THE CONSUMER: Afternoon Delight

A spring fling with Frank Gehry

Anne Kellogg

Las Vegas' very own Unica Home keeps outdoing itself, and that's not an easy thing to do. Not only did it open a satellite location at Mandalay Place to sell some of its smaller items, it just added the Frank Gehry Furniture Collection by furniture manufacturer Heller to its already impressive inventory of modern masterpieces for home and office.


At first glance, the silver, plastic living-room set casts an almost alien glow that makes the unusually shaped seven pieces look more like they were lifted from the Sleestaks' territory in Land of the Lost than created by one the world's foremost architects. But then you see it; Gehry's bends and twists are unmistakable. The shapes look marshmallowy and stoic at the same time. The set consists of a sofa, bench, easy chair, an unusually shaped cloverleaf coffee table, left-twist and right-twist cubes, and a "Three Sided Cube."


Though outrageously expensive (the total set runs $3,500: the sofa goes for $1,200, each cube, $200), it is still a somewhat affordable way for Gehry fans to own a piece of his genius. Of course, if well taken care of, the set should stand the test of time. It is plastic, after all.


This set of outdoor-appropriate furniture will work in any backyard setting—if you dare. At the very least, take a twirl over to Unica Home's original location on Industrial Road, just south of Warm Springs Road, where the store has Gehry's line on display. If you are a fan of modern, the store is worth a look-see.


Las Vegas has been blessed with more than just the mass-produced efforts of Gehry. He personally created the installation design for the short-lived Art of the Motorcycle exhibit that ran from October 2001 to January 2002 at the Guggenheim Museum at the Venetian. The installation featured many of the architect's signature elements, including polished, stainless-steel curved walls along with affordable construction materials such as raw wood and chain-link fencing.


Gehry most recently created the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Central Los Angeles that opened last year. Like most of his more recent creations, the structure looks more like a metal sculpture than a typical building. Instead of facing his work with stucco, brick or glass, he used metal sheets to give his designs an animated feeling. Some of his other well-known work includes the Experience Music Project in Seattle, the Guggenheim Bilbao Museum in Spain, and the Sidney Opera House in Australia.



Anne Kellogg is a native Las Vegan with a thing for purchasing stuff. E-mail her at
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