Modern Context : A Showroom Designed for the Furnishings It Sells
DESIGN EXPRESS, a remarkable new furniture store on South La Cienega Boulevard, breaks several long-standing rules. While most showrooms sell only to the trade and are concentrated near Melrose Avenue in West Hollywood, Design Express is a retail store that was located by Korean-born owner Sei-Jin Noh and former partner Hyon Chough in the unlikely area of Baldwin Hills. With a staggering 40,000 square feet of floor space in the main building, and another 28,000 square feet of warehouse/office space/furniture factory behind the premises, Design Express has become one of Southern California’s grandest retail showrooms, in terms of both space and design.
The philosophy of the owners of Design Express--good design at reasonable retail prices--is revealed in the mix of contemporary furnishings displayed in this former plastics factory. Renovated by architects Michele Saee and Max Massie, of Building, the interior is a backdrop to recent modern and modern classic furniture, most of it in black, white, shades of gray and other neutrals. A few brightly colored pieces in red, blue, and even some patterned upholstery (the latest offerings at recent European furniture fairs) are on the floor as well. Prices vary widely: Leather sofas, for instance, range from $800 to $5,000; highly polished granite tables from Korea from $500 to $1,500.
Clones of contemporary classics, particularly the Mackintosh and Bertoia chairs, are well represented, as is lighting by Artimede, George Kovacs, Koch + Lowy, and Azizi, all prominent manufacturers of contemporary lighting. “Approximately 60% of our furniture is from Italy; 20% from Spain, Scandinavia and Belgium; 10% is made domestically, and another 10% is from Korea,” Noh explains. Two separate areas--a series of four tall steel-and-glass-cabinets as well as open shelving--have been planned for displaying contemporary objets d’ art by such recognizable names as Alessi, Swid Powell, Holmgaard of Copenhagen, Becker, Patino/Wolf and Legnomagia.
Spaces are defined by curving walls and by a series of columns, display cases and angled walls that slice through the center of the store. The interior architecture of the Design Express stores is especially important to Noh. (San Francisco architect Mark Mack designed the new store in that city; architect Michael Tolleson both the small West Hollywood and Woodland Hills stores.) “By displaying our furnishings within the drama of a beautiful and precisely planned environment,” Noh says proudly, “we show it off in the proper context.”
