A whale of a challenge; a soft office market has meant slow office furniture sales and lean times for the Pacific Design Center. But Richard Norfolk, president of the architectural landmark, is making headway with Herculean work habits.

A whale of a challenge

A soft office market has meant slow office furniture sales and lean times for the Pacific Design Center. But Richard Norfolk, president of the architectural landmark, is making headway with Herculean work habits.

Richard Norfolk, a hardworking South Dakota native who somehow looks bright-eyed at age 52, is also steward of a rarity: A bona fide Los Angeles architectural landmark, in the form of the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood, where he is president.

Most Angelenos know the Pacific Design Center as the "Blue Whale," the award-winning 750,000-square-foot furniture showroom center built in 1975. In 1988, the "Center Green" building was opened, adding 400,000 square feet to the complex, and winning kudos again for good looks. The PDC, on a 16-acre site, is home to 1,400 furniture manufacturers and interior-design firms in 215 showrooms.

But to Norfolk, who assumed his post in 1987, the PDC is both more and less than an architectural success: On one hand it is a "venue" in which Los Angeles is putting itself on the world's design map.

On the other hand, it is a building that needs to be leased. The building is privately owned by a consortium which includes Orange County-based Birtcher Corp., Catellus (formerly known as Santa Fe Pacific Realty) and the Worldwide Group.

Right now, leasing is tough, although headway is being made, if only by Norfolk's Herculean work habits. He begins his typical workday before 7:30 a.m., after commuting in from the Toluca Lake section of Los Angeles. He doesn't leave, most nights, until past 10 p.m. He works "one day a weekend."

The long hours may be related to the state of the furnishing industry: When office space goes empty, as it is all across the United States, demand for office furniture sags too. That translates into a softness in demand for showroom space.

"The office furniture industry is led by the number of `work stations' created," says Norfolk, using industry lingo to describe a desk. "When you see the vacancy rate go up, that spells trouble."

Despite the industry softness, the Blue Whale is doing fine, with 95 percent of the showrooms leased. The Center Green, however, after being open more than two years is only 70 percent leased -- not a great success, although space is filling up. Plans for a third wing, called Center Red, are on hold.

Compounding Norfolk's difficulties, the furniture-making industry has just passed through a merger frenzy, with some larger enterprises buying many smaller outfits. For Norfolk, that again translates into fewer customers.

"Some of the larger companies want even more space, but they already have spent $150 a square foot on their existing showrooms," says Norfolk, describing the expensive improvements that furniture-makers render upon their premises. "Some of the larger showrooms run up to 35,000 square feet, so you are talking about millions in improvements already spent."

Norfolk's biggest tenants are the national name-brand manufacturers, such as Steelcase, Allsteel, Herman Miller and Westinghouse.

Norfolk has battled back against the softening market, in part by drawing in tenants from surrounding West Hollywood, in part by drawing in Southern California manufacturers as new tenants, and in part by slightly altering the mix of new tenants.

From the neighborhood, he has snared such companies as Donghia, a rug merchant, and Vermillion II, a custom and antique furniture reproduction shop.

"Some of these companies were almost literally on our doorstep," exudes Norfolk, his accentless Midwest voice registering just a hint of triumph. "We got them to cross the street and come aboard."

Norfolk, and his four-person leasing staff, have also convinced Southland manufacturers, such as Torrance-based Harpers Inc., and Pleion Corp. of Orange County, to take showrooms in the PDC, to complement their factory showrooms. "Many buyers come to the PDC only. Their time is valuable, and they might not make a trip elsewhere," says Norfolk.

Lastly, the PDC is appealing to a broader range of tenants, recently adding an antique store to its mix, and a firm named "Applique" which specializes in unusual paint jobs. "The people in the accessory industries can be tenants too," asserts Norfolk. "Talented craftsmen and others."

In an innovative program, Norfolk is allowing smaller manufacturers to take out shared space in a PDC-provided showroom. "This has already been a success," says Norfolk. "Some of these manufacturers, with greater exposure, have won major contracts. In turn they have leased more space on their own from us."

One thing Norfolk swears he won't do: Lower rents. "We charge $33 a square foot, and $10 a square foot in service charges," says Norfolk. "About the same as an "A" (top-quality) office building."

Norfolk's hard-line on rents is perhaps not a surprise, when it explained how much space is actually available to rent: Only 74 percent of the PDC is showroom space, the rest is commons areas. "The typical office building has about 12 percent commons area," says Norfolk. "We provide so much more in the way of ancillary services."

The PDC has extra-wide hallways, courtyards, meeting rooms, a museum and other facilities for which monthly rent cannot be charged.

For the PDC's long-run future, Norfolk is devoting much time and effort in making the huge showroom synonymous with design -- and to heightening the design-consciousness of American industry and homeowners.

the PDC's big show is its annual "Westweek" bash, in which the furnishing industry touts its wares to 30,000 visitors. Throughout the year the PDC holds other shows, to highlight both itself and the need to have well-designed surroundings.

"When somebody -- a job applicant, a potential customer -- walks into your office, an impression is made," says Norfolk, repeating what he has told many captains of industry. "You want to project the right image."

From Norfolk's point of view, if Americans demand better design, they'll buy more furniture -- a positive for the PDC and its tenants.

The image-making glitz of West Hollywood is a long way from Norfolk's beginnings in Huron, S.D. Norfolk acknowledges that the South Dakota flatlands did not give him the idea to run a furniture showroom complex. In fact, he backed into it.

In 1986, after an 18 year career as a salesman for Martin Marietta, he sojourned to Minneapolis to sell the business of a disabled family relative.

While in town he met Wyman Nelson, owner-developer of International Market Square, a furniture mart there. Shortly thereafter Nelson succumbed to Norfolk's charms, and hired him as president of International Market.

From there things moved even more quickly. In 1987, at a trade show, Norfolk met Murray Feldman, president of the PDC, who hired him to be executive vice president at the PDC.

In July of 1987, one week after Norfolk arrived in Los Angeles, Feldman died. Norfolk was made president.

"That's how I became president of the one of the most recognizable showrooms in the world after being in the industry four years," says Norfolk. "But right now, I am loving it."