The iconic turquoise and gold Eastern Columbia Building in downtown LA proved too much to resist for Acne Studios chairman Mikael Schiller when it came to real estate shopping for the Swedish brand’s California flagship. ‘It wasn’t our original intention to open in this part of Los Angeles, but we fell in love with the building as well as the opportunity to do something beyond a flagship store,’ Schiller says of the 1930 Art Deco property, originally designed by Claud Beelman in the city’s old theatre district. ‘We feel there is something vibrant and interesting going on in downtown LA, and we are excited to become a part of this transformation.’
Covering more than 500 sq m on the building’s ground floor, the shop houses men’s and women’s ready-to-wear, accessories and denim collections, along with a VIP shopping suite and ilcaffè, a branch of creative director Jonny Johansson’s favourite Stockholm coffee shop. Fitted with Acne Studios’ soft furnishings, the brand’s largest boutique is crowned by a ‘Giant Triple Mushroom’ installation by Belgian artist Carsten Höller (who in 2010, created a similarly funghi-inspired trophy for our Design Awards). The pink terrazzo flooring and plush carpeting in electric purple and blood red then nicely juxtaposes the industrial feel of the space's perforated-aluminium display cabinets.
ADDRESS
Acne
Eastern Columbia Building, 855 South Broadway
Los Angeles CA 90014 USA
-
Café Kitsuné x Iittala bring Nordic clarity to the coffee ritualFinnish design house Iittala unites its modernist aesthetic with Café Kitsuné’s refined simplicity for a new mug collection, available in four colours
-
Tiffany & Co’s artist mentorship at Frieze London puts creative exchange centre stageAt Frieze London 2025, Tiffany & Co partners with the fair’s Artist-to-Artist initiative, expanding its reach and reaffirming the value of mentorship within the global art community
-
'They're like my friends:’ Max Lamb exhibits a decade of chairs in a former church hallThe British designer’s new London show, ‘Exercises in Seating 3' (until 2 November 2025), brings together over 30 diverse works in a circle of connection
-
Miami moves: artist Carsten Höller on his pop-up club for Prada -
Parreno, Höller and Demand inaugurate Albania’s Center for Openness and Dialogue in Tirana -
Doug Aitken’s Station to Station project travels across the US
