By Daily Press staff
It’s time to wine and design your way around Santa Monica. The Santa Monica Design District is host to the third annual installation of “Wine & Design,” a walking tour of contemporary home and office design showrooms, each offering tastings of regional wines in the surroundings of exceptional design.
The tour will be held on Thursday, Oct. 27, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. The starting point will be Fourth Street and Santa Monica Boulevard. Guests are invited to start the tour at the corner of Fourth Street and Santa Monica Boulevard, where they will be given maps and shuttle service to showrooms beyond walking distance. The shuttle will take people to: ■ Eames Office Gallery and Store, 2665 Main St. ■ Highlights, 2427 Main St. ■ Haworth, 1601 Cloverfield Blvd. ■ Neoporte, 1550 18th St. The Wine & Design walking tour was established to bring focus to Santa Monica as a destination for contemporary design. The walking tour has become a favorite annual event in the design district as it helps to build synergies within the Westside design community.
This year each participating showroom location will feature a tasting of a wine originating from the same region of the showroom’s design. For instance Boffi, designers of Italian kitchens, will feature Italian wines. Eames Office Gallery will serve Californian wines and Design Within Reach will focus on wines from Spain.
The Santa Monica Design District is a group of designer showrooms with focus on design for both the home and workplace. When West Hollywood began losing its appeal as a destination for design a number of leading design resources chose Santa Monica as their home.
“We chose to launch the new Boffi LA showroom in Santa Monica for a couple of reasons,” said Mark Robinson, president of Boffi LA and board chairman of the Santa Monica Design District remarks. “First, we fell in love with the building, but just as important we found Santa Monica a very pleasant city for our business. Santa Monica has a welcoming small city charm with plenty of parking and atmosphere.”
This season the district welcomes Linea, Teknion, Haworth and West Elm. Members include Boffi LA, Design Within Reach, Eames Office Gallery and Store, Hennessey + Ingalls, Haworth, Highlights Lighting, Linea, Knoll, Neoporte, Shelter, Steelcase, Teknion and West Elm.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on October 27, 2005. Read the original PDF.