Chair and mirror in a loft
The high design you can buy on Washington Avenue is itself an architectural triumph.
By Susan Caba
Photographs by Frank Di Piazza
I saw the Arch for the first time when I was 12. We were visiting cousins in St. Louis, and the Arch had just been finished. It was new and shiny and, I thought, a rather odd structure. I didn't know what to make of it. Thirty-some years later, when we moved here, I was glad to see that the Arch was still shiny. Eero Saarinen's design seemed as new and fresh as it had in 1965, and--best of all--I could see in its gleaming lines the beauty, grace and mystery of its design. My taste had evolved.
I had the same feeling recently, shopping the cluster of design stores that have opened recently in the Washington Avenue loft district, mostly east of Tucker. So many of the designs are clean and spare and classic, in the Modern sense. The furnishings are the perfect foil for the mellow texture of the brick warehouses that have been converted into residential spaces. St. Louis, which is often disparaged for taste that is too traditional or rigid, has made room in its heart for the sleek, the sophisticated, the sublime of 20th century design.
"I think there is hope for us, here," says Hansi Hommel in a charming Austrian accent. "In the early days, you have to go to Chicago for high-end, contemporary classic furniture. Now, there is a contemporary market here."
Hommel and Evan Bronstein are partners in Baseline (1110 Washington, 314-621-9188), a showroom of contemporary kitchen and closet systems, accessories and furnishings. The two architects run their practice from the mezzanine of the two-story space. In one corner of the showroom is a clean-lined kitchen display with stainless-steel countertops and drawers that slide as though on silk. In the front window is a sectional Poliform closet system I could use for entertaining. (Why is it that closets are always displayed with so few clothes--all of them monochromatic? Is there anyone who doesn't have a pile of dry-cleaning in one corner? OK, OK, I know--showrooms are selling dreams.) I was also drawn to a three-panel system of ultrasimple sliding glass doors hung in an original brick archway. The glass and brick seemed a perfect balance of yin and yang. "They cost very much money," says Hommel, "around $3,000 a panel."
I have learned something about Modern or contemporary furniture (Modern referring to a particular 20th century design period and style, "contemporary" to furniture that is of-the-moment). What I have learned is that, if you have a good eye, it mixes and balances easily with other styles. A case in point is the hand-blown glass light fixture by local artist Ben Kline—egg-yolk yellow and orange, it resembles a cross between the sun and a sea urchin—that hangs in the Baseline showroom. I could see it over a contemporary dining table, but it would also lend punch to an otherwise traditional dining room. This can be a tricky balance, but it's one that St. Louisans are learning—and not just the experimenters and empty-nesters who are moving to the loft district. "We were assuming our clients would come from downtown," says Hommel. "But 50 percent of our clients come from West County. There is hope for us."
Niche (922 Washington, 314-621- 8131) carries classic Modern furniture. The familiar designs of Frank Gehry, Knoll and Herman Miller are visible through the showroom windows, which are also hung with the history of some of those illustrious names. I lust after a Barcelona chair, the iconic black leather-and-steel seat designed in 1929 by Mies van der Rohe, the 20th century architect known for the mantra of Modernism, "Less is more."
The Mossa Center (1214 Washington, 314-241-5199) carries contemporary furniture with good curves and bold colors, notably the designs of Ligne Roset, Eames and Artemide. I like the statement in the front of the Ligne Roset catalog: "Furniture is good when you don't have to think about it." Get a good piece, of whatever style, and it should mix with other good pieces.
Accessories are the jewelry of a household. UMA (313 N. 11th, 314-241-9990) is filled with household baubles. Owner Mike Finan opened the shop in November, after recovering from an accident in which he was hit—literally—by two buses. "I just got a wild hair and opened up," he says. "It's fun down here." UMA carries everything from incense to BYOB bags in colorful dive-suit rubber to stainless-steel dog bowls to a room screen assembled from bits of slate and stone and wood, with a feeling almost of American Indian totems or fetishes. Finan lives in a loft above the store.
What I realized as I strolled the loft district is that tastes and history go in cycles. When I first started buying furniture, fresh out of college, I went to farm sales and antique stores looking for golden-oak dressers and brass lighting fixtures. I thought I would "move up" in taste and pocketbook to pricier Victorian walnut pieces such as Belter sofas and highboys. Instead, my taste simplified. I now covet Asian and Modern furniture. The renaissance of the loft district indicates to me that St. Louis is going through the same transformation: an appreciation of the past mixed with a simultaneous willingness to embrace the future.
