Avenues of Design : A Walk Among Elite Showrooms and Galleries

West Hollywood is an enigma. Not only has the young city entered the vanguard of the proletariat in rent control and minority rights, it has also become a citadel of bourgeois consumerism.

Within the 1.9-square-mile city of 40,000 are some of the region’s finest restaurants, luxury hotels, art galleries, clothing designers and, surrounding the Pacific Design Center, interior-design showrooms clustered in a district called the Avenues of Design.

Design Capital of Pacific Rim

With more than 4 million square feet of showrooms and gallery space housing more than 650 design firms, this district has become the design capital of the Pacific Rim.

The following three-hour, self-guided walking tour of the Avenues of Design leads you to many landmarks, including showrooms, cafes, galleries and retail shops.

To get to the Avenues of Design from Interstate 10, exit La Cienega Boulevard north, drive several miles to Melrose Avenue and turn left. Parking is available on weekends for $1.50 at the Pacific Design Center, 8687 Melrose Ave.

Begin the walk from the northeast corner of San Vicente Boulevard and Melrose Avenue. Looming overhead rises the Pacific Design Center’s monochromatic monolith known locally as the “Blue Whale.”

Designed in 1975 by architect Cesar Pelli and Gruen Associates, the 530-foot-long electric-blue galleria holds 750,000 square feet of wholesale interior-design showroom space on seven floors. While the showrooms are open only to the trade, the Design Center allows the public to window-browse on weekdays.

Walk north on San Vicente Boulevard to the landscaped park in front of the center’s newest leviathan, nicknamed the “Emerald City” because of its green glass sheathing. Built in 1987, the 425,000-square-foot domed tower rises eight stories above a two-acre public park with fountains and an amphitheater.

Within several years, a third adjacent structure will be built, adding 400,000 square feet on seven levels, and covered in maroon glass.

Art Galleries Abound

Explore the plaza, then return to Melrose, turn right and walk west to Robertson Boulevard. In the past few years, several art galleries and clothing boutiques have opened in the district, leasing space vacated by showrooms that have moved to the expanded Pacific Design Center.

As you walk, observe the architecture and window displays facing the avenue. Caz Gallery features aborigine paintings at No. 8715. Country Tiles at No. 8735 offers a picturesque facade with its terra- cotta trim, ceramic tiles and black wrought-iron gates leading into a garden court. Kurland/Summers Gallery at No. 8742 displays glass and ceramic artworks, and the newly remodeled showroom of Walker Zanger at No. 8750 resembles a small Italian Renaissance palazzo with its columned portico and setback triangular pediment.

Trumps, one of Los Angeles’ haut monde restaurants, serves California cuisine and a traditional afternoon tea at No. 8764. Morton’s, another fashionable, stylish restaurant, hides behind unpretentious pastel pink stucco walls at No. 8800.

Farther along Melrose Avenue are Maxfield (No. 8825) and Estevez Enterprises (No. 8810), two haute couture clothing stores set in Minimalist structures. Fiorella Urbinati Gallery at No. 8818 currently showcases paintings by Le Corbusier.

Walk south on Robertson Boulevard. This two-lane, pedestrian-oriented road forms the spine of the design district. It is lined with small-scaled showrooms and shops offering everything from floor coverings and stone finishes to fabrics, French antiques and office furniture.

Coffee Shop Popular

Ed’s Coffee Shop, 460 Robertson Blvd., popular for breakfast and lunch, attracts a faithful clientele of locals and designers. Nearly hidden behind sea-foam green and lavender walls, the 454 North Gallery is entered through a bamboo-shaded courtyard.

Turn right on Dorrington Avenue into the adjacent residential neighborhood. Mediterranean-style bungalows built in the 1920s, many lushly landscaped, line this quiet lane. A few, however, have been transformed into designer cottages with exaggerated doorways and other individualized facades.

Turn left on Almont Drive, walk south one block and turn left on Ashcroft Avenue. A “Beverly Hills French” maisonette stands at No. 8937, its black mansard roof providing a niche for a Napoleonic bust overlooking topiary hedges. Other nearby cottages have been accessorized with more subtle detailing.

Two-Story Cottage

Turn right on Robertson Boulevard, walk south two blocks and turn right on Beverly Boulevard, walking along the north side of the street. At No. 8823, peer into the windows at George Wallach French Country Antiques, housed in a two-story cottage with carriage lanterns and flower boxes.

