Entrepreneur by Design

+ Story by Nicole Burdick
+ Photography by David Agnello

Furniture manufacturer Mori Bergmeyer has taken his business to a new level with the introduction of custom, mass-produced multi-component entertainment system furniture.

Mori Bergmeyer at his 50,000 sq. ft. factory in Driggs, Idaho.

Tables are staged for finishing at the Bergmeyer Furniture factory.

The red Bergmeyer Manufacturing building buzzes with the sweet alder aroma of an entrepreneur’s latest undertaking. Since 1990, the Driggs, Idaho, furniture-maker has endowed designer showrooms with five lines of European-inspired furnishings. Mori Bergmeyer now takes manufacturing to the next level: mass-customization.

furntiture assembly line at Bergmeyer Manufacturing

furntiture assembly line at Bergmeyer Manufacturing

Last summer, Bergmeyer introduced a multi-component entertainment center in his Driggs showroom. Further investigation into the realm of technology revealed little to no standardization among televisions—from depth, to width, to height. Speakers, stereos, CDs, DVDs, and books each add specific dimensions. “We’ve always customized, but beds, tables, and armoires have very few components,” he said. "I thought: this is it, this could be really big."

Over lunch, Bergmeyer launched into a complete history of mass customization, referencing Dell computers and the rise of China, America’s transition from the mass-production of the Industrial Age to the mass-customization of the Information Age.

"We're merging our AutoCAD technologies with new software designed specifically for Bergmeyer," he said. “People love choices. We’ve got 32 colors, 40 knobs, 5 styles and 12 components. This gives the client 11 million possible configurations, all from a single manufacturing line.”

In the late '60s, Bergmeyer developed the first commercially used, 3- dimensional computer graphics program in North America and taught design and computer programming at MIT and Harvard before opening an architecture firm in Boston. After visiting Driggs, Bergmeyer quickly became general manager and owner of Grand Targhee Resort, a position he adored and held for two decades, despite local resistance to his development coups.

Bergmeyer finds many of his inspirations in Europe. Traveling, when his 80-hour work week permits, he often fills suitcases with weighty design books that anchor his modest and geometrically eccentric home. The floorboards run on the diagonal; soft southwestern stucco trims some windows; and guests are greeted by a looming, three-foot thick, freestanding column, among other odds and ends he has randomly collected.

When asked about role models, Bergmeyer looked to his shelves, thumbed black and white sketches of early New York City, and stopped at the Singer Building. "It's not just the history, buildings are integrated into the fabric of a city—they are the city," he said.

Bergmeyer's heady mix of balance and logic means his transitions also make sense. He gestured to a weathered carriage house in Gloucester, Massachusetts, which he had personally converted into a summer home. "That cupola should look familiar… like the ticket booth at Grand Targhee." He grinned slightly. "See, I get my ideas from everywhere."