Eames Aluminum Group Management Chair Designers: Charles and Ray EamesGraceful silhouette, innovative comfort features, timeless design. The Management Chair is a low-back chair with or without arms. Now available with new finish and material options. Configure Your Eames Aluminum Group Management Chair It’s a trick only Charles and Ray Eames could pull off: Chairs designed in 1958 as outdoor seating still look classic and contemporary in 21st century interiors. The chair's clean, curvilinear lines enhance any décor and work well in your home office, dining area, and living room. Available in fabric, vinyl, or leather, these Eames chairs are equipped with an innovative suspension that creates a firm, flexible “sitting pocket.” It conforms subtly to your body’s shape and maintains your comfort. With an aluminum frame and base, the chair is strong, yet lightweight and easy to move. Earth-friendly, too: made of 61 percent recycled materials and 88 percent recyclable at the end of its useful life.
A major technical achievement. You can choose leather, vinyl, or fabric in lots of colors, including some prints. If you choose leather upholstery, you can opt for our standard or our new premium leather, a semi-aniline, dyed leather with 100 percent natural full grain. Color variations and surface marks are an inherent characteristic of this material, which will acquire wrinkles and creases and develop a rich patina over time. The new premium leather option is available in black and pearl. To complement the lighter materials—including pearl, the white leather—we are also offering powder coat finishes on the base and frame in white and graphite satin, along with polished aluminum. A continuous piece of seat-back upholstery stretched tautly between the aluminum side ribs makes a flexible pocket that provides support as you sit. Chairs have a 5-star base with tilt-swivel mechanism, manual or optional pneumatic seat-height adjustment, and tilt lock feature. Available with casters or with glides that work on both hardwood floors and carpet.
A classic silhouette, the Robin Series is beautiful, simple and affordable. The Robin Highback is slim, lightweight and durable, featuring clean upholstery details and a polished chrome frame and base. With its pneumatic height adjustment and advanced knee-tilt mechanism, the Robin Highback Chair offers a comfortable ergonomic experience that works well at the desk or in the conference room. The Robin Lowback in Brown is available for free and fast delivery in the continental U.S. The Robin Lowback is also available in black leather textured vinyl. The Robin Series is also available as a Highback in black leather textured vinyl. 31” x 17” x 24” Pneumatic seat height adjustment. Knee-tilt mechanism with a multiple position tilt lock. Seat tilt tension adjustment. Polished chrome frame and base. Wobi Office warrants to the original purchaser, with proof of purchase, all components for a period of ten years from original date of purchase with the exception of upholstery and foam, which are warranted for a period of two years from the date of purchase.
Upon receipt of a warranty claim, Wobi Office will repair or replace in Wobi’s sole and absolute discretion, any unaltered components. Wobi Office warrants to the original purchaser that all parts will be free from material defects. All of Wobi Office products are made overseas for Wobi Office and are not branded products. Wobi Office is not associated or affiliated with any other company. Warranty is limited to normal usage, not exceeding forty hours per week and 250lb weight. The warranty is strictly limited to replacement or repair of the product and does not cover cost of transportation and labor for repairs. There are no other warranties expressed or implied other than those specifically described. Wobi Office shall not be liable for consequential or incidental damages arising from any product defect and any claim for damages shall be limited to the actual price for the product purchased.Visitors to Schaudepot, the newest building at the Vitra Design Museum (VDM), can now see Charles Eames’s personal office, just as it was when he passed away in 1978.
Charles Eames’s 1978 office as it appears now at the Vitra Design Museum. Contents of the office on loan to VDM from the Eames family collection. Charles’s desk was designed by George Nelson, the Design Director of Herman Miller, who recruited Charles and Ray to the company. In the foreground on the left hangs an antique Hopi Indian Dance Crown. Below it, on top of an Eames Storage Unit, are a miniature Thonet chair model and a black and white checkerboard ashtray by renowned Swedish designer Stig Lindberg. Charles’s chair is an Eames Intermediate Chair, which he and Ray introduced in 1968. Eames Intermediate Chairs are described in the 1970 Herman Miller catalog as “…good solutions for moderately priced office seating. Frame, arms, and base are bright polished aluminum. Bright polished arms are furnished with arm rests of black leather. Upholsteries are available in a variety of fabrics and combinations. When a combination is chosen, the top surface of the seat only will be in the same specified fabric.
Seat boxing and welts will be in the same material as specified for the back.” Unlike many of Charles and Ray’s designs, the Eames Intermediate Chair is not part of a furniture group. Aside from upholstery options, the only configurations for the design were with or without arms and a stationary or tilt-swivel seat. The unique cast aluminum frame was only suitable for a desk chair. It had some very interesting details, as seen in the images below. The horizontal bar of the chair’s arms is fitted through holes in the vertical parts of the frame. The “antler” shaped stretcher under the seat fits through holes in the horizontal portions of the frame. Charles and Ray called this design “intermediate” because it was intermediate in price and weight compared to other Eames chairs. It weighed more, had more padding, and was more expensive than the Eames Aluminum Desk Chair. It cost less than the Eames Executive Chair because it was not as heavy, and didn’t have that design’s multiple hand-tufted pads.
In 1973, the Eames Office and Herman Miller decided to discontinue production of the Eames Intermediate Chair. It was made redundant by the success of the Eames Soft Pad Group of 1969. The versatile Eames Soft Pad Group included two version of an upholstered desk chair, one with a low back, one with a high back, and a lounge chair and ottoman, all built with similar structural and upholstery details. Those who come across an Eames Intermediate Chair on the vintage market have found a real treasure. It is more common to find them in Europe than America because they were manufactured by Herman Miller International, a Herman Miller venture run by the Felhbaums, who now run Vitra. Today, the company has the exclusive license for Eames furniture in Europe and the Middle East. The Eames Soft Pad Group that came to replace the Eames Intermediate Chair is available today by our partners Vitra and Herman Miller. Images of the Eames Intermediate Chair photographed by Grant Taylor and gifted to the Eames Office by J.F. Chen.