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William Curry is standing in perhaps the best retail location in town, on the corner of Carlisle and Silver, a corner he waited for so he could open his new import store, Terrazzo Archives (TRZO), in its ideal space.
“It has everything I wanted–the light, the foot traffic, the ambience of Nob Hill,” Curry said. “Foot traffic was very good when we first opened [in April]. Now we wait for the tourists to come through.”
TRZO is a fresh take on the import stores made ubiquitous by World Market and Pier One. Curry arranges vignettes throughout the store to show what his educated eye for design sees: bright but earthy tones, textured but subtle materials, comfortable but stylish furnishings. Shoppers easily can picture these items in their own homes.
“I like the handcrafted feel of these things,” he said. “These items are one-of-a-kind and we only carry a few variations.”
Curry has an MFA in design and, after growing up in Santa Fe, worked for Bloomingdale’s and Barney’s in San Francisco. He learned the business but always wanted his own entrepreneurial space. “Retail is a corporate job; my head is in making art,” he said. To that end, he has his own line of self-designed handbags that sell in Santa Fe and other places, including TRZO.
The name of his shop evokes the manmade, environmentally friendly process of making terrazzo and then installing it in situ. Terrazzo is made with recycled materials and installing it on site is ecologically sound, in part because it cuts down on the need for fossil fuels to transport it.
“‘Terrazzo’ encapsulated the concept of making something new out of something old,” Curry said. “It also had a parallel to the thought of creating something that was manmade that replicated natural stone. Similar to how I viewed what I was doing with the look of the store, achieving a natural look but mixing old/new, modern/ethnic to achieve something that all together felt new and fresh. ‘Archives’ furthers the thought of how the past speaks to the current. Ancient designs in African folk art still have relevance to today’s aesthetics.”
TRZO is strictly storefront right now, but a website for fulfillment of orders will exist as soon as suppliers can be onboarded. In the meantime, stop by. TRZO is a pleasing place to browse.
Terrazzo Archives, 113 Carlisle Blvd. SE, 505.219.3968; open Tue.-Sun. 10am-6pm
