Spring Market in Los Angeles

Each year the Pacific Design Center (the PDC) holds its annual market in late March in West Hollywood, California. The PDC began construction in 1975 as a complex of three glass-clad buildings designed by the mega-architect Cesar Pelli. The blue building opened first, followed by the green building, and now the red building is almost completed. They all converge on a central park.

The blue building, which we in the know call the Blue Whale, holds the interior design showrooms.

Niermann Weeks is represented by Nancy Corzine, and I was fortunate to run into Nancy herself during market. She, like all of us, was busy visiting all the showrooms to see new product and old friends as well as to learn all we can about the state of our industry today.

In Nancy’s showroom, she has dedicated two rooms to Niermann Weeks, showing off our Crillon and Cristobal Chandeliers and other lighting, Loire Bed, Renishaw Commode, and French Club Chair.

She also has our designs integrated in vignettes throughout the showroom, indicating to customers how easily we all mix and match together. Here’s me photographing a vignette that’s anchored by our Baltic Console.

A hot finish shown at many showrooms looked like oak that has been scrubbed down to reveal its grain pattern.

Niermann Weeks has featured a similar but warmer finish since 1995, shown here in our Renishaw Commode, which makes me feel proud that my company led the trend.

Moving on from my bragging, let me observe that the PDC’s market goes by the name of West Week, since it once lasted a full five work days. That time frame has shrunk over the years, and is now down to 1 ½ days. Another change is that showrooms have either closed during this Great Recession or have moved into smaller, freestanding buildings on the nearby streets. I think well over half the PDC showrooms are empty now, with the display windows covered over in brown paper or showing an art display.

Enough showrooms have moved out onto La Cienega Boulevard between Santa Monica Boulevard and Melrose Avenue, so that the city has recognized that area as the La Cienega Design Quarter.

It took me just as long to visit the showrooms in the PDC as in the store-fronts on La Cienega. I can’t judge which is the better location, but I did enjoy walking outside from shop to shop.

Having sent home emails filled with the results of my industrial espionage, I then turned to a couple days of pure enjoyment in the California sun. My taxi took me past one of my favorite sites, the oil rigs pumping near the LAX airport. The rigs look like prehistoric creatures with their hammer-heads bopping up and down to pull the oil out of the ground.

A client invited me to dine under my Italian Chandelier in their home.

Then my sister-in-law and I walked the beach at Newport Beach wearing sweatshirts against the chill while enjoying the natural life, including this juvenile sea lion swimming around the pier looking for easy feeding.