Westweek at the Pacific Design Center

Floating on top of a trio of twisted, faceted legs like a giant cobalt blue comma and apostrophe, left, they command a question mark. What are these things, anyway? Dakota Jackson calls them Arabesque, a pair of cocktail tables, $9,550, that the designer unveiled in his showroom Wednesday at Westweek, the Pacific Design Center's annual two-day orgy of designer open houses, decorator lectures and new product introductions. By contrast, Philip Nimmo's Forma table, right, transforms an old silhouette -- the column table -- into a sculptural piece with echoes of Alexander Calder. The black iron base has a gold-leafed interior, visible through a glass window set into the center of the walnut top. It sells for $40,000 at the Thomas Lavin showroom. The Westweek design seminars and exhibitions will continue today at the PDC (visit www.thepacificdesigncenter.com/events.htm for a full listing) with a double-edged hooray for Hollywood. At 4 p.m. Mayer Rus, formerly an editor at the now defunct House & Garden, will hold court in the Niermann Weeks showroom with "Brilliant Bad Taste: Manufacturing Glamour From Vulgarity and Excess," a survey of cinematic interior design and Hollywood's imprint on American taste. For the Scout's best-in-show gallery of Westweek's new home furnishings, visit latimes.com/home.