Cisco Bros. revives old mill in green’ style
Gary Evans -- Furniture Today, April 29, 2008
HIGH POINT — When Cisco Pinedo went looking for showroom and warehouse space here, he didn’t know he’d end up with an abandoned cotton mill that hadn’t been used in 20 years for anything other than a possible drug hangout.
Cisco Pinedo stands in front of Cisco Bros.’ new High Point showroom in a 100-year-old former cotton mill just south of downtown.
But two years ago Pinedo, founder of high-end, eco-friendly upholstery maker Cisco Bros., bought the building from the estate of the late Jake Froelich. After going through a long process of obtaining city permits, Cisco remodeled the building into what’s now its flagship showroom, a large, airy, rustic lodge-type space.
In October, the building also will house CA Boom East, the East Coast version of a California design show featuring an eclectic group of exhibitors that cover everything from furniture to whole prefab homes. It will coincide with the fall High Point Market, Oct. 20-26.
Opening for the first time during the spring market here, Cisco’s 27-acre Mills Village complex included several buildings comprising 280,000 square feet.
The complex is the epitome of renewal. Buildings feature reclaimed partitions, ramps and staircases made 70% from metals and lumber reclaimed from the old structure and its surroundings. The only new concrete poured for the complex — described as the most significant LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) project in High Point and North Carolina to date — was for government-mandated handicapped access.
California-based Cisco Bros. takes the same environmentally conscious approach to its furniture. It uses petroleum-free latex extract produced from rubber tree sap, legs from reclaimed wood, frames from sustainable forests, and fabrics from organic cotton or hemp, washed in chemical-free vegetable detergent.
“You’re going to sell green products whether you want to or not if you buy from us,” Pinedo quipped, standing at the entrance of the new showroom, once a loading dock in a 100-year old building that was once the centerpiece of a community of mill homes and churches.
CA Boom East will be housed in 30,000 square feet on the main building’s second floor, with 20 to 30 exhibitors that have never shown in High Point before, according to Pinedo.
“Having been an exhibitor at CA Boom, I saw firsthand how this show can benefit the design community on the West Coast,” he said. “In addition, the Cisco brand complements CA Boom’s business values and we are excited to grow our relationship with the show on both coasts.”
Over the past five years, Southern California has been the home to the CA Boom Design Show, which has gained acclaim for promoting contemporary and nontraditional design and architecture in categories ranging from furnishings to surfaces and finishes to doors and windows to prefab. CA Boom East will focus on new, independent contemporary furnishing designers and manufacturers that have yet to be discovered by contemporary and transitional retailers, organizers said.
“We see High Point as the center and the future of where real furniture is made and sold, and we are very excited to be associated with such a prestigious event,” said Charles M. Trotter, the show’s manager.
CA Boom’s California show was held earlier this year in Santa Monica with 130 exhibitors.
