By Daily Press staff
Santa Monica is becoming the mecca for home and design stores. To prove it, downtown officials want you to take a walk around.
The Santa Monica Design District is hosting the first annual “Design Walk” on Thursday from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. The public walk will highlight 10 area design studios specializing in modern design for the home and office, as well as two stores devoted to books on the arts and architecture.
“Santa Monica is the new hub for design studios,” said Amelia Dalgaard, area manager for Design Within Reach. “Many of us found ourselves literally hand-drawing maps for our customers of other cool places to shop in the area for home and office design services and products. Out of that came the Design District and the Design Walk to acquaint our customers and other shoppers with all of the great design resources Santa Monica has to offer.”
Santa Monica Design District members include Arcana Books, Boffi Los Angeles, Design Within Reach, Dolce Dormire, Eames Office Gallery, Functions, Hennessey + Ingalls Books, Highlights Lighting, In-Ex, Knoll, Shelter and Vitra.
Visitors to the fall open house will receive a “Design Walk Passport” and map. They are invited to visit each showroom and store for refreshments and to view all of the collections. A passport stamped at all 12 featured design spots qualifies Design Walk participants for one of 12 prizes. Passports and maps may be picked up at any of Design Walk’s participating businesses.
Each location will have on display Charles and Ray Eames’ interlocking “House Of Cards” pieces. The original cards were designed in 1952 as a child’s toy. For Design Walk, the cards will be used as the building blocks for a creative execution of the theme, “What is a Home,” by 12 elementary through high school classes from Santa Monica schools.
Design Walk is sponsored by Interior Design Magazine, Metropolitan Pacific, the Santa Monica Convention and Visitors Bureau, and the Bayside District Corp. Santa Monica-based artist John Van Hammersveld, who designed the poster for “Endless Summer,” created the artwork for the Design Walk.
The Bayside District Corp. is a nonprofit entity created by City Hall to manage the daily operations of downtown Santa Monica and the Third Street Promenade.
Metropolitan Pacific is a Santa Monica-based commercial real estate company. Design Walk participants: Arcana Books On The Arts 1229 Third Street Promenade Boffi LA 1344 Fourth St. Design Within Reach 332 Santa Monica Blvd. Dolce Dormire 1345 Fourth St. Eames Office Gallery 2665 Main St. Functions 1454 Lincoln Blvd.
Hennessy + Ingalls 214 Wilshire Blvd. Highlights Lighting 2427 Main St. In-Ex 1431 Colorado Ave., # B Knoll Inc. 214 Wilshire Blvd., # 200 Shelter 1433 Fifth St. Vitra 1327 Fifth St.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on October 1, 2003. Read the original PDF.