Page 180 - People & Places In Time

Interior Dimensions
A chain of stores called Design Research existed around the country
in the early 1970’s. The particular store I visited often, was in the Embarcadero Plaza in San Francisco. They aren’t around any longer, but they were the precur- sor to places such as Crate & Barrel today; a lifestyle approach to store mer- chandising. Design Research provided the model at the time, that I wanted to emulate.
I never thought of or expected Interior Dimensions to be just another retail store in a mall. To walk into, and experience this showroom, was to see and understand what I cared about in terms of quality, craftsmanship and design. I was selling my personal experience, everything that I had learned and observed in the short fifteen years of preparation for this venture.
The contemporary furniture manufacturer Thayer Coggan located in High Point, North Carolina, was my featured line. When the company represen- tative came down from San Francisco and seeing the store for the first time; his comment to me was, that “there was nothing comparable between San Francis- co and Los Angeles”. Well that boosted my ego a bit, but when you stop to think about it; what lies between here and there, in the San Joaquín Valley, anyway. He did add, “that I could hold my own in any market”.
Onik Vartician was the contractor side of Coombs and Associates, which also made him my landlord. That aside and more importantly, Onik became my mentor. He helped guide me, not just through his role in the con- struction of my store but in many aspects of organizing the business side. He never faltered through my sometimes-difficult expectations. I could never have accomplished what I did without Onik’s willingness to work with me and for me. The completed showroom was all we could have hoped for.
About the only part of my plan that was easy were the bathrooms. The showroom floor consisted of a series of interlocking circles of differing sizes some covered with French Blue carpet and others in thin brick tiles or Oak parquet. A design consultation area was in a circular, acrylic walled room in the middle of the showroom. The walls were the original concrete block painted white or covered in grey acousticord over plywood with rough cut vertical Fir siding interspersed along the gallery wall. All the signs and the front door pull were handmade ceramic from Hans Sumpf. Finally, it took me two weeks on scaffolding eighteen feet above the floor to paint the exposed sprinkler pipes in a random mix of the primary colors, red, blue and yellow. Though a bold space, the feel was decidedly natural.
Filling the completed space required a lot of trips to markets in San Francisco and Los Angeles. Keeping expenses to a minimum often required one day trips to San Francisco and sometimes staying with Fred’s daughter in L.A. The furniture markets opened a whole new world to me.
Going to market, was for this newly minted entrepreneur, with lim- ited experience, like someone arriving from Iowa, having never see the Pacific Ocean; walking across the sand to the water’s edge, then standing, mesmer-
ized as waves washed over and around their feet. Yet I never became so over- whelmed, that I forgot my purpose. I accomplished what I set out to do. Create a showroom in Fresno that customers had not been exposed before.
Interior Dimensions was received well in Fresno.
As can be said of any new business, sometimes mistakes got in the way of success’, but there were success’ enough to keep me pushing forward. Retail
is a time-consuming job; with a new store it was seven days a week. Often, after closing I would work late into the evening, rearranging and replacing sold mer- chandise on the floor. But late at night I could stand alone and look around with a sense of satisfaction satisfied for the moment any way as there surly would be something new tomorrow to deal with.
During our first holiday season following the stores opening, Holly and I had a Christmas party in our new home, on a Saturday night. I had worked all day and came home that evening to friends from out of town staying with us for the weekend. That Sunday morning, following our party, I had to leave early to open the store while everyone else remained asleep. I was so disappointed that it was all I could do to keep from crying as I drove to work that morning, a week before Christmas. I only wanted to stay home and have breakfast with our friends, before they left.
One day while sitting in the back of the store I saw Rob and Dewy Slater come in the front door. They are the owners of the oldest family run furniture store in Fresno. They had come in to see for themselves what they had heard about. I knew then, that I had made an impact in Fresno. A lot of people eventually came to see this new and different place in town; even the Eisners, my former employer came in. Eventually I would make the acquaintance of a number of architects and designers who came by; some of whom I would have the opportunity to work with.
Sometimes when a good offer comes your way, you learn only too late the importance of being careful. Of course, this is also known as experience. I was asked to submit a bid for the design and furnishing of the interiors in the new KFSN Channel 30 studios.
I got the project and completed it to most every one’s satisfaction. To win this bid competing with my former employer Abby Office Furniture, and because I so wanted the job, I cut my margins very tight, knowing their pockets went much deeper than mine. Ultimately, if I broke even, I don’t remember. I do remember being in the newly completed building by myself after midnight assembling desks, because I couldn’t afford to send someone else.
Still I did a few more similar commercial projects before realizing these jobs were to be avoided in favor of what I did best. This was a setback difficult to work past, but a lesson learned.
On the other hand, a hi-lite for me was the original art displayed by
a number of prominent local artists. I had designed the walls and researched lighting to display the art as if in a first-rate art gallery. I had some art displayed
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