Strutting L.A.’s Stuff
How can classic Hollywood estates be restored, renewed and infused with 1998 glamour, and who is doing it? What is real and what is virtual in the new technology age? How are movie set designers influencing lifestyles around the world?
These are some of the questions to be examined during the Pacific Design Center’s WestWeek ’98 scheduled for March 18-20. Invitations have gone out, promising that this year’s event--the 23rd annual--has been “revamped, revitalized and recharged.”
What this means, say sponsors, is both an unprecedented focus on the design talent in Los Angeles and an expanded role for the center itself. Although its gleaming emerald green and cobalt blue ceramic glass buildings dominate the West Hollywood skyline, the design center, known as the “Blue Whale,” has been criticized over the years as being artistically aloof.
“It was built to be psychologically intimidating,” says Joel Polachek, who became chief operating officer a year ago. “Part of our mission is to make this facility more accessible. It was historically viewed as a furniture and fabric mart for the trade. We want to enlarge that into a center of design.”
Since the opening of its first building, Center Blue, in 1975 (Center Green opened in 1988 and a third, Center Red, still awaits) the stylish complex, designed by architect Cesar Pelli, has filled an unusual civic role. “Almost every city has some sort of design-merchandise mart, often built near the railroad tracks,” said Polachek. “Ours is unique in being built only for design, in a stylish part of town.” While it flourished during the flush 1980s as a private shopping destination for designers and their clients, the center, owned by San Francisco-based Catellus Development and Worldwide Design of New York, groping for a friendlier identity, has launched a vigorous “image-awareness” campaign to bring in the public.
This includes a model IdeaHouse offering trends in every category of home furnishings, which attracts about 30,000 visitors a year. The center’s 150 showrooms, currently about three-quarters occupied, now house such complementary industries as advertising, architecture and graphics, as well as its traditional design base. Although the WestWeek conference itself will continue to be invitational, many of the exhibits will remain open to the public. And a first-ever “Design Walk” on March 20 will convert the surrounding neighborhood to an art, music and food festival.
Further spotlighting Los Angeles as a design destination, NeoCon West, a conference and exposition for commercial interior design, will make its debut on March 19-20 at the Convention Center. As a regional expansion of the Chicago-based NeoCon World Trade Fair, the show will include more than 200 companies exhibiting office, health care and residential products.
This year’s theme for WestWeek is “To Live and Design in L.A.” It’s an acknowledgment that design excellence begins at home, said Elaine Mutchnik, marketing vice president. “We’ve stayed focused on our own backyard this year,” she said.
It’s a new spin for WestWeek, which last year celebrated European design. “We have phenomenal talent here,” said Bret Parsons, design center business director. “Los Angeles is setting trends in every direction.”
To emphasize the diversity, Mutchnik and Parsons have assembled seven keynote panel discussions over the three days, each examining a different area of the city’s design life.
They’ll spotlight Los Angeles interior designers who are increasingly creating their own furniture lines, said Parsons, and such major architectural projects as the new Getty Center.
“We’ll look at the Hollywood influence of the set designer and the multimedia explosion here,” he said. “Another panel will discuss the classic Hollywood estates being restored and renewed.”
Other topics will include the influence of car design on clothes and other aspects of culture, and the exterior expressions, such as fountains, sculpture and signs, of a city that lives outdoors.
WestWeek, whose attendance has leveled off at between 15,000 and 18,000 after peaking at 30,000 during the ‘80s, is attended by an international mix of designers, architects, manufacturers and showroom owners.
Augmenting the panel discussions will be a dozen major exhibits that will remain open to the public for up to six weeks. These range from “L.A. Modern and Beyond,” signature furniture by architects such as Greene & Greene and Richard Neutra; to the FilmArt collection of original production designs from Oscar-winning films; to “25 Coolest Projects” from cutting-edge architects.
To wind up WestWeek on a local note, the city of West Hollywood will launch its first Design Walk on March 20 from 6 to 9 p.m. It will be a showcase for the area dubbed the Avenues of Art and Design, said Donald Savoie, executive director of the West Hollywood Chamber of Commerce.
The area, centered around Melrose Avenue and Beverly and Robertson boulevards, is known for its profusion of fine art galleries and design services, showrooms, multimedia companies and restaurants. “We wanted to promote its art and design, and it seemed a natural to tie in with an established event,” Savoie said.
Showrooms will be open for browsing, galleries are planning special openings, and there will be entertainment and food events, he said. “The goal is to promote the entire area for everyone.”
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WestWeek information: (310) 358-8000. Design Walk information: (213) 650-2668.
