Charles and Ray Eames are heroes of mine and probably the most important and influential duo in mid century design. Their partnership touched many different aspects of design- from design to furniture to art and the graphic arts, plus film and architecture. They created the Eames Chair, the Mathematics Exhibit for IBM at the 1964 New York World's Fair, the movie "Powers of Ten" and this amazing polished glass box house, nestled alongside a meadow at 203 Chautauqua in the Palisades.
The house was designed as part of John Entenza's Arts and Architecture Magazine Case Study Homes Project. It is designated as CSH No. 8. Incidentally, Entenza's own house, CSH No. 9, was across the street at 205. The house was designed to be built out of prefabricated, readily available materials. Originally envisioned to stretch across the meadow to maximize the view, the Eames later redesigned the structure to lay more discreetly along the edge of the property so as not to disturb the gentle meadow. A national treasure.
Photos by the author June 21, 2003, as part of an Eames Office Tour lead by Lucia Eames (daughter of Charles) and her son Eames Demetrios, who is the head of the Eames Office located here in Santa Monica.
Enjoy.
3 comments:
A genius partnership if there ever was one.. Get any interior pictures???
Beautiful pictures. I wish I had stopped there on my last roadtrip. I guess there's always next year!
Several years ago my cockamanie place of employment was literally putting in the trash three Eames chairs in mint condition: two Saucers and an Armshell.
Apparently mid-century kitsch is considered vulgar by this institute of higher eduction.
So we trotted them home and they are gorgeous.
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