Comments (0) Best Design Workshop - 2010
Eames Workshop
For appreciators and collectors of top-notch, modern American furniture and product design, husband-and-wife team Charles and Ray Eames are the very pinnacle of perfection. Rarely does there exist one gold-standard brand that carries so much weight in the name alone. Their following is beyond fanatical. Just whisper “Eames” in any crowd of well-heeled aesthetes and watch feet stop, eyeballs bulge and mouths drool. The magical workshop where these two created for 30 years sits right on Abbot Kinney Boulevard in Venice. It was once full of labs, design stations, filmmaking sets, even a huge aquarium. Among other feats of innovation, the Eameses used plastic molding methods developed for World War II to create some of their award-winning chairs. (Bumper-sticker idea: Make chairs, not war!) Since a renovation by architect Frank Israel, today the Eames Workshop remains valuable Venice real estate and awaits a visit by design-o-philes seeking their own historical mecca. 901 Abbot Kinney Blvd., Venice. —Adam Gropman
