The Hip and the Haute

From fashion to high-end design and everything quirky in between, East Village and the Gaslamp Quarter have it all.

“I like the quirky accessories at Urban Outfitters,” says Lorena Gaxiola, an allied member of ASID, who recently added furniture design to her repertoire. While a young, hip place like Urban Outfitters doesn’t usually come to mind for home accessories, it’s just the sort of unexpected idea we’ve come to expect from this rising design star.

Gaxiola not only designs furniture for urban spaces, she lives in them. A selfdescribed “permanent condo dweller,” she has lived all around downtown for the past 12 years. While she currently resides at The Grande and has an office in Little Italy, she never misses the chance to shop in East Village and the Gaslamp Quarter, where design inspirations abound. East Village, for one, has undergone an exciting metamorphosis since Petco Park arrived in 2004. Today, both areas of downtown boast icons in urban development such as The Mark and are home to design resources like Artisan Design Group and Urban Lighting. Both areas fuse the high style of hot spots like Stingaree and the Ivy with the quirkiness of old-time hangouts like Tivoli Bar.

“I especially like the Park Loft building,” says Gaxiola, an architect at heart whose father convinced her to study interior design instead. “I believe it started the whole idea of luxury living in East Village. And I just love their large outdoor decks. I’m also excited to see the completion of the Hard Rock Hotel, which is pioneering the condo-hotel lifestyle in San Diego.”

For a day of design inspiration, she suggests beginning with Sunday brunch at Café Chloe, where she enjoys “mac and cheese with mimosas.” Then, she would fill her day by flipping through “pretty much all the designer magazines” at Borders bookstore and then walking from one boutique store to the next.

Scott James, for example, offers unique accessories and gifts—from trendy martini sets to John Brooks artwork and luxury votive candles. And for a gorgeous tabletop arrangement, Green is the East Village resource. But when it comes to a category dear to her heart—her wardrobe—Gaxiola heads to her tried-and-true spots: Unsteady and Gstar, where she can “always find cool designs, especially in accessories and jeans.”

A modern girl who likes to fuse clean-line designs with traditional aesthetics, Gaxiola often finds herself at Design Within Reach (DWR), the East Village showroom for mid-century classics including furniture by Herman Miller and Flos. “I especially like DWR because they are incredibly supportive of local designers, our products and our practice,” she says.

New restaurants such as Basic Urban Bar & Kitchen and Neighborhood have become the destinations for those seeking good food with a hip urban vibe. And when it’s not baseball season, East Village Tavern offers another sporting option: bowling. Of course, a jaunt to the Gaslamp wouldn’t be complete without an order of oysters on the half-shell at Oceanaire, a steak and martini at The Palm or popcorn and a movie at Pacific Gaslamp Theaters, which is just how Gaxiola would end a day of shopping downtown’s hippest areas.

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