The Iconic Eames Shell Chair is Now Available in New Recyclable Fiberglass! Eames Eco Fiberglass Chair Collection Eames Molded Fiberglass Chair collection. Eero Saarinen designed the groundbreaking Womb Chair at Florence Knoll's request for "a chair that was like a basket full of pillows - something she could really curl up in." This mid-century classic supports countless positions and offers a comforting oasis of calm—hence the name.Scroll to details for information. Retail price of current configuration: Estimated Delivery: 2-3 weeks Shipping & Delivery Info After winning the Museum of Modern Art Organic Design Competition with Charles Eames for their experiments with bent plywood in 1941, Eero Saarinen was eager to continue exploring the possibilities of a chair that achieved comfort through the shape of its shell, not the depth of its cushioning. Initially, he began the investigation with designs for smaller fiberglass task chairs, but changed direction when Florence Knoll approached him and asked, “Why not take the bull by the horns and do the big one first?
I want a chair that is like a basket full of pillows…something I can curl up in.” While that’s not exactly where Saarinen ended up, the suggestion inspired one of the most iconic, and comfortable, chairs of the modern furniture movement. Like many of Saarinen’s furniture designs, the Womb Chair required production techniques and materials still in the infancy of their existence. Saarinen and Florence Knoll found a boat builder in New Jersey who was experimenting with fiberglass and resin to help develop manufacturing methods for the new chair. Florence Knoll: “He was very skeptical. We just begged him. I guess we were so young and so enthusiastic he finally gave in and worked with us. We had lots of problems and failures until they finally got a chair that would work.” Born to world famous architect and Cranbrook Academy of Art Director Eliel Saarinen and textile artist Loja Saarinen, Eero Saarinen was surrounded by design his whole life. By the time he was in his teens, Eero was helping his father design furniture and fixtures for the Cranbrook campus.
After studying sculpture in Paris and architecture at Yale, Saarinen returned to Cranbrook in 1934. It was at Cranbrook that Saarinen met Charles Eames. The two young men, both committed to exploring new materials and processes, quickly became great friends and creative collaborators. They worked together on several projects, most notably their groundbreaking collection of molded plywood chairs for 1940 competition Organic Design in Home Furnishings, sponsored by MoMA. At Cranbrook, Saarinen also met Florence Knoll, who at that time was a promising young protégé of Eliel Saarinen. When Florence joined Knoll in the 1940s, she invited Eero to design for the company. Saarinen went on to design many of Knoll's most recognizable pieces, including the Tulip chairs and tables, the Womb chair, and the 70 Series of seating. In addition to these achievements, Saarinen became a leader of the second-generation modernists. Among his outstanding projects are the Dulles International Airport in Washington, D.C., the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, and New York's CBS Building and TWA Terminal at Kennedy International Airport.
YOU ARE HERE: LAT HomeCollectionsFamilies Imagine inheriting a legacy that helped define the look of the 20th century. Imagine owning a house known as one of the great masterpieces of Modernist architecture. Imagine being asked to keep alive the spirit of invention that engendered all of this.This is the responsibility that befell Lucia Eames and her offspring on Aug. 21, 1988, the day her stepmother, Ray Eames, died, 10 years to the day after the death of Lucia's father--Ray's design partner and husband--Charles Eames.Famous for their classically simple furniture--the familiar sling seating in airports; the once ubiquitous plastic, wire and bentwood chairs; the comfy, high-end, leather-and-wood lounge and ottoman--the Eameses bequeathed to their daughter innumerable valuable objects they had designed, along with a vast array of prototypes. They also left her a still-thriving relationship with manufacturers worldwide.But that's not all there was. Their archive included a million photographs and dozens of films--educational and documentary--displaying the Eameses' experimental sensibility.
And perhaps most important--and most vulnerable--was their Pacific Palisades house, which had been built for almost nothing in 1949 as part of Art & Architecture magazine's Case Study experiment in developing new kinds of housing. Always a magnet for architectural enthusiasts, the two-story, two-building residence and studio were filled with a mix of high- and low-end treasures amassed by a pair of inveterate collectors.Lucia Eames inherited the intellectual rights to everything produced by the Eames Office, which has remained in operation since it was established in the early 1940s. And as she took the helm of the family holdings, Lucia Eames and her five children agreed that they should maintain and preserve not only what existed materially, but also the prodigiously adventurous attitude of Charles and Ray."I grew up thinking this is natural," Eames says of the philosophy of "rigor and joy" she inherited from her parents. "This is the way one lives one's life. A bird isn't conscious of the currents in air.
It's only later that one realizes that those uplifting currents are missing in so many people's lives. And that's part of our mission, to make it available so other people can embrace it."*Nearly 12 years after Ray's death, Lucia Eames, 69, and her fourth child, Eames Demetrios, 38, now head up a lively new incarnation of the Eames Office, with the son acting as day-to-day director and the mother as a sort of chairman of the board.In a conversation at the famous house, which now serves as an L.A. pied-a-terre for the Bay Area-based Eames and daily workplace for Demetrios and the current staff, the pair return repeatedly to their mission of "communicating, preserving and extending the work of Charles and Ray Eames.""We are a family business, we're not a [nonprofit] foundation," Demetrios says in his characteristic matter-of-fact manner. "We decided that we preferred the entrepreneurial model, because we felt that it gave us the flexibility of control to do all the interesting things that we felt we could do."
I think that it energizes the whole operation to have that be part of the equation. And if we want to take care of this house, we have to go out and earn it."The business is as varied as ever: The Eames Office works with manufacturers--Vitra in Europe and Herman Miller everywhere else--to keep its vintage furniture designs in production. It maintains the landmark house both for family use and for its historical significance (it can be seen, for free, by appointment). ) and the recently opened Eames Office Gallery & Store on Main Street in Santa Monica, which presents exhibitions and sells new and familiar Eames products.Additionally, the family has donated more than a million objects from Ray and Charles Eames' holdings to museums--a large portion to the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., and the Vitra Museum in Basel, Switzerland. All the Eames films are being transferred to video for commercial sale, and a number of educational exhibitions organized by the office are currently either circulating or in the works.