Mezzanine has moved out of its showroom in Harmonie Park ( a wonderful space in a cool building that is now available for lease, by the way) and will be setting up shop next month in the Buhl Building, located in downtown’s Financial District. In the meantime, we’ve opened Hugh.
A Park Avenue address finally!
Hugh is a store that sells home and personal accessories for men. It has barware, glassware, furniture, lighting, and personal items like cufflinks and money clips, as well as distinctive vintage items. It draws its inspiration from the classic masculine style of the 50s and 60s. Think Mad Men or Playboy After Dark.
Mezzanine is known for carrying some of the best names in modern furniture, but there is also a certain price point that often goes along with that. At Hugh we’ve made an effort to find great accessories that are affordable, and we are featuring furniture and lighting that delivers a lot of style impact with a lower wallet impact (with a smattering of high end classics thrown in – it was simply unavoidable). Hugh is really a finely-focused subset of what Mezzanine has offered over the years, but it feels like an entirely new beast!
Check out the Hugh blog at thankhugh.blogspot.com for an immediate fix of Hugh information, and watch for our evolving website at www.lovehughlongtime.com. Of particular interest will be the Hugh Early Adopter promotion! Stop in to check out Hugh – it’s located directly behind the Fox Theater in downtown Detroit.
A reason, a season or a lifetime? I think a season!
The whole Mezzanine world is about to be remixed and remastered, starting this weekend! Partially in response to new opportunities, partially due to a sluggish economy, but mostly borne out of a personal desire to change things up (call it the 11-year itch), Mezzanine is moving out of its Harmonie Park showroom at the end of August.
Replacing that great loft showroom will be three different Mezzanine components:
* Hugh, Mezzanine’s new “sub brand” store, will be opening up on Park Avenue in the Iodent Building, just after Labor Day. Located at street level right next to Centaur Martini Bar, Hugh will offer gifts and home/personal accessories for men, inspired by classic 60s bachelor style. It will offer a broad range of items at very appealing pricepoints, because I figure it’s about time we had a guy store around here.
* Mezzanine-online.com will be the primary source for Mezzanine’s amazing collection of classic and contemporary modern furniture and accessories. New items will continually be added over the coming months until all our offerings are online. With our hyper-competitive pricing and free shipping on most items, mezzanine-online.com will be the spot to meet your modern needs!
* Mezzanine By Appointment. We will be set up in a new showroom soon that everyone is welcome to visit. See furniture in person, check out fabric samples, obtain our counsel on furniture and lighting selections, special order merchandise or have a styling consultation in our stylish new digs. Details on this in a future email!
So a new chapter begins at Mezzanine, and it seems like the most exciting yet!
Gus Modern, our Canadian friends who design outstanding classically-styled modern furniture, are having a big sale! Through August 16, all upholstered furniture from Gus is 20% off the already-reasonable prices!
Great Classic Lines
We sell many expensive items at Mezzanine, and over time I have learned why some items are so expensive. The attention to design, the meticulous craftsmanship, the uncompromising materials – all these things add up in cost pretty quickly. You don’t purchase a piece of e15 or Knoll furniture because you are looking for a bargain, you purchase it because you are looking for the best. It has always been Mezzanine’s goal to carry the best design and the best quality.
That is why I was thrilled to start representing the well-priced Gus Modern line of furniture. While there are obviously trade-offs when you get an $1800 sofa versus a $4000 sofa, I have found them to be incredibly thoughtfully-designed and well-made, and a great value for the money. I am happy to show their furniture side-by-side with our other lines, and to have furniture that is accessible to a broader range of customers.
The 20% sale makes the great pricing on this furniture even better. Check out the Gus Sale section on our website! All purchases of Gus Modern furniture are eligible for free delivery too!
Filed under: News & Promotions | Tags: artifort, icff, pierre paulin, vintage
We received some sad news from our friends at Artifort today. Pierre Paulin, the influential French designer whose work for Dutch manufacturer Artifort is considered iconic 60s modern design, passed away on Saturday. He was 81.
Pierre Paulin 1927 - 2009
Paulin is best known for his 1960s designs with catchy names like the Orange Slice, the Tongue, the Ribbon or the Tulip (names given by the public, not by the designer), but his body of work is extensive and spans sixty years. Many of his designs are in museum collections internationally, including MoMA.
Back in 2004 at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair in NYC a group of us had dinner with Pierre Paulin and our Artifort colleagues. A friend joined me at the dinner and we were seated right next to and across from Paulin, so we ended up talking with him all evening. His English is slightly better than my French, so there was not a lot of small talk, but we chatted about the differences between American and European cities, and some of his older more obscure designs.
A good friend had a Paulin-designed chair made by Artifort in the 1960s that was long out of production and as I described it to him he drew a picture to make sure we were talking about the same chair. At the end of the evening I asked him to sign the drawing for me, to give to my friend. The chair and the drawing have both come into my possession now.
At dinner, discussing the chair.
Sketching the F282 archair series.
