Thursday, 22 September 2005 | Elif Sungur
The 1951 Chair in Wood Finishes by Emeco
Following the successful installation of almost 700 custom chairs and stools for Fordham University's renovated McGinley Center dining hall, Emeco has introduced the 1951 chair in wood finishes as a standard option.
Fordham needed an indestructible chair for the renovation of the 1959 dining hall by Meyer Davis Studio (NYC). They preferred a US made product, and most of all they desired style. The Architect's new interior feels more like a glamorous urban restaurant than a utilitarian college cafeteria, and the seating choice was critical. They chose Emeco's new 1951 chairs and stools in custom University Red ABS and a complementary light wood laminate.
A fortuitous discovery on eBay lead to '1951', Emeco's newest aluminum chair. Designed by Adrian van Hooydonk and BMW Group DesignworksUSA, the new chair stacks six high and will retail for US$350 in easy-maintenance Maple, Cherry or Mahanoy wood laminate finish. Matching bar and counter stools are available. The chairs and stools carry a 7-year guarantee and are completely American made at Emeco's historic Hanover Pennsylvania facility. Emeco's use of post-consumer recycled aluminum makes its furniture LEED compliant.
"We found a long lost Emeco chair on eBay dated 1951," recalled Gregg Buchbinder, Emeco's Chairman and CEO. "We appreciated the straightforwardness of the 50's original, but it needed rationalization - and attitude."
"Gregg instinctively knows what is good for Emeco" said Adrian van Hooydonk, Director of BMW Brand Design in Munich, "and we agreed that the modernization of the original chair would be 100 % Classic Emeco - simple, utilitarian and masculine. Lines and surfaces were discussed at length, as well as the "Stance" of the new '1951', which is a lot more dynamic than the original."
Named a "Master of Design" by Fast Company magazine in 2004, Adrian van Hooydonk was recently elevated to Director of Design for BMW Automobiles in Munich, Germany from his post as President of BMW DesignworksUSA.
Emeco was founded in 1944 to make all-aluminum chairs for the US Navy. In 2000, Philippe Starck's Hudson chair for Emeco won the GOOD DESIGN Award and was inducted into the permanent design collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. In 2004, Frank Gehry's Superlight chair won another GOOD DESIGN award has been included in collections at the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, DC, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich.
Emeco has made over 1,000,000 Navy chairs since 1944, and now sells its all-aluminum furniture in 29 countries.
For more information, please visit http://www.emeco.net
|
