Murray Feldman, Force Behind Pacific Design Center, Dies at 64

Murray Feldman, a one-time furniture wholesaler who became the moving force behind the successful Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood, has died, several months after undergoing cancer surgery, a spokesman for the center said.

Feldman, who was 64, died Sunday at his Hollywood home.

Although the original idea for the center at Melrose Avenue and San Vicente Boulevard was that of the late realtor Burt Friedman, it was Feldman--hired as executive director in the early 1970s--who persuaded designers and home furnishings firms to take space.

Eventually, the large contemporary structure, popularly known as the “Blue Whale,” became a major focal point for the West Coast interior design industry. It has been undergoing an expansion that will more than double its 725,000-square-foot size with adjacent structures, including one of green glass nine stories tall.

“I had a lot of doors slammed in my face,” Feldman once told Times columnist Sam Hall Kaplan, “especially during the depression of 1974.”

But, Feldman said, he never lost faith in the concept of the design center.

Feldman also originated West Week, an annual three-day design conference bringing together designers and merchandisers from around the world.

Feldman was born Dec. 20, 1922, and moved from New Jersey to Southern California as a teen-ager. He managed a movie theater while attending college and went to work as a designer in an architectural office. He went into the wholesale office furniture business and was operating a wholesale chair firm when he was hired to run the proposed Pacific Design Center.

He is survived by his wife, Janice; sons, Michael and Danny; daughters, Mimi and Sara; a sister, Julie Diamond, and four grandchildren.

A memorial service will be conducted at 4 p.m. on Aug. 11 in the fifth-floor galleria of the Pacific Design Center.

The family asks that in lieu of flowers, contributions be made to the City of Hope.