With clients like the Four Seasons Dubai, Disney, Restoration Hardware and Pottery Barn, it may be hard to believe that wholesale import and design studio Tazi Designs still operates under the radar in Linden Alley.
Since 2004, Tazi Designs has occupied the 45,000 square foot, three-story building at 333 Linden Street, a formerly unoccupied space that may or may not have been a “sex club,” admits Principal and Creative Director Tazi Hicham. “I had to burn a lot of sage when I moved in,” Hicham laughs. And it wasn’t always fashionable to sip Blue Bottle Coffee or grab a Smitten Ice Cream on the block. “People didn’t understand business in the alley 10 years ago,” he says.
The wholesale import and design company, which has been in the neighborhood since 2002, sources, curates and designs pieces of furniture from or inspired by Morocco, including anything from oversized lighting pieces to one-of-a-kind outdoor furniture for both international and local clients, in addition to corporations.
Despite a ground floor that’s outfitted much like any high-end Hayes Valley retailer, Tazi Designs still operates like a 9-to-5 design studio. “We’re more of an office,” Hicham says. Oversized custom creations occupy all three floors of the space, but an entrance often brimming with pallets ready to ship can deter passersby from venturing inside. Still, Tazi Design's front of the house team is eager to help weekday walk-ins with questions about the staged space, though as Hicham notes that “you don’t just walk in to buy a $11,000 dresser or a $15,000 mirror.”
A metal artisans in Marrakech hammering a Tazi design (Tazi Designs/Instagram)
Tazi Designs employs a team both in the Bay Area and Morocco (where the company was first based) to ship standard pieces and design custom-made products for retail clients. “We have a standard line of products available on our website, or we have products that can be customized,” said manager Johanna Fierro. “We have lighting to furniture, textiles and clothing, but furniture is our strength.”
Materials are sourced from everywhere. The popular leather pouf might be filled in the Bay Area, but a good vintage rug could come from a remote village near Marrakech or Fez, Hicham says. “We operate a company in Morocco with staff in both cities. Some of our products ship to San Francisco and others go straight to clients in the four corners of the world.”
If you're ever in Dubai, look for mosaic tables created by Tazi Designs at the Four Seasons hotel, and see behind-the-scenes artisan work and interior renovations via the company's namesake Instagram account. Be on the lookout for an expansion, too, as the company expects to open a second location in the North Bay by the end of the year.
