subscribe to our RSS feedVancouver Sun: Reflection of our Times
November 17th, 2007
The Inform store in Gastown has a new wide-open space on three levels.
Reflection of our Times – New design stores are pumping fresh air into Gastown
Vancouver Sun
by John Mackie
November 16, 2007
The stylish home decor retailer Koolhaus has done the unthinkable. When the lease was up at its Kitsilano flagship store, Koolhaus up and moved to Gastown.
Yes, Gastown: The historic district known for its handsome architecture and deep-rooted social problems. A neighbourhood that has long been considered a retail no man’s land, save for tourist shops and rug dealers that always seem to be going out of business sales.
Gastown has been the scene of many revitalization schemes over the years, all of which failed. But several new market housing developments have brought an influx of new people to the neighbourhood, bringing fresh energy and a buzz it hasn’t had in years. Gastown is still gritty, but it’s also becoming more balanced – and it has a feel and vibe you don’t get anywhere else in the city.
Of course, Gastown has always had more than just tourist and rug stores. One of Vancouver’s elite furniture stores, Inform Interiors, has been a fixture in the neighbourhood since 1970, But owner Niels Bendtsen senses this time, the neighbourhood may have turned a corner.
I’ve gone through a number of revitalizations down there, but it does feel like it’s here to stay,” says Bendtsen. “We’re betting our business on it.”
Indeed. Inform spent a record $6 million on it’s stunning new 30,000 square foot space at 50 Water St. that opened in the spring. In early December, Inform will also reopen its original 12,000-sq.-ft, store at 97 Water St as a “high end mono brand store” for two top-notch product lines, Boffi kitchens and B&B Italia furniture.
With Koolhaus opening up down the street in a 10,000-sq.-ft space at 1 Water St. all of a sudden Gastown is becoming design central. The hip kids store Modernkid is at 45 Water St., the acclaimed clothier Hunt & Gather is at 225 Carrall St. and a cool furniture exhibit. The Danish Way of Living, has taken over the old Storyum site at 142 Water St. until Dec. 15.
Koolhaus has been open for a few weeks, but it was a “soft opening,” because its vast new space is still under construction – the official opening is Nov. 28. But sales manager Gary Christianson says the new location is already working out great.
“Kitsilano was not necessarily the hip and happening place that it claims to be,” he says.
“Gas town definitely is. There’s so much happening down here – it’s definitely a design driven crowd and demographic that’s down here. Kits seemed to be more of a beach crowd, more into going to the gym and going to the beach than it was in redecorating your house and being fashionable.”
The new store is in a 1910 warehouse building formerly occupied by Brothers Restaurant. The idea is to leave it open and industrial looking – the ceilings have exposed ducts, the floors are painted black. It’s a far cry from the lovely old bank building Koolhaus was in on West Fourth.
“The building we were in [in Kitsilano] was beautiful, the dentil work on the ceiling and the coffered ceilings was great,” says Christianson.
“But everyone had their heads up to the ceiling instead of looking down at the furniture in that location.
“So this is better. Everything is on one floor, we don’t have to take it up three flights to show somebody a chair. It’s all here in the showroom. [And] the square footage we have here is probably about 4,000 square feet more.”
Inform is a high-end furniture retailer specializing in European lines, but KooIhaus is less pricey, what Christianson calls “approachable modern comfort.” In other words, they don’t sell $20,000 sofas, they sell $2,000 sofas.
But they still offer stylish stuff, much of it made in Canada. The O’Hara couch is swoopy and curvy and very ’50s retro, and sells for $3,200. It was made in Toronto, while the Ted chair hails from Montreal. The Ted is a “modern wingback” with a high back and low arms, and is quite comfortable. The cost is $895 to $1,295, depending on the fabric.
Sectionals are popular these days because they can be modified for each particular space. The Chelsea is a Montreal product that “you can do in chairs, love seats, and sofas.” A five-seat model with reversible cushions (tufted on one side, non-tufted on the other) is on display for $3,400.
There’s a little bit of everything at Koolhaus. from a groovy zig-zag console table ($3,195) to a starburst mirror ($750) and a fireplace you hang on the wall ($1,695).
“You can put it in any room you don’t have to vent it in any walls,” says Christianson.
“It burns ethanol alcohol. You just pour it, glug glug glug, into a canister, light it up and it burns for four hours.”
There are also some icons of modern design in the store, such as the famous Noguchi glass coffee table. But it isn’t a Noguchi original, it’s a knock-off (unlicensed replica), which means it sells for $895, about half the amount you’d spend on the real deal.
“This is one of the best designs of the 20th century, this coffee table,” says Christianson.
“It’s beautiful. No matter how much it gets knocked off, you can’t go wrong with the design, it’s beautiful and practical. It’s got this organic shape to it, with rounded corners, and it’s glass so visually it doesn’t take up so much space.”
The layered Grande chandelier is another stylish knock-off. In this case, it’s a reasonable facsimile oft he PH Artichoke lamp, designed in 1958 by Poul Henningsen for the Danish company Louis Poulsen.
“I think the original of this is probably around $15,000,” says Christianson. “We sell ours for about $1,595”
Inform does not sell knockoffs, it sells originals. Which has helped to make it a destination store for decades.
“We have customers from all over North America, not only Vancouver,” says Bendtsen.
“We have big customers that come in and furnish their houses. It’s a much broader thing than people think. We have people that fly in from Calgary, all kinds of things.”
Bendtsen laughs when he’s asked how much he paid for the 97 Water St. building in 1970.
“I don’t want to tell you – less than an apartment,” he says.
Asked what went wrong with the revitalization schemes in the past, he says “the first time we got sort of run over by Granville Island, the second time by Yaletown.” But now, Gastown is the last character commercial neighbourhood left downtown: “There is no other place to go, really.”
That said, Gastown is very different from Yaletown.
“It has a lot more character than Yaletown ended up having,” says Christianson of Koolhaus. “I think Yaletown ended up being sanitized to the point where it lacks character.”
Developer Robert Fung agrees. Fung’s Salient Developments is busy in Gastown, with four projects on Water Street alone.
“I think fundamentally the difference is Gastown has evolved and continues to evolve,” he says.
“It’s a growing, living area. I know that sounds a bit cliche, but it’s true. Yaletown was something, and then immediately synthesized into something dse. It has some older buildings, but the life in those buildings ended, and it became something else.”
Gastown, on the other hand, is a very mixed neighbourhood: there’s single room-occupancy hotels, old bars, new bars, old restaurants, new restaurants and old retailers like Army & Navy, new retailers like Koolhaus.
“Gastown has evolved,” Fung states, “There’s retailers like Niels Bendtsen that have been here for 30 or 40 years, and building owners that have been here for a long time. They are just ingrained in the area, in the character of the neighbourhood. There’s been residential in this area for a very long time that’s market residential, as well as non-market. I think that creates a far more interesting neighbourhood, and a far more interesting community.”