This Week at . . . Urban Artifacts

This may be an odd way to start a review of a store I love that specializes in mid-century modern, but I think that the style has already hit its peak and is likely on the decline. A few years ago, the style was everywhere, prices skyrocketed, knockoffs flooded the market and purists sold Grannie's rocker and replaced it with an Eames lounge. But now they want the rocker back.

You can see it in any design magazine; people are into mixing it up a bit more and branching out, and just as it did originally, mid-century is giving way to 70's and 80's styles (although pretty much anything goes).



Room and Board and Design Within Reach and a million online stores carry the staples and they likely always will. It's not bold and different and its not tired and unhip; it's graduated to classic status. Tasteful? Yes. Interesting? Maybe. Surprising? Not so much.

But there are still mid-century surprises - pieces and designers and combinations that aren't yet ubiquitous. Now that the style is out-of-vogue, maybe they never will be. And for those pieces, my first recommendation is to check out Urban Artifacts; they've been doing this since mid-century pieces were being discarded in alley's and only die-hard collectors were shaking their heads and mourning their demise.



The store is nearly perfect - its outdoor vignettes grab my attention and pull me in every time. The space is small but carefully crowded, artfully stacked, familiar and surprising (with no knock-offs in sight). Yes, they have the Wassily and Wegner, but most of all, they have knowledge.

If you're looking for a particular piece but can't think of the designer, they'll know. If you want a certain piece but can't find it, they will.

And much like their store, their business cards are so damn nice - cool and small (and square but anything but.) Go there now. 2928 N. Lincoln Avenue in Chicago. 773-404-1008.

For a full set of thumbnails, click here.
For a Flickr slide show, click here.





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