business acumen certainly played a role, too.
“I always come in under budget. It’s not about how much you spend but how to infuse style without spending every last penny,” she says. “I believe in challenging yourself and using your imagination to make things work without overspending. That’s true creativity.”
Turco's Cheetah Hotel in Palm Springs, CA, is a 12-room mid-century marvel.
LIVING LA VIDA RETRO
In 2017, when she married Jerry, they honeymooned in Palm Springs. They both loved the majestic mountains, the fauna and the colors of the landscape glowing in the sun. Plus, Jerry, who shares the same vintage leanings, is an avid vintage car collector, and Palm Springs is the ideal spot to tool around in a sweet convertible. “The town spoke to us,” Turco says. “It called to us to turn back the clock and start fresh.”
The following year, the desert town’s allure proved irresistible, and they made it their home base. They began snapping up and restyling properties, with a focus on hotels, as well as interior design and museum projects.
Fittingly, they bought the home of a silver-screen legend, Magda Gabor (one of Hollywood’s beloved Gabor sisters), with cinematic, sweeping views of the desert and mountains. It’s decorated in Turco’s signature mid-century/Hollywood Regency mash-up style. Mirrors, golden lions, chandeliers and plenty of pink all co-exist in the chic space which makes it clear why Tracy is known as “the diva of the desert” to locals.
The Turcos have a new addition to their family, a daughter named Marchesa, 1, but Tracy still seems to have the time and energy for, well, everything. She and Jerry have rolled up their sleeves to create ArtParc, a 16-unit creative community near Joshua Tree National Park scheduled to open in 2024. What’s more, she started a women’s entrepreneur club in Palm Springs, with a speaker of note every week.
Her sparks of ideas are also being sold to savvy businesspeople. “A company just bought our disco pizza concept," she said.
"The first location will be in Orlando ... with light-up floors, a disco ball and great music, and you’ll order yourself a Bianca Jagger white pizza.”
Despite her demanding schedule, Turco always finds time to return to the launching pad for her career. “I just love visiting The University of Tampa,” she says. “The minarets are so exquisite; it’s like going back in time. And seeing my teachers is the best. The atmosphere is so unique, nurturing, but really giving you the freedom to have the best college experience.”
A stop by UT just got easier, too. Turco and her family recently relocated to Palm Beach. Want to spot Turco when she’s on campus? Just keep your eyes peeled for the person in Technicolor tones who looks as if she stepped out of a Rat Pack movie, and don’t be shy about saying “hi.”