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Architecture and design studio OWIU Studio has renovated an apartment in an old factory in Downtown Los Angeles, adding Japanese design elements to the industrial space. More
Designer Adi Goodrich has created the interiors for Wine and Eggs, a neighbourhood grocery in Los Angeles’ Atwater Village, with custom-made furniture and details that nod to Parisian cafes and Italian tobacconists. More
Vibrant green walls surround a chunky rammed-earth counter in this garden-themed pop-up shop in LA that creatives Alex Reed and Dutra Brown have designed for lifestyle brand Flamingo Estate.Flamingo Estate’s Harvest Shop pop-up takes over a retail unit in Platform, a high-end shopping centre in LA’s Culver City area.
The shop offers an array of the brand’s holistic products for the body and home, along with its range of pantry foods, which includes items such as extra-virgin olive oil, honey and dark chocolate.
Many products are made with ingredients grown on the grounds of Flamingo Estate, which is tucked away in the hills of the nearby Eagle Rock neighbourhood. Its sprawling garden is host to 150 different species of flowering plants and shrubs, as well as a fruit orchard, vegetable beds and a hive of bees.
A rammed-earth counter sits at the centre of Harvest Shop
This lush landscape became a key point of reference for the pop-up’s designers, locally-based creatives Alex Reed and Dutra Brown.
Together they sought to fashion a space that resembled “a small, secret corner of the estate itself…as if it was lifted from the earth and brought to the store”.
An abstract sculpture perches on one end of the counter
At the centre of the shop is a monolithic counter crafted from rammed earth. The bottom of the counter is inset with different-coloured fragments of stone, while the top features a cluster of white-tile blocks and platforms on which products are presented.
To ensure the tiles could be used again post pop-up, a simple mixture of mud and earth was used as grout.
A corner of the counter is dominated by an amorphous sculpture that Reed and Brown created using scagliola – a type of plaster typically made from gypsum, glue and pigments.
A mural depicting trees and rolling hills acts as a backdrop to the counter
“For Flamingo Estate’s first physical location, we looked to the company’s ‘hands-in-the dirt’ ideals of what is luxurious and covetable today,” the pair said.
“We’ve utilized our respective expertise to design and build a project centred around materiality – this collage of organic material and sculptural form, together with provenance and fantasy, celebrates what we love about Flamingo Estate.”
Frida Escobedo segments Aesop Park Slope with rammed-earth brickwork
The garden theme continues onto Harvest Shop’s walls, where LA-based artist Abel Macias has painted a rich, green mural.
“Richard [Christiansen, owner of Flamingo Estate] and I talked about a concept based around Snow White, the enchanted little forest that she lives in that’s sort of dark but very magical and green in a way,” explained Macias.
“We came up with this landscape that’s rolling hills and swirly trees, keeping everything in the tonal green world so that it feels verdant and very lush [in the store].”
Emerald-coloured paint covers a wall on the opposite side of the shop, which is mounted with rows of glass jars filled with various natural ingredients.
Another wall is mounted with rows of glass jars
Flamingo Estate is overseen by creative director Richard Christiansen. Beyond the estate’s garden lies a Spanish colonial-style house that, since the beginning of 2020, has operated as a chic retreat for creative people in Los Angeles.
Its Harvest Shop pop-up isn’t the only retail project to have made use of rammed earth. Last year, Mexican architect Frida Escobedo applied rammed-earth bricks to the walls of an Aesop store in Brooklyn, New York, to emulate the facade of the brownstone townhouses seen around the area.
Photography is by Adrian Gaut.
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Luxury fashion label Dries Van Noten has opened its first US store in Los Angeles, which boasts interiors filled with artworks from creatives across the globe.Dries Van Noten’s LA store takes over two buildings that sit on a huge parking lot along La Cienega Boulevard. The first building is a two-floor property that has been dubbed Big House, the second, called Little House, is a 1950s-era bungalow completely shrouded by ivy.
Together the buildings measure 8,500 square feet (790 square meters), making this the Belgian fashion brand’s largest retail space to date.
Dries Van Noten’s LA store is split into Big House and Little House
Clothing collections are presented inside Big House, with womenswear on the ground floor and menswear up on the first floor.
The brand’s in-house design team took charge of the interiors – founder Dries van Noten, who was stuck outside the US due to coronavirus travel restrictions, would “visit” the space every evening via FaceTime calls with staff members.
