A seat of modern design - Eames masterworks at Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica

Sunset, Oct, 2000 by Jeff Book

This Santa Monica emporium showcases Eames masterworks

* South of Santa Monica's popular Third Street Promenade, with its brand-name chain stores and multiscreen theaters, lies the city's Main Street, appealing for its smaller crowds, singular shops, and a breezy beach charm. For aficionados of modern design, there's a must-see here: the Eames Office Gallery & Store, a showcase for the work of legendary Los Angeles designers Charles and Ray Eames.

The Eameses were among the most celebrated and influential designers of the 20th century, remarkable for their innovative use of materials and the breadth of their creativity. They met and married in the Midwest, then moved in 1941 to Ray's native California, where they continued collaborating on furniture design. Soon they expanded to other areas, producing a series of modem masterpieces, from airport seating to games. They stayed in California for the remainder of their careers, true Western standouts.

The store displays and sells their clean-lined, varied products: classic chairs molded of plywood or fiberglass, elegantly simple storage systems, lively textile designs, stimulating diversions such as the House of Cards (interlocking cards bearing photos and graphic patterns). A plywood litter developed for the military during World War II hangs on a wall. There are books, postcards, and poster-size images illuminating the Eameses' work; video monitors showing their award-winning short films; and a computer station playing an imaginative CD-ROM produced by Eames Demetrios, grandson of Charles and Ray, and based on their film Powers of Ten.

The Main Street shop is "a combination gallery/store/resource center, where we can welcome people and help them understand the seamless connections among all the things Charles and Ray did," Demetrios explains. It reflects the Eameses' spirit, both practical and playful, expressed by a quote from Charles above the door: "We don't take pleasure seriously enough."

The store, and its website (www.eamesoffice.com), can also supply information on visits to Eames House, a modernist landmark in Pacific Palisades that is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.

Eames Office Gallery & Store. 11-6 Tue-Sat, 11-5 Sun, 2665 Main St., Santa Monica; (310) 396-5991.