People tend to categorize Paulin’s designs as part of the movement toward wild, bold design in the 60s, but his pieces are, at their core, minimal and sculptural. When showing pieces at Mezzanine we have always had a tendency to show the chairs in neutral colors, to emphasize their form: a Tongue Chair in black wool stretch fabric; an Oyster Chair in a light beige wool boucle. Context is what ultimately gives these designs any “retro” or “kitsch” factor, on their own they are timeless.
An exuberant design in a minimalist setting always works.
His death marks the passing of another major figure in 20th century design. You can learn more about Pierre Paulin on his website, which is in French but has many attractive photos. And Design Addict has a nice retrospective of his work here.
Our big Mezzanine clearance sale starts this Saturday, June 6!
There is nothing like a fantastic deal on Mezzanine merchandise, so we are chopping prices on almost everything in the store. Furniture floor models, name-brand accessories, overstock, old stock, even some vintage items – it all gets the price cut.
We want to clear out whatever we can so we can change things up. Everything is priced to move.
What isn't marked down in this photo? Nothing.
We are going to try something new this time with our “Make Me an Offer” section. An item is tagged with its regular price and you tell me what you want to pay! If I’m in a good mood, I’ll probably accept your offer. Or maybe we can haggle! It’s like a garage sale, except you pay sales tax.
The sale lasts the month of June, come down soon and snatch up the bargains!
Filed under: Downtown Living | Tags: 1300 Lafayette East, friends, giant spider, gunnar birkerts, lafayette park
Douglas Davis, a new resident in Mies van der Rohe’s Pavilion apartment tower in Lafayette Park, caught a horrifying moment on camera the other day.
A giant spider came from … space? … Canada? … the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center? and attacked Gunnar Birkerts‘ famous 1300 Lafayette East Co-Op!
The perils of high-rise living.
Filed under: History | Tags: architecture, DIA, grosse pointe, modern homes, w. hawkins ferry
I was revisiting some bookmarks the other day and came across some great posts about W. Hawkins Ferry, an important figure in the world of modern art and design in the Detroit area.
Ferry, a Harvard-trained architect and heir to the Ferry seed fortune, is best known for his 1968 book “The Buildings of Detroit: A History,” an encyclopedic survey of our local architecture (which includes an outstanding section on modern architecture in the area). He was also a patron of the arts, serving as a Trustee of the Detroit Institute of Arts and President of the Friends of Modern Art auxiliary. And he was instrumental in bringing Marcel Breuer in as designer of the Grosse Pointe Central Library, a subject of much recent discussion in preservation circles.
Local blogger Supergay Detroit did a profile on Hawkins Ferry some time back (link), and then later posted scans of the House Beautiful feature on Ferry’s Grosse Pointe International Style villa (link). They are a great read and provide some insight into a time when the cultural elite of the area were perhaps slightly more progressive in their thinking on design.
Ferry Beautiful
Filed under: Downtown Living, Modern Living | Tags: architecture, detroit, lafayette park, mies van der rohe
In the merry merry month of May.
It’s spring in the Lafayette Park neighborhood and we highly recommend you do the same.
Lafayette Tower West
Backyards
An end unit
Always my favorite view.
Townhouses
A courtyard house with the Pavilion rising behind it.
Filed under: News & Promotions, Products | Tags: knoll, knoll luxe fabrics, knoll sale, saarinen, womb chair
The Annual Knoll Sale starts today! From Friday, May 1, to Sunday, May 10, you can get 15% off the entire Knoll Space collection! This is the only time of the year the entire collection goes on sale!
Order Now!
Since Knoll will be on our brains this week so I thought I’d post an image of a Knoll favorite. Just as a reminder of how amazing their product line really is. The Womb Chair, by Eero Saarinen. A classic that is as comfortable as it is beautiful.
In Knoll Luxe Mohair Prima. Extreme comfort.
For questions, further information or specific recommendation on Knoll products included in the sale, please don’t hesistate to contact us at info@mezzanine-online.com or 313.442.9000.
Filed under: Design Scene
Get your modern on.
Every year there is a modern sensation in Southfield in the form of the Michigan Modernism Show.
Considered one of the best modernism shows in the country, it has 50 dealers of vintage modern furniture, art and accessories and is a great chance to see some of the best classic modern designs. I have personally found it an excellent way to educate myself on some less documented mid-century design, and it’s always great to venture through and come across something you’ve never seen before!
The most civilized way to explore the show is at the gala Grand Opening Preview Party, held Friday night before the show opens to the public. You get first dibs on everything, they have live music, food and libations.
It’s also a benefit for the Detroit Area Art Deco Society, a fantastic group dedicated to the preservation and celebration of our local Art Deco and Modernist heritage.
We’ve attended a half-dozen Preview Parties over the years and it never disappoints!
Michigan Modernism Preview Party (click for info & tix)
A benefit for the Detroit Area Art Deco Society
Friday, April 24, 2009 from 7 – 10pm
Southfield Civic Center
$50 in advance, $65 at the door
