The Beige Curtain

As somebody who works on design projects all over the country, and the world, I’ve found that if I want to be taken seriously as a designer by the design community, it’s best if I hand out my Santa Monica business card. I guess Orange County has a reputation and for somebody who’s serious about design, it’s not a good one.

I’m not sure how it happened. There was a time when Orange County was the place to go for the latest in residential design, for innovation, and for great new ideas. Maybe the builders in Orange County got complacent, maybe they got old, maybe the world just caught up to them. It could be Donald Bren’s desire to turn everything into a beige stuccoteranean wonderland. Portland, Seattle, even the San Francisco Bay Area are taking the lead now.

Some would say the market has given buyers what they want. I’d say how do you know, there is little in the way of inspired design to choose from in Orange County, and what there is, tends to be either in the pricey beach cities, or in what could be called emerging neighborhoods in the North part of the county. It is a little bit of the chicken and egg. Do buyers not purchase interesting design because there isn’t any, or is there a lack of it because buyers won’t purchase it. I think it is the former. Besides, great ideas make the market, not the other way around. You can’t know you want it if you haven’t seen it.

I think there is a huge demand for architecturally inspired housing. There a large numbers of Orange County residents who are patrons of the arts, shop at cutting edge stores for clothing, drive the latest in automobiles, and read dwell magazine, only to drive home to a house that looks just like their neighbors’.

When I talk to my friends in Los Angles, or San Francisco, it is obvious that the Orange, er, beige curtain is as strong as ever. Orange County is viewed as the place design goes to die, a black hole for creativity. I know it’s not true. You can point to countless artists doing their thing in Orange County. But, people know what they see, and what they see is a bunch of sameness. Yeah there are pockets of cool stuff, little bits of old neighborhoods, and a tiny development here, or there. But we all know that is puny compared to what joins these pockets—miles and miles of what looks to be the same house in colors ranging from sand to light brown.

What do we do about this reputation? How do we shake this when we venture out? Is there a way to be viewed as design leaders if you work, or live in Orange County? Or, do I just keep handing out the Santa Monica card… -ds