Hive
Hive Modern Furniture (820 NW Glisan Street and www.hivemodern.com) is a delicious and refreshing store situated amidst the home decor boutique phenomenon of the Pearl District. The unsurpassed feature of the store is the use of light–natural and synthetic–sparkling vibrantly. The store is a certified vendor for Alessi, Cassina, and Vitra among other formidable names. Hive has been mentioned in magazines such as Dwell, In Style, and Lucky. Ashkan had the occasion of chatting with owner, Patrick Fisher, posing him the questions of the ultra Q and a few more besides:
Qualities you most admire in design:
Ingenuity, thoughtful functionality…..A sense of balance and inspiration.
Qualities you most despise in design:
Derivative, cynical design created with an eye towards commerce
Reading:
The Sneetches
Listening to:
The new Silver Jews album “tangle wood numbers”. It’s incredible!
Dream project:
Building a home
Favorite virtue:
Honesty
Favorite vice:
Vegan Voo Doo Doughnuts
Tragic flaw:
Believing
Secret superhero power:
Omnipresence
That which keeps your afterburners firing:
Bursts of enlightenment and progress after long, hard slogs.
What you’d like to be when you grow up:
Willy Wonka
Portland’s best kept secret:
There is so much yet to be done.
Portland heroes (sung or un-):
Everyone who is working hard and raising the bar, + thems who make raisin bars 
Interesting on the horizon (PDX):
A population boom will transform this city and the historic sluggish Portland aesthetic will be re-tooled to include more sparks.
How do you choose which objects and lines to include in the shop?
I start with objects and lines that inspire me and go from there. I prefer things that are made in Europe using traditional methods by companies that share a passion for quality and that treat workers and the environment with care.
Do you have a favorite object and what is it about the object that you appreciate or find compelling?
That’s a lot like asking a parent if he has a favorite child, my favorite objects vary wildly daily…. today it is my new set of Vredestein Tires for my Volkswagen Van. They are made in Holland and have this uncanny aura of quality craftsmanship, plus they smell nice. Dutch tires, who woulda thunk :)?
If you could send as a present one thing in the shop to everyone you know, what would it be?
A great soup spoon!
Who are your favorite designers? Living? Dead?
Living = Pierre Paulin, Marc Newson, Mario Bellini
Dead = Castiglioni, Saarinen, George Nelson
Why do you think that “Good Design” for a lot of people tends to be weighted heavily toward a certain era … mid-(20th) century?
Mid-20th century has been so celebrated that people simply accept it is as definitive “Good Design” often without taking the time to consider a wider scope of work and dig deeper. Good design has been and is everywhere; you just need to know how to recognize it and where to look. Certainly mid-20th century had landmark “Good Design” but so did the 1980’s.
WHAT TO DO NOW?