by kevin, on February 22nd, 2010
The majority of our work is for national chains. It’s rare that we design a project in our home town of Los Angeles. That can be pretty exciting, but it can also keep you separated from your local community. That became glaringly obvious to me when I recently discovered a retail venue in my own back yard called epOxy Green. A friend from San Diego told me about it and I was embarrassed to say I was totally unaware. They’ve been in business in Venice, CA for several years, but recently moved to their new building on Lincoln Blvd. in September of 2009. When you approach, the building looks like it’s incomplete, but that’s part of the intended aesthetic. The building is an oddly shaped (I don’t mean that in a negative way) 6,000 SF box sitting on what look like raw unfinished concrete piers. The exterior cladding is an orange mesh which appears at first to be an underlayment ready for some kind of plaster top coat. One thing I didn’t notice until inside was how the cladding covers everything, including windows. From a distance it’s difficult to discern what the building’s purpose might be, or if it’s open to the public. Too many building types are so utterly predictable from their form that long before a site sign is erected you can tell who the tenant will eventually be. That’s not the case here. The building intentionally stands apart from its surroundings. Do be careful when you approach, however, because their building sign has been delayed and it’s easy to miss without it.
Once inside, you’ll find a huge collection of sustainable, green, eco, or environmentally favorable (choose your own preferred term) building materials. With thousands of offered products from more than two hundred manufacturers, it’s easily the largest showroom that I know of in Southern California, and may be one of the largest in the country. I think owners Deborah Guyer Greene and Sasha King have hit on something really quite ingenious. The retail venue looks like a design firm put their entire material sample library on display throughout the office rather than hiding it in a storage room at the back of the building. There are scattered almost hidden offices on three levels, a large table could double as a conference table, a mock lounge area could easily be used as a waiting area, and the reception desk works like a reception desk. It has the feel of a design studio hidden among beautiful and unusual materials, which makes it more inviting to one of their target markets – designers.
Most of the products displayed are familiar friends, and companies we’ve reviewed or profiled at this blog site – IceStone, Vetrazzo, Fireclay Tile, Kirei, TorZo, Squak Mountain Stone, Richlite, Alumillenium, Smith & Fong, and many many more. A very pleasant surprise was how many products we didn’t recognize. It gives me hope that the sustainable materials market may be bigger or stronger than I thought. Products are grouped into three pricing tiers – eco{everyday, eco{elevate, and eco{elegance. This strategy clearly is aimed at dispelling the notion that all green materials are more expensive. By grouping them this way a consumer can judge one option against another and weigh the pro and con of each, including price difference.
On their web site, products are categorized as – flooring (wood, carpet. tile); counter/surface and hardware (counters and surfaces, renewable counter materials, cabinets, hardware); wall finishes (paint and plaster, wall paper, wall panels, tile and mosaic); lighting and eco building systems (architectural/decorative/landscape); sheet lumber (plywood, MDF, and particle board, bamboo, reclaimed wood, Kirei, wheat board, palm wood, hemp board); decorative finishes (fabrics and upholstery, window finishes); and cleaning care and maintenance (low emission).
I think there are just two things missing – selection criteria and back stories. What’s not clear from either the physical showroom or their on-line product listing is what kind of vetting or evaluation process they use to determine what they consider green. It’s difficult to know how they define green. It would be helpful to anyone interested in engaging their services to know what kind of decisions have been made for products to be included in their catalog. Not that I’m suggesting I saw anything indicating materials on display with questionable green credentials. Rather, I think that as consumers start to learn more about green options they’ll need more information and will be looking for someone to help them learn more. For example, it would have been great to see information related to each product indicating its key green attributes, or how it’s manufactured, or its location of production. Some sustainable building products look totally different from environmentally unfavorable ones. But more often we are beginning to see products enter the market and intentionally take the position that they are a green alternative that looks just like its gray counterpart. In that case, how does a consumer know how to evaluate them differently? One thing we’ve seen in our research is how the people behind the most interesting products are usually more fascinating than the products they create. A showroom like epOxy Green would be the perfect venue to tell those stories. Producer profiles either on display, or accessible on-line, would help make epOxy Green an even more compelling and engaging experience. It certainly would help promote the public education part of their mission.
Last week I sat with Deborah Greene to discuss the showroom and their vision. I’ll be posting that in a few weeks. We had a great discussion and look forward to visiting again. I want to take a few clients there. If nothing else I want them to see that sustainable materials are not a small niche but a rapidly growing segment. If you live in the Los Angeles are, I recommend a visit.
Check out this video from Greenopia.
Click the icon below for more tour photos:
[...] the article here: on tour: epOxy Green « threadpost Posted in Kitchen appliances, Patio furniture « interior design: Interior Design [...]