Showroom Profile

BY KIMBERLY MACARTHUR GRAHAM

>>> Zeitgeist and Z Modern, Denver, Colorado

Anyone who lives in the Rocky Mountain region and still travels to Chicago or L.A. for cool Modern design needs to make tracks to Denver's sister stores, Zeitgeist and Z Modern. Owner Randy Roberts has been selling Modern and contemporary design for 32 years, mostly in the Mile High City, with a couple years' hiatus in Prague and Paris. He knows design inside and out, and his keen eye and adventurous spirit are evident in the eye-popping collection spread between the two showrooms.

Inside the Z Modern showroom.

Roberts aims to "show people good design is not just from one era or any one movement, and good design comes at all price points." The side-by-side stores amply support this mission. Z Modern features designs currently in production, while Zeitgeist sells vintage pieces. Each showroom features exquisitely arranged tableaux. One's initial view of the Z Modern showroom (aside from the building itself, a streamlined design with outdoor furniture and a mobile on the roof) takes in a cluster of George Nelson Bubble lamps that, inside the store's plate-glass window, look like denizens of an aquarium. Step inside, and get ready for a wild ride.

A bevy of iconic Modernist designs—think Hans Wegner's sleek Wishbone chair, colored glass–topped nesting tables by Josef Albers, the Eameses' Potato Chip chair, and the aforementioned Nelson Bubbles—graciously share the floor with what are in essence their progeny. Among these, one can be transfixed by objects as varied as Tejo Remy's (Droog Design) Rag chair, which is, incredibly, just what it sounds like: a mound of rags bound by steel straps to a frame—and surprisingly comfortable; Gaetano Pesce's resin vases that look for all the world like heat-softened taffy, or his brilliant Nobody chair, manufactured by Zero Design; botanical stencils by Clark Ummel that happily recall both Georgia O'Keeffe and Judy Chicago; or any number of designs by the prolific and polarizing Philippe Starck, including the attention-grabbing gold-plated Guns lamps by Flos (inscribed with the aphorism "Happiness is a Hot Gun").

Bedside Beretta pistol lamp by Philippe Starck for Flos.

It is clear that Roberts really delights in presenting cutting-edge designs to his growing clientele, "in the know" design-heads who know the store owner's well-trained eye often nabs award winners before they've won anything. A perfect example is his selection of Nani Marquina's newest textiles, unbelievably tactile hand-loomed affairs made from wool and jute. With names like Cuks and Little Field of Flowers, luscious colors including crimson, umber green and warm grey, and textures that mimic lush fields of alien plants, they are taking the design world by storm.

In the lighting arena, Z Modern offers a multitude of unique options. Choose from Herman Miller's Leaf lamp, whose organic, grass-blade shape belies its technological advancement. Or perhaps Ingo Maurer's Birds Birds Birds, a fantastical swooping chandelier whose branches terminate in "winged" sockets fitted with raw bulbs stamped with the fixture's name. Or maybe Marcel Wanders' weird Zeppelin (by Flos), whose balloon-like shape is a collision of the iconic and ironic: Bubble lamp swallows chandelier and lives.

Ingo Maurer's Porca Miseria hanging light fixture.

And when all the choices make one tired, the store's vignettes help thoughts turn to relaxing, either in the classic birch beauty of Marcel Breuer's Long chair (Isokon) or in Magis' spankin' new die-cast aluminum Chair One, designed by Konstantin Grcic and—rumor has it—selected by architect David Adjaye for the rooftop area of the under-construction Museum of Contemporary Art/Denver.

A perfect complement to Z Modern, Zeitgeist offers a changing selection of choice vintage pieces that have been expertly restored (or had hardware adjusted or left alone, depending on what will best enhance the piece's functionality and value) by Roberts and his staff. Some objects are pristine examples of what was once produced commercially; others are one-offs. Roberts is adamant that not one is a reproduction. (Authorized reproductions and continuously produced items all live at Z Modern.) Zeitgeist's vintage-only inventory is aimed at collectors and those searching for something unique not only stylistically, but a piece out of time, though Modern design is often described as timeless.

Roberts shops the world for his two stores, and it shows. Zeitgeist and Z Modern offer an enormous range of applied art that begins at very affordable price points. A bedside lamp that will utterly transform a room can be had for $100. Still, not everyone shares the Modern aesthetic, and recognizing that he is competing for clientele in a region long swaddled in overstuffed leather chairs and antler chandeliers, Roberts half-jokes, "I try not to buy anything for the store that I'm not prepared to live with, because the reality is I might very well have to live with it."

Though Zeitgeist and Z Modern are open to the public (as required by several of the represented manufacturers), consideration is given to the trade. Interior designers, architects and others with knowledge of and passion for Modern and contemporary design are welcomed warmly, for Roberts loves nothing more than to talk about what he calls "the whole lifestyle" of Modernism. Citing a litany of personal favorites including Josef Hoffman, Alvar Aalto, Isamu Noguchi, Pesce and the Droog movement, Roberts explains, "The designers [of Modernism] were interested in what we ate, what we wore, the music we listened to. They found beauty in the common object and were intent on bringing good design to the common man."

Count Roberts among the troubadours. "I never stop looking for the next piece, the next great thing. I never get content." Fortunately, that means that Modern aficionados will be very content at these hip sibling showrooms.

Ingo Maurer's Oh Mei Ma Kabir light fixture.