Urban Outfitter

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If you’ve walked by the windows of Algin’s storefront at Eighth and Main, you’ve probably already imagined one of their modern furniture reproductions in your own house. Who wouldn’t look twice at a cherry-red egg chair or a silver Chesterfield-style sofa? Thanks in part to a certain AMC Original that shall remain nameless, modern design has hit its stride again, seeping into our collecting consciousness. To meet the demand, Alan Weiss took his family’s 45-year-old furniture business and injected a heavy dose of hip. Weiss’s grandfather, Henry, opened  Henry’s Kut-Rate, a cash-and-carry store on Pike Street that evolved into office furniture sales. Algin’s current customers (who include hot-right-now nightspots FB’s and Lunar) can pick up mod-style clocks or Bertoia-esque barstools at a fraction of the cost of the über-swanky originals.

Weiss is downtown’s unofficial furniture czar: Next door to the retro shop sits his office furniture showroom, a seven-floor emporium that opens to the public each Saturday. The fifth floor, (a.k.a. “Chair World”) is a block-long sea of used office chairs from all walks of life. “We get lots of things from Procter & Gamble and it’s all in really nice condition,” Weiss says. From there, head up one floor to “The Warehouse” and browse filing cabinets and hotel furniture, or down to the second floor for an assortment of consignment pieces. DIYers take heed: bring your imagination and a truck. There’s free parking right next door.

Algin Retro Furniture, 800 Main St., downtown, (513) 621-1616, www.alginretro.com

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