Taking a hidden Beverly Hills gem to a new trifecta, acclaimed Los Angeles-based architecture studio Johnston Marklee has transformed a 1930s storefront into a shared space for the prominent Michael Werner art gallery (New York, London, and Athens), and avant-garde local fashion institution Mameg, connected through a leafy shared courtyard.
Walk briskly past the front entrance on Camden Drive, and you will miss the brick façade that leads to the under-the-radar Mameg retail space. The shop was formerly located behind Margiela on Little Santa Monica Blvd nearby (also in a Johnston Marklee design), and is owned by Sonia Eram, alongside the brand's original store in Brentwood.
Beloved by many collectors, and one of the early US champions of the Antwerp Six, the Mameg boutique is like a gallery unto its own, holding rare items like a fashion time capsule with artisanal pieces such as a fur hat from the original Margiela collection (not for sale.) Other pieces on offer include a wrap-around gold chain necklace with a dangling champagne glass that would be the perfect quirky accessory for an art gallery opening or the latest bag from Loewe.
If you do decide to try on something by Jil Sander or a Cosmic Wonder dress from Japan, you will experience the dressing room, which is covered in a wallscape taken from a Silver Lake Neutra House residency installation and created in collaboration with Berlin and Paris-based clothing brand Bless.
Creating a soft barrier between the shop and the gallery, the connecting courtyard is filled with Australian bottle trees and a large black rock sculpture by Per Kirkeby. This space was brought to life with the help of legendary landscape architect Eric Nagelmann (of Lotus Land in Santa Barbara and the gardens at John Lautner-designed Sheats Goldstein Residence fame), who came out of semi-retirement for this project. There is a dedication plaque to Annie Philbin – director of the Hammer Museum – who connected Eram to Michael Werner gallery's owner Gordon VeneKlasen.
'Sonia found the property on Google Earth,' says VeneKlasen. 'When she saw that it had that wonderful courtyard, the relationship started around an idea for a shared space and developed from there.' Recommended by Eram, Johnston Marklee exceeded expectations for VeneKlasen. 'The space is everything I had hoped and more. It’s simultaneously domestic and evokes the feel of an artist's studio. Using the courtyard as the central feature, they transformed the space into an enfilade of domestically scaled galleries, creating a passage along the windows for stronger spatial connection to the garden.'
'This was an interesting concept' says Johnston Marklee principal Sharon Johnston. 'By building community not just around fashion but also culture with another partner and set of clients, having the hidden garden courtyard functions as another space for people to come and hang out was essential.'
The team took the small scale of the original structure for the gallery and created three rooms, including a long main space which runs along the length of the property. 'There is a balance with the beam and column which gives the illusion of more space,' says Johnston Marklee principal Mark Lee. 'This creates an interesting dynamic between the room and the structure,' adds Johnston.
According to Johnston, the green [linoleum] floor is unexpected. 'Typically, a coloured floor [in a gallery] is not standard but this one picks up the juniper and green landscape outside and flows between the gallery and garden which is like an additional room. It’s fluid and subtle.' Both Eram and VeneKlasen will use the courtyard as an extension of the shop and gallery for entertaining, installations, and poetry readings.
Lee adds: 'Sonia always has a place that needs to be discovered. This type of collaboration is a natural progression for her, to team up with unexpected programming, it was the right moment.'
