Mid-Century Modern Designers
- Born in Kuortane, Finland on 3 February 1898; died in Helsinki, Finland on 11 May 1976.
- Aalto was a man of many hats known for his work as an architect, industrial designer (furniture, lighting, glassware, textiles), painter and sculpture.
- He was known for complete design, working on both the structure of a building and its interior.
- Well-known Aalto designs include the Aalto Vase or Savoy Vase, which was Aalto’s winning design from a glass design competition hosted by Karhula-Iittala in 1936. The vase was shown at the 1937 Paris World Exposition.
- He often worked with his wife, architect Aino Aalto (née Marsio).
- The city of Jyväskylä, Finland is home to a museum solely dedicated to Alvar Aalto.
- Born 7 October 1923 in Goodland, Kansas; died on 23 July 2003 in Salt Lake City, Utah
- Milo Baughman was a prominent award-winning American designer, author, and educator.
- At the age of 13, Baughman was tasked with designing the interior and exterior of his family’s new home.
- Baughman’s style was influenced by the engineering and functionality of the European Bauhaus movement.
- While maintaining his professional design business, Baughman was a chairman a professor Brigham Young University, in Provo, Utah. After moving away, he returned as a lecturer at BYU.
- Baughman also lectured at Rhode Island School of Design, the University of Tennessee, the University of Wisconsin–Madison and North Carolina State, and other universities.
- Baughman worked with Greta Magnusson Grossman, collaborating with many Los Angeles companies, and defined the California Modern aesthetic style.
- In 1953, he began working with Thayer Coggin, the North Carolina manufacturer that still produces Milo Baughman furniture today and in 1987, was inducted into the Furniture Design Hall of Fame.
- His iconic designs included the 820-400 Chaise (1954), 955-304 Sofa (1954), 951-103 Milo Lounge Chair (1962), T-Back 989-103 Lounge Chair (1963), Viceroy Recliner (1965), the Wave Chaise (1960s), and 1224 Circle Sectional (1970s).
- Born in San Lorenzo, Pordenone, Italy on 10 March 1915; died in Barto, Pennsylvania on 6 November 1978.
- Attended and taught at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan where he was charged with that task of re-opening the metal workshop. Due to World War II demands, materials were limited, causing Bertoia to focus on jewellery. Eventually, access to metal became non-existent and he turned to producing monotypes.
- Bertoia produced his only series of furniture, including his famous diamond chair, while working under Florence and Hans Knolls. The Bertoia Collection for Knoll utilizes metal to create fluid chairs, characteristic of the Mid-Century Modern movement.
- Expanding on his metal work, he experimented with the medium to produce varying works of art. He created “Sonambient” sculptures, a sculpture instrument hybrid, and learned how to play them. Bertoia produced a collection of albums based on recordings of these sculpture instruments.
- Bertoia’s work spans across multiple scales, from his wearable jewellery to his monumental sculptures. His numerous pieces are housed across the globe, including consulates, private collections, universities, museums and airports.
- Born in Pecs, Hungary on 21 May 1902; died in New York City, USA on 1 July 1981.
- Marcel Breuer was a Hungarian-born architect and furniture designer.
- Breuer became a protégé of Walter Gropius at the Bauhaus School where he began his career designing furniture.
- When he fled Nazi Germany in 1938, Breuer was brought in by Gropius to teach at Harvard Graduate School of Design.
- Breuer was a pioneer of the International Style – a style of modern architecture (1920-1930s) that emphasized balance, the importance of function, and clean lines – in his use of steel and glass.
- His famous pieces, the Wassily Chair (1927-1928) and the Cesca Chair (1928), remain some of the most recognizable examples of Bauhaus design.
- Charles-Edouard Jeanneret-Gris, born in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland on 6 October 1887; died in Cap Martin, France on 27 August 1965.
- Seeking to satisfy his taste for asceticism and sculptural forms, Le Corbusier became the first architect to make a studied use of rough-cast concrete. This technique also became his most prolific contribution to Mid-Century Modernism which endorsed necessity, simple pleasures and a technological approach to solve a human need.
- He later met the painter and designer Amédée Ozenfant who introduced Le Corbusier to Purism. In 1918, they wrote and published together the Purist manifesto “Après le cubisme.”
- In 1922, Corbusier opened a studio with his cousin Pierre Jeanneret, the association of the two lasted until 1940.
- Although Le Corbusier was from the beginning most interested in building for large numbers of people, during the prewar period he built primarily for privileged individuals who commissioned individual houses.
- In 1927, Le Corbusier competed to design the League of Nations new centre in Geneva, though he did not win – on account of not having been drawn up in India ink as the rules of the competition specified – his plan was to become the prototype of all future United Nations buildings.
- Notable works include; architectural advisor for the construction of the new state capital, Chandigarh for Punjab, India (1951), National Museum of Western Art in Tokyo (1960) and the Carpenter Visual Art Center at Harvard University (1964).
- Bernice Alexandra "Ray" & Charles Ormond Eames, Jr, born (1912 & 1907 respectively); Charles died in Los Angeles in 1978, Ray 10 years later in 1988.
- Charles and Ray Eames arrived in Los Angeles in 1941, a year after they met at the Cranbrook Academy of Art. Ray began assisting Charles and Eero Saarinen (son of Eliel Saarinen) in their designs for the Museum of Modern Art’s Organic Design in Home Furnishings Competition.
- Began shaping their designs to aid the war effort, making splints, stretchers, and airplane parts with their new technique of molded plywood.
- Pioneered what is known today as the Eamesian Model - low-cost, high-quality furniture that promotes a “do-it-yourself” attitude.
- Their influence can be seen in in low-cost, flat-packed furniture of modern brands such as IKEA, Crate & Barrel and Target.
- Notable works, aside from their furniture designs, include a highly innovative Case Study House in response to an Arts & Architecture contest. The Eames made films, including a seven-screen installation at the 1959 Moscow World’s Fair, presented in a dome designed by Buckminster Fuller.
- Born on 21 July 1906 in Helsingborg, Sweden, and died in California on August 1999
- Grossman was a Swedish decorator, and furniture and interior designer, who became a prominent architect in Los Angeles, after leaving Europe during World War II.
- She drew influence from her European roots and exposure to European modernism and the Bauhaus Movement, with influence from Swiss-French designer and architect, Le Corbusier.
- Grossman designed 14 houses in Los Angeles, which are notable for being small in scale, often less than 1500 sq. ft., and for being constructed on difficult plots, such as hillsides.
- The plots on which she built were often avoided by other architects for being too difficult to build on, and her houses often made use of structural solutions such as stilts.
- Notable works include the Hurley house, the Frances Nelson houses, and the Jim Backus house, an undersized Modern house amongst prominent mansions in Bel-Air.
- Grossman worked with Milo Baughman on the "California Modern" collection created for Glenn of California in 1948, using walnut, iron and Formica, defining a distinctive Los Angeles style.
- Between 1957 and 1963, Grossman taught industrial design courses at the University of California, Los Angeles and at the Art Center School in Los Angeles.
- Celebrity clients included Greta Garbo, Joan Fontaine and Gracie Allen.
- Grossman worked with and joined other European immigrants in the architecture and design scene In Los Angeles, including Paul László and Paul Frankl.
- Born 9 September 1894 in Ordrup, Denmark; died in Copenhagen, Denmark on 31 January 1967.
- Poul Henningsen (commonly referred to as PH) was a Danish designer, author, and architect, who influenced design in Scandinavia, as well as culture in Denmark throughout the period between the two world wars.
- PH was the illegitimate son of feminist and author, Agnes Henningsen, and satirist, Carl Ewald, which may have contributed to his progressive and tolerant upbringing.
- He began training as an architect at the Frederiksberg Technical School and Copenhagen Technical College between 1911 and 1917 but never finished his formal training.
- Perhaps his best-known contribution to design is the PH Lamp, which he designed in 1925 and is still manufactured and sold today by prominent Danish lighting manufacturer, Louis Poulsen.
- Henningsen's work can be found in museum collections around the world, including MoMA, Vitra, and the V&A.
- Born in Copenhagen on 11 February 1902; died in Copenhagen 24 March 1971.
- Studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen until 1927. During this time, Jacobsen was awarded medals for his chair design at the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs in Paris and his design for an art gallery from the academy.
- Working with Flemming Lassen, the two designed “The House of the Future”, exhibiting the latest technological advances at the time. In 1929 the life-size model won first prize at the Academic Architects’ Association’s Housing and Building Fair.
- Jacobsen is unique in that some of architectural commissions incorporated compatible interior design features. Most notable designs such as the SAS Royal Hotel and St. Catherine’s College included furniture, fixtures and flatware all designed by Jacobsen.
- Most notable is Jacobsen’s ability to translate aspects of the modernist movement into practical, functional design.
- Born in Copenhagen, Denmark on June 18, 1920; died in 2006.
- Jalk was a Danish furniture designer who studied at the Danish Royal Academy under famed designer, Kaare Klint.
- In the 1950s, she opened her own design studio with inspiration drawn from Finnish architect and designer Alvar Aalto, and American designer and architect Charles Eames. Her studio designed furniture for many Danish manufacturers, including Poul Jeppesen, Fritz Hansen, Glostrup, and France & Son.
- Jalk won many design awards, including first prize at the annual Cabinetmaker's Guild Competition in 1946, which she was awarded shortly after finishing her studies at the Danish Royal Academy.
- Jalk’s style combined economical designs with functional attributes in her furniture, such as added storage to minimalist furniture pieces.
- Beyond her work in design, Jalk also edited the design magazine, Mobilia, and in 1987 published a commissioned four-volume book about Danish furniture design, titled Forty Years of Danish Furniture Design.
- Born in Ordrup, Denmark on 30 January 1912; died in Ordrup, Denmark on 17 May 1989.
- Received his degree in architecture from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, studying under leading architect Kay Fisker. Upon graduating, Juhl went on to work at Vilhelm Lauritzen’s architectural firm where he was responsible for designing Denmark’s Radio Building.
- Began creating pieces for his own home. Joined cabinet maker Niels Vodder in 1937 and presented their collaboration at the 1945 Cabinetmakers’ Guild exhibition showcasing their furniture, including the Model 45 Armchair.
- Made his debut in the US in 1951. He represented Denmark, designing a meeting hall inside the United Nations headquarters located in New York. Along with Arne Jacobsen and several other Danish architects, is considered a pioneer in introducing Danish Modern architecture to the US.
- Paul Kjaerholm, born in Øster Vrå, Denmark on 8 January 1929; died in Hillerød, Denmark on 18 April 1980.
- Kjaerholm was the final major figure to emerge from the Danish furniture tradition, and one of the most profound furniture designers of the 20th century.
- Kjaerholm’s design career began as an apprentice cabinetmaker with Gronbech in 1948.
- Early on, Kjaerholm developed a highly personalized artistic ideology, which he followed uncompromisingly throughout his career. His aesthetic revolved around open modular structures in which ornaments were stripped away to reveal the beauty of the materials and the quality of the construction – a key principle of Mid-Century Modernism.
- Kjaerholm felt that only manufacturer-entrepreneur E. Kold Christensen had a deep understanding of his intentions and as a result, the pair enjoyed an extraordinarily close collaboration.
- From 1952 until 1956, Kjaerholm taught at the Copenhagen School for the Applied Arts. He went on to became a professor at the Art Academy in Copenhagen in 1976, of which he was director until his death.
- Kaare Klint, born in Copenhagen, Denmark on 15 December 1888; died on 28 March 1954.
- Designer and architect.
- Klint is renowned as the father of Danish furniture design. He believed that a thorough understanding of materials, proportions and constructions of classical furniture was the best basis for designing new, and ideal held in opposite of the Bauhaus modernist movement.
- Klint helped found the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Furniture School in 1923, and was appointed professor there in 1924. In this role, he inspired and taught a number of prominent Danish furniture designers, who went on to pave the way for the golden age of Danish design, from 1945 to 1975.
- Klint's influence led to a comprehensive renewal of Danish furniture design. He demanded clear and logical structures, with nothing superficial - only honest, pure lines, the best materials, and genuine craftsmanship.
- His style from the 1920s and 1930s had an immense influence on designers from the West, most notably Hans Wegner and Finn Juhl, and his notoriously Scandinavian aesthetic would make a lasting impression on modernist practices.
- He is ostensibly best noted for the Faaborg Chair (1914), the Safari Chair (1933) and the Church Chair (1936).
- Florence Knoll (née Schust), born in Saginaw, Michigan on 24 May 1917.
- An early protégée of Eliel Saarinen (father of Eero Saarinen; architect and industrial designer noted for his neo-futuristic style), Knoll studied architecture at the Kingswood School on the campus of the Cranbrook Academy of Art. She went on to study at the Architectural Association (AA) in London and the Armour Institute (Illinois Institute of Technology) in Chicago.
- While in Chicago, Knoll studied with Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. She worked briefly in Boston for Walter Gropius and Marcel Breuer.
- Knoll was part of a movement to professionalize interior design in America and played a key role in defining the new field of interior design.
- Knoll was commissioned to do the interiors of the Rockefeller family offices in Rockefeller Plaza, design of the offices of Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) (1952-54), and is also renowned for her furniture designs.
- Pioneered “paste-up” tool, a miniature bird’s-eye view of the interior with fabric swatches and wood chips for furniture, a tool that is still used today.
- Sam Maloof, born in Chino, California on 1916: died in Alta Loma, California on 21 May 2009.
- Maloof first began to make furniture when he found that though he and his wife had purchased a new home, they were not able to afford furniture.
- The industrial designer Henry Dreyfus asked Maloof to make 25 pieces for his contemporary house in Pasadena. Following this commission, Maloof received requisitions from architects all over southern California.
- The fastidious designer hand-made every one of the more than 5,000 or so pieces that came out of his studio in Alta Loma, California.
- In 1985, Maloof became the first craftsman to be recognized with a MacArthur “genius” Grant.
- Of all his pieces, Maloof’s rocking in particular is of iconic importance. President John F. Kennedy, perennially afflicted by back pain from his war injury in the Pacific, introduced a rocking chair to the Oval Office on the advice of a physician. The Kennedy chair set a presidential precedent and both Jimmy Carter and his successor, Ronald Reagan had rocking chairs made by Sam Maloof.
- Born in Medford, Massachusetts on 5 June 1917; died on 10 March 1969 in New York.
- Paul McCobb was an American furniture designer and decorator whose stylish yet affordable designs were popular within the middle class.
- McCobb studied art, drawing and painting at Vesper George School of Art in Boston, although, he did not complete his studies there.
- He worked as a design consultant to many firms including the Singer Manufacturing Company, Columbia Records, and Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, amongst others.
- McCobb contributed many innovations to contemporary design, including room dividers to which functional furniture, such as desks and cabinets, could be attached.
- Accolades were aplenty: McCobb won the Good Design Award from the Museum of Modern Art in 1950, 1951, 1953, and 1954; the Industrial Product Award from the Hardwood Institute in 1953; and the Hardwood Institute’s furniture design award in 1953, 1955, and 1958.
- born in Aachen, Germany on 27 March 1886; died in Chicago, Illinois on 17 August 1969.
- Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, commonly referred to as “Mies,” was a German-born architect and furniture designer. In 1930, Mies became the director of the Bauhaus but fled Nazi Germany to US in 1938.
- Once there, Mies led the Department of Architecture at Illinois Institute of Technology for 20 years, resigning in 1958 at the age of 72.
- He received Gold Medals from both the Royal Institute of British Architects (1959) and the AIA (1960), as well as the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Lyndon Johnson in 1963.
- Mies is renowned for his Barcelona chair and ottoman, the Brno chair, and the expression “less is more” in architecture.
- Born in Hartford, Connecticut on 29 May 1908; died in New York on 5 March 1986.
- Nelson graduated from Yale with a degree in architecture in 1928 and a degree in fine arts in 1931. He received the Rome Prize from the American Academy in Rome in 1932. While in Rome, Nelson first took to writing articles and interviewing leading designers for the magazine Pencil Points.
- Published in 1945, Nelson co-authored Tomorrow’s House with Henry Wright. The book, introducing innovative concepts, caught the attention of Herman Miller. The furniture manufacturer invited Nelson to become the design director of his company, initiating a business relationship that would last for several decades.
- Prior to his employment at Herman Miller, Nelson’s primary concern with design was the process more than the product, as he had yet to design anything. Despite this, he became one of the leading founders of American Modernism. His most prominent works, developed by himself and his associates, include the ball clock, the marshmallow and coconut chair, the bubble lamp, the living room and the Storagewall.
- In addition to opening his own design studio in 1946, Nelson also organized design summits in Aspen and wrote extensively. His architectural portfolio includes the La Fundación Santa Fe de Bogotá and the Kirkpatrick family home.
- Isamu Noguchi, born in Los Angeles, California on 17 November 1904; died New York, NY on 30 December 1988.
- Inspired by evening sculpture classes and a mentorship with sculptor Onorio Ruotolo, Noguchi left pre-medicine at Columbia University in order to become a sculptor.
- Noguchi did not belong to any particular movement, but collaborated with artists working in a range of disciplines and schools. His contribution to Mid-Century Modernism was most prevalent through his furniture designs.
- Recent trends towards Mid-Century Modern furniture have seen a revival of the Noguchi Table. Introduced by Herman Miller in 1947, the Noguchi table comprises a wooden base composed of two identical curved wood pieces, and a heavy plate glass top.
- He created stage sets as early as 1935 for the dancer/choreographer Martha Graham, beginning a lifelong collaboration; as well as for dancers/choreographers Merce Cunningham, Erick Hawkins, and George Balanchine and composer John Cage.
- Perhaps Noguchi most iconic friendship and collaboration was with designer R. Buckminster Fuller. In the ensuing Great Depression, the two often shared living quarters, and occasionally exhibited together.
- Charlotte Perriand, born in Paris, France on 24 October 1903; died in Paris, France on 27 October 1999.
- Designer and architect.
- Perriand become renowned for her iconic 20th-century furniture including such pieces as the LC “Fauteuil Grand Confort” set of Modernist living-room furniture. This was one of many collaborations with Le Corbusier and his cousin, Pierre Jeanneret.
- At the age of 24, Perriand designed a rooftop bar for the Salon d’Automne to which she invited Le Corbusier. Upon seeing her work, Le Corbusier hastily invited Perriand to join the Le Corbusier studio.
- While attending lectures by Maurice Dufrêne – the studio director of La Maîtrise workshop – at the Galeries Lafayette department store, Perriand was able to create pragmatic applicable projects.
- In 1940, together with Jeanneret, Jean Prouvé and Georges Blanchon, Perriand established an architectural office for the design of prefabricated aluminum buildings.
- Her notable works include a prototype kitchen for Le Corbusier’s Unité d’Habitation (1950), the London office for Air France (1958)1 and conference rooms for the United Nations in Geneva.
- Perriand went on to further develop an egalitarian philosophy of furniture design, rapidly becoming one of France's most prolific and collected furniture designers of the 20th century.
- Jean Prouvé, born in Nancy, France on 8 April 1901; died in Nancy, France on 23 March 1984.
- Designer and architect.
- Prouvé owned and operated from 1922 to 1954 a workshop for the manufacture of wrought-iron objects having been traditionally trained as a metalworker.
- From 1958 to 1971, he went on to teach at the School of Arts and Crafts (Conservatoire National des Arts et Matières) where he was elected a member of the Academy of Architecture in Paris in 1972.
- During his time, Prouvé established himself as a key figure for his pioneering work with prefabricated metal structures which increasingly abandoned the over enthusiastic curves of Art Deco to embrace the clean lines and flat planes of mid-century modernism.
- He was also notably a consultant and collaborator to the likes of Le Corbusier, Marcel Lods and Eugène Beaudoin, Charlotte Perriand, Yona Friedman, Georges Candilis.
- Partly due to their shared militancy in the Resistance, Prouvé found a kindred spirit in Pierre Jeanneret with whom he had an extremely worthwhile intellectual and technical exchange. He collaborated heavily with Jeanneret on furnishings for his designs.
- Jens Risom, born on 8 May 1916, in Copenhagen; died 9 December 2016 in New Canaan, Connecticut.
- Risom studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, now known as the Danish Design School – an institution that held prestige for Danish cabinetry makers similar to gaining acceptance at Harvard.
- One of his teachers was Kaare Klint, renowned as the father of Danish modernism.
- Risom helped bring Mid-Century Modern design to the United States through his work with Knoll Studio.
- In 1946, when Knoll was soon to marry Florence Schust, Risom left the studio citing that Florence’s views on modern design was in direct opposition to his own. Mr. Knoll and Risom never spoke again.
- The armless, affordable chair that became Risom’s signature in 1942 was one of the first mass-produced modernist furniture pieces introduced in the United States and not Europe.
- Risom’s belief was that furniture should be practical and modest in form. He also felt that integral to good design was comfort, the warmth of wood and other natural materials, an undoubtedly Scandinavian approach that soon became synonymous with Mid-Century Modernism.
- Terence Harold Robsjohn-Gibbings, born in London, England in 1905; died in Athens, Greece in 1976.
- Robsjohn-Gibbings was greatly influenced by Greek decorative arts and in particular by the Klismos chair, which he saw while traveling in Greece.
- Robsjohn-Gibbings' clients over the next several years included the fabulously wealthy Mrs. Otto Kahn, cosmetic and fashion legends Elizabeth Arden and Lily Daché, tobacco heiress Doris Duke and New York's exclusive River Club.
- A significant early commission was Hilda Boldt Weber's house in Bel-Air, California (1938), which along with its contents was later bought by Conrad Hilton.
- He further opposed what he saw as the lifeless utilitarianism of modernists such as Le Corbusier, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Marcel Breuer, and admired the more organic and humanistic works of Pablo Picasso and Henry Moore.
- Robsjohn-Gibbings heavily embraced the clean and elegant lines of the Art Deco, he also loved expensive woods which he mixed with his beloved Ancient Greek styles.
- His designs worked to steer popular taste away from Art Moderne and from the popular fashion of collecting European antiques toward a genuine American modernism.
- 1966 brought on a permanent move to Greece for Robsjohn-Gibbings, where he designed interiors for prominent Athenians. In the early 1970s he resumed the role of tastemaker with a series of Guest Speaker columns for Architectural Digest, which he continued to write until his death in 1976.
- Born in Kirkkonummi, Finland on 20 August 1910; died in Ann Arbor, Michigan on 1 September 1961.
- Eero was a Finnish-American architect and industrial designer born in Finland to famous parents, architect Eliel Saarinen and sculptor Loja Gesellius.
- He moved to the US in 1923 and would later go on to join his father’s firm in 1938.
- Eero’s first independent work following his father’s death was the General Motors Technical Center in Warren, Michigan.
- In the 11 years that he survived his father, Saarinen’s own work included a series of dramatically different designs that displayed a richer and more diverse vocabulary.
- Saarinen also notably won a national furniture award with Charles Eames in 1941 for a molded plywood chair design known as the “relaxation chair”.
- Born in Tønder, Denmark on 2 April 1914; died in Denmark on 26 January 2007.
- Apprenticed as a cabinetmaker and attended the Danish School of Arts and Crafts and the Architectural Academy in Copenhagen. Exposure to Copenhagen’s innovative Carpenter’s Guild Furniture Exhibits gