New furniture line Vienna Way looks to the past

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Like an archaeological site, the past can be excavated for ideas. Los Angeles design-build architects Marmol Radziner did just that to create a new line of furniture called Vienna Way.

It echoes built-ins and freestanding furniture by 20th-century Viennese-American architects R.M. Schindler and Richard Neutra, whose seminal buildings -- Schindler's 1920s Kings Road House in West Hollywood and Neutra's 1940s Kaufmann House in Palm Springs, Calif. -- Marmol Radziner restored about 10 years ago.

Firm principal Ron Radziner had dabbled in furniture design at Marmol Radziner Shops, a cabinetry and prototype department for the company.

"When I built my first house in Venice (Los Angeles County), I designed contemporary pieces of stainless steel and teak," Radziner said. However, the rejuvenation of Neutra and Schindler's historic buildings required a closer look at furniture by those architects, and that added local redwood, vintage velvet, canvas and leather to Radziner's palette.

Marmol Radziner soon manufactured licensed reproductions of Schindler's designs that "are better put together and are perhaps more sustainable than the originals," Radziner said.

"Schindler's pieces were held together with nails. Ours are glued and biscuit-joined," he said.

Vienna Way, built similarly, is an amalgam of Radziner's previous work and ideas from Schindler and Neutra's time.

The line, which includes furniture for living rooms, studies and bedrooms, took shape in Radziner's newly built modern home (also in Venice). The pieces echo the shimmering greenish-black quality of reflections in Radziner's pool and the adaptable modernism Schindler envisioned. "I am most comfortable designing for existing spaces," says Radziner, aiming for objects that would also suit the open-plan pre-fabricated steel-frame homes his firm produces.

Schindler sling chairs and daybeds -- multipurpose classics that attract buyers such as Glenn Close, Tom Ford and Brad Pitt -- and Vienna Way can be ordered directly from the firm or listed dealers.

At a glance

Expert opinion: "You can sit on the arms, in the chair or on the edges of it," Radziner said. "The proportions are very important because such pieces have to fit most spaces and not become too large."

For his old home, Radziner designed sets of furniture. "Now I want each item to look individual," he said. "They all go together, but I like diversity in the pieces themselves."

Radziner recommends less-expensive Douglas fir for desert climates; for others, American walnut and oak are best.

Pros: The furniture is produced in Los Angeles; most frames are made of American oak and cushions are filled with down and foam. Tough Pollack velvet covers add a vintage quality. Chairs and sofas sit low for better sightlines. Tough, leather-covered pieces have rounded contours, "so there is less wasted space," Radziner says. Children's furniture can also be used as side tables.

Cons: The materials are not ideal for outdoor use.

Prices Vienna Way furniture ranging from children's stools to large tables and sofas range from about $350-$16,000. Schindler King's Road reproductions range from $2,250- $14,800.

Resources: San Francisco: Limn.com. Los Angeles: Marmol-Radziner.com; Twentieth.net.

(E-mail ideas for Material World to Zahid Sardar at home(at)sfchronicle.com.)

(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)

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