dutch's Profile

charles eames would never have designed a damn thing in california if he hadn't taken a job teaching with eliel saarinen at cranbrook academy outside detroit, designing chairs with his son eero, chatting up florence knoll, drinking with harry bertoia and gyo obata, and eventually getting a divorce and wooing a student of his at cranbrook named ray kaiser.

what you're saying, fueledbycoffee, is akin to suggesting that because mies van der rohe designed his most iconic buildings from chicago, his experience at the bauhaus didn't matter.

[besides, the man never designed another piece of decent furniture after he left lilly reich in berlin]

The midwest was where modernism could really flourish while the eastcoast sat entrenched in its sense of history (and its own overblown importance) and while the west coast was all sun-drenched and tacky. don't overlook the importance of detroit, either. bertoia was a native son, lafayette park is the largest collection of mies buildings in the world, the saarinens, albert kahn, I could go on and on, but then again I am very biased towards my adopted city.