Continue walking west past the Writers Guild of America headquarters at No. 8955. At Almont Drive, cross Beverly Boulevard and return to Robertson Boulevard on the other side of the street. Pace Collection Inc. at No. 8936 features an entry lined with Norwegian pink marble. At 8904 Beverly Blvd., Courant displays iridescent crystal chandeliers.

Many Antique Shops

The Antiquarius Building at No. 8840 contains an emporium of boutiques open to the public, including Kaleido, a fascinating collection of kaleidoscopes, and Pane Caldo, an Italian trattoria on the second floor, with balcony seating overlooking the Hollywood Hills.

At No. 8818 stands a shimmering example of Zigzag Moderne architecture, newly renovated in aqua-blue and green with gold trim. Design Express at No. 8808 originally was the Herman Miller Showroom, built in 1949 and designed by Charles Eames. This early showroom pioneered the design industry’s settlement in West Hollywood.

Turn right on Robertson Boulevard. Many retail stores, cafes and offices have joined the wholesale showrooms along this stretch. Arthur Erikson Architects at No. 125; the Ivy Restaurant at No. 113; Agnes b. clothing store at No. 100; Chaya Brasserie, 8741 Alden Drive, and Los Angeles’ legendary bakery, Michel Richard Patisserie at No. 316 Robertson.

Turn left on 3rd Street, walking east toward Beverly Center. Along the way you will pass some interesting designer restaurants, including Mabe at No. 8722, a new bistro richly decorated with an onyx entry. Viktor Benes Bakery at No. 8718 is a neighborhood landmark with its European pastries and breads. Orso, a new trattoria serving Venetian specialties, stands at No. 8706. One of Los Angeles’ tempting chocolatiers, A Bit o’ Sweetland, at No. 8560, is found next to another gourmet bakery, B & L Bakery.

Atop Earthquake Fault

At San Vicente Boulevard and 3rd Street rises the Beverly Center, the Gargantuan eight-story shopping mall painted in elephant-dung brown. Startlingly, the mall stands on shaky ground as it sits atop the Santa Monica Earthquake Fault, oil wells and an underground stream bed; la cienega literally means the swamp.

Walk east on 3rd Street and turn left on La Cienega Boulevard, noting the massive scale and uninspired design of the mall, helped little by the Georges Pompidou Centre-inspired, glass-enclosed escalator tubes.

Ride the escalators up into the shopping mall, walk through its central hallway toward Bullock’s, and then ride the escalators down to Beverly Boulevard. Inside, the mall’s 100 stores, 16 cinemas and dozen restaurants provide much more effective design.

Continue west on Beverly Boulevard and stop at the Hard Rock Cafe. Always packed with tourists and trendies of every style, the boisterous cafe, stuffed with rock ‘n’ roll memorabilia, is as loud as the inside of a jukebox.

Cross Beverly Boulevard, noting the nearby Tail o’ the Pup at 343 San Vicente Blvd. Built in 1938, the giant hot-dog-shaped cafe represents one of Los Angeles’ last remaining examples of programmatic architecture, whereby the building’s shape revealed to passing motorists the product being sold.

Hotel Just Opened

Walk east on Beverly Boulevard alongside the Ma Maison Sofitel hotel. Opened this year, the 311-room luxury hotel, with its mismatched facade of reflecting glass, unfinished stucco and metal mansard roof, invites the public to dine in the new Ma Maison restaurant (reservations recommended) and La Cajole Brasserie.

Turn left on La Cienega Boulevard and, at No. 385, turn left onto Westmount Drive. At the small traffic circle, veer to the right and walk north on West Knoll Drive one more block to Melrose Avenue and turn left.

The two-story building at 8500 Melrose, covered in black-and-white-striped marble with coral-colored window panes, has been nicknamed “the bleeding zebra” by locals.

Heritage Book Shop offers a remarkable collection of antiquarian and rare books at No. 8540. J. Gerard, No. 8575, creates designer women’s apparel, described as “the ultimate goddess collection.”

The Bodhi Tree at No. 8585 provides what may be the region’s most extensive selection of metaphysical literature and paraphernalia; walk inside the incense-scented shop, help yourself to herbal tea and browse.

Finally, stop in J. Sloans at No. 8623, a lively neighborhood pub in a Chinese-red and lemon-yellow building, kaleidoscopic against the nearby Blue Whale and domed Emerald City.