High-tech, the Eames way

PRICES for the designs of Charles and Ray Eames “got crazy” starting about five years ago, says Peter Loughrey, owner of Los Angeles Modern Auctions. “Everybody wanted in.” Although mass-manufactured items have peaked, Eames rarities continue to escalate in price. Sunday, Loughrey hopes to realize upwards of $150,000 for the Eameses’ displays for the IBM Pavilion at the 1964 World’s Fair. A 16-foot-tall hexagonal structure, whose ceiling reads “Think,” above, was part of the designer duo’s “deliberate attempt to create visually friendly Americana” that would draw people to learn about then-newfangled computers, Loughrey says. The assemblage of IBM circuit boards, left, has the Pop Art irony of Claes Oldenburg’s oversized objects, he adds. Previews of more than 350 lots run from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. today through Saturday in Suite B229 at the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood. The auction starts at noon Sunday. (323) 904-1950, www.lamodern.com.

-- David A. Keeps

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SEEN

Frontyard salad bar

Inspired by the victory gardens of World War II and the writings of food journalist Michael Pollan, architect and educator Fritz Haeg recently finished the first California installment of his Edible Estates initiative, an effort to replace water-guzzling, chemical-laden front lawns with a most appetizing alternative. Haeg aims to plant nine vegetable gardens nationwide in the next three years. In addition to the Edible Estate planted last month in Lakewood, another will be installed in August, Haeg says, on a rooftop in downtown L.A. Images of the Lakewood garden, produced in collaboration with the Millard Sheets Gallery, will be part of an exhibition at the L.A. County Fair from Sept. 8 to Oct. 1. Until then, see the Lakewood garden for yourself at 6530 Denmead St., or log onto www.edibleestates.org for more details on the project and tips on creating your own bounty.

-- Lili Singer

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HAPPENING

Sci-fi smackdown

If you like “Nacho Libre,” the new Jack Black Mexican wrestler comedy, check out the source material. At the Drkrm gallery in Glassell Park, “The Haunted Hacienda” immortalizes characters who made the leap from the lucha libre smackdown circuit to the big screen in Mexican outer space and horror flicks. Mixing sex, sci-fi and sizzling graphics, lobby cards such as this 12-by-16-inch poster from 1969 start at $100 framed. Through June 24. (323) 223-6867, www.drkrm.com.

-- David A. Keeps

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SCRIMP/SPLURGE

Step lightly or steep

Left: Kelly Wearstler, who splashed the Viceroy hotel in Santa Monica with her brand of Hollywood Regency, will have devotees on their feet thanks to a plush new wool carpeting collection. The Tangier Tile pattern is $70 a square foot to the trade at F. Schumacher in West Hollywood, (310) 652-5353.

Right: The Santa Monica West Elm store’s Moroccan window rugs offer Wearstler-style graphic punch at a lower price. This reversible wool-cotton floor covering runs $5 to $6 a square foot ($89 for 3-by-5, $399 for 8-by-10). www.westelm.com.

-- David A. Keeps