Simple white-painted walls and concrete flooring appears throughout. A few elements in the store, like the accessory display plinths and chesterfield-style sofas, are a sunny shade of yellow – a colour deemed synonymous with Dries Van Noten’s brand identity.
Big House displays the brand’s fashion collections
Decor is provided by striking artworks from a roster of local and international creatives. Some pieces, such as the mixed-media collages by LA-based artist Jan Gatewood, have been executed directly on the store’s walls as murals.
“I didn’t want to have that gallery feeling where everything is mercantile…it’s more like graffiti,” Van Noten explained.
Artwork and musical instruments have been dotted throughout
“While showcasing the Dries Van Noten collections this place will be a haven for creative encounters and gathering experiences that embraces the creative pulse of Los Angeles and its creative and fashion community” added the brand explained in a statement.
“These experiences can be as light-hearted as they can be profound, yet they will always be welcoming to all and informal.”
Sculptural furnishings by Rotterdam-based designer Johan Viladrich are also on display, as well as busts of tattooed human heads by Czech artist Richard Stipl.
Big House includes an archive room that presents pieces from old Dries Van Noten collections. Photo by Jeff Forney
Big House additionally includes archive rooms which are haphazardly plastered with old catwalk and campaign imagery of Dries Van Noten designs.
Here customers are able to purchase pieces from past collections – some of which date back to the 1990s – and once health and safety restrictions have been lifted post-pandemic, re-sell garments from the brand that they no longer want.
“It’s not only about sustainability reasons, but it’s the whole idea that a beautiful garment stays beautiful even if other people have been wearing it – and I like the idea that you have new clothes and old clothes all together in the same store,” added Van Noten.
Foliage-filled plant beds line the outside of the store. Photo by Gareth Kantner
To access Little House, shoppers must walk past a series of plant beds overspilling with tropical foliage, which were included in homage to Van Noten’s passion for gardening and the brand’s frequent use of botanical prints.
The bungalow acts as an exhibition space which, going forward, will showcase different furniture, textiles, ceramics and photography from both established and emerging creatives.
Currently on display is a collection of porcelain tableware created by Van Noten’s longtime friend, fashion designer Ann Demeulemeester, and Belgian brand Serax.
Dries Van Noten pays homage to Verner Panton with colourful SS19 collection
The brand also hopes that, in time, the parking lot can host large-scale events, and has plans to transform it into everything from a drive-in cinema to a food-tasting space.
Little House will serve as an exhibition space. Photo by Jeff Forney
Dries Van Noten’s Los Angeles store joins branches in Tokyo, Osaka, Singapore, Paris and a flagship in Antwerp – but the brand’s founder already has his sights set on opening the doors to a store over on the east coast of the US.
“Of course the space is very important, it really has to be the right building – the moment we find that, we’ll be in New York.”
Photography is by Jim Mangan unless stated otherwise.
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Vancouver studio Peter Cardew has designed this store in Los Angeles for an athletic wear clothing company to allude to the aesthetic of a gym.The Reigning Champ store at 115 South La Brea Avenue in Los Angeles features walls covered in white glazed tiles, concrete floors and wooden clothing rails – simple materials chosen by Peter Cardew to follow the style of a gymnasium.
“In order to connect the customer with the product the design of the Los Angeles store obliquely alludes to the domain of a gym, providing an harmonious setting appropriate for the display of athletic clothing,” the studio explained.
“The choice of materials reinforces the relationship to sporting activity with the use of functional and utilitarian white glazed tile as wall and bench surfaces, polished concrete floors, and display fixtures fabricated using western hemlock, a plentiful economic wood with a straight grain efficiency,” it added.
“All culminating to convey a functional place of activity akin to any effective sporting milieu.”
Piles of folded clothes are stored in the base of the wooden clothing racks that are suspended on rails from the ceiling.
The wooden structures, which are braced with metalwork, have wheels fitted the top of the wooden structures so they can be easily moved around the store.
“In keeping with this active rather than passive environment the display fixtures are infinitely mobile being suspended from concrete beams attached to wheeled tracks which easily allows for changing seasonal configurations,” the studio added.
Commune designs Serra marijuana dispensary in Los Angeles to be airy and luxurious
“In addition, to facilitate yet more changes these fixtures are simply bolted together so that they can be removed for special events, celebrations, or exhibitions.”
Photograph by Andrew Latreille
The materiality continues into the changing rooms, whose doors feature an opening with a built-in wooden shelf so customers can swap clothes with Reigning Champ salespeople.
Reigning Champ spans the ground floor of its building with two large windows offering views and natural light into the space.
The project, which is longlisted in the large retail interior category of Dezeen Awards 2020, marks the first in the US for the Canadian clothing brand. It is its fifth in total following two in Vancouver and two in Toronto.
Other shops recently completed in Los Angeles include a marijuana dispensary Commune designed to be airy and luxurious, and a dramatically narrow, runway-like space Bernard Dubois designed as the first store for sneaker brand APL.
Photography is by Mike Kelly, unless stated otherwise.
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Los Angles practice Studio Collective has renovated a mid-century building in the city designed by modernist architect Welton Becket in the 1960s to create a laid-back hotel.Hotel June is a 250-room property in a white, 12-storey tower designed by Los Angeles architect Welton Becket in 1968.
Becket built a number of modernist buildings in the city, including the rounded Capitol Records Building, Koreatown’s Equitable Life Building skyscraper and the Los Angeles Music Center’s Ahmanson Theater near Frank Gehry’s metallic Walt Disney Concert Hall.
This building, which is in Los Angeles’ beachside community of Playa Del Rey on Lincoln Boulevard, was previously another hotel before it was overhauled by Studio Collective.
While the exterior was left intact, the interiors are refreshed with many built-in oak pieces, terrazzo floors and woven accents. Pink and green details add a pop of colour.
The interiors have “a sense of the new and dynamic through coastal influences and a true California spirit” said the studio. The hotel features a pared-back feeling with natural materials and subtle use of colour.
A lobby has cream terrazzo floors, a wood-clad ceiling and a bright painting on a wall designed by Brooklyn artist Alex Proba. Becket’s granddaughter, Alexandra Becket, also created wallpapers for other areas of the hotel.
Hotel rooms have white walls, woven carpeting and a mixture of modernist and more contemporary furniture pieces, including Hem sofas. Bright blue and grey are integrated into the suites for visual contrast.
“Hotel June is at once airy and cosy, blending clean lines and warm natural woods, earthy finishes, and custom furnishings,” the studio said.
Lush courtyards surround 1 Hotel West Hollywood in Los Angeles
White oak closets, custom platform beds and wooden daybeds are intended to evoke mid‐century designs, like those by Charles and Ray Eames and relate to the building’s history.
“Guestrooms and corridors play with colour-blocking geometries (that recall the work of local mid-century industrial designers Charles and Ray Eames),” Studio Collective said.
Bathrooms have black fixtures and showers are clad in small, square tiles in grey with dark grout.
In the hotel’s restaurant and sitting area, glass walls are shaded by slatted oak wood screens to help filter natural sunlight. A white, curved sofa and a large woven light fixture decorate the lounge, while the dining area has dark terrazzo floors and wood furniture.
Hotel June is complete with an outdoor swimming pool, patio, an outdoor bar and restaurant, a fire pit and indoor gym.
The property, which is called Hotel June to reflect new beginnings and California’s year-round summer sensibility, is the brainchild of Proper Hospitality co-founders Brian De Lowe and Brad Korzen.
The Proper hotels in California, which are designed by Kelly Wearstler, include Santa Monica Proper with a similarly relaxed style and San Francisco Proper overflowing with colourful art and furniture.
Hotel June joins a number of hotels recently completed in Los Angeles, like Ace Hotel, the West Hollywood Edition Hotel by Ian Schrager and John Pawson, Arts District Firehouse Hotel and 1 Hotel West Hollywood.
Photography is by The Ingalls.
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Oak and brass display cabinets fill this cannabis dispensary in Los Angeles that local studio Commune designed to look like a jewellery store. Commune designed the store for Portland brand Serra that sells and produces cannabis products, from caramel treats to pre-rolled joints. Serra, whose Portland flagship was designed by OMFGCo and JHL Design, tasked […] More
Arched doorways, altar-like tables and a nave-style display area feature in this Los Angeles showroom that McLaren Excell has designed for bathroom brand The Splash Lab. The Splash Lab’s showroom takes over a converted factory in LA’s Culver City area that was originally built back in the 1930s. As this is the bathroom brand’s US […] More
