If design is your bent… - exhibit of furniture and architectural sketches - Travel and Recreation

Sunset, Feb, 1993 by Daniel P. Gregory

Furniture, art, and architecture star in San Francisco this month

SIT DOWN FOR A moment and let's get visual. Consider the curve, from the lifting curl of a contemporary chair back to the soaring cables of the Bay Bridge: it's all about line and shape and the expression of function. If design is your bent, you can explore these elements in art furniture and architectural drawings on display this month in San Francisco.

Limn Company. Architect and furniture designer Daniel Friedlander, founder of the original Limn Gallery, at 457 Pacific Avenue in the Jackson Square area, has quadrupled his exhibition space by taking over a two-story building in the South of Market area. His new showroom contains two floors of dramatically lit contemporary tables, chairs, sofas, and art objects by Bay Area and international artists.

The furniture's vivid colors and expressionistic shapes stand out against the concrete and plaster background. Upstairs, where the light fixtures are displayed, don't miss the skyline view. Prices range from $100 for a lamp to $5,000 for a sofa.

And don't miss Limn's special exhibition of drawings and models of homes under construction in the Oakland Hills section that was swept by the tragic firestorm of 1991. The purpose of the show is to call attention to the new neighborhood of contemporary architecture rising out of the ashes, and to demystify the client-architect relationship.

Drawings and models by 12 architects (most are from the Bay Area) are on display. In addition, videotaped interviews of the clients describing why they picked their architects, and what it's like to work with them, are on view.

The special event runs from January 22 through March 31 on the ground floor of the main exhibition area.

The store is at 290 Townsend Street, at Fourth Street; hours are 9:30 to 5:30 weekdays, 11 to 5:30 Saturdays.

Philippe Bonnafont Gallery. This treasury of architectural drawings occupies a small studio behind a block of flats in North Beach. Go down a short flight of steps into a narrow tunnel and cross a small garden, and you'll find a sisal-floored studio with architectural renderings covering white walls.

On view through February are engravings of Roman monuments--among them the Colosseum and the Baths of Caracalla--by 17th-century French architect Antoine Desgodetz. Also on display are engravings by 18th-century Italian architect Giovanni Piranesi and original renderings of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge from the office of architect Timothy Pflueger. The gallery, at 946A Greenwich Street, is open by appointment. Call (415) 441-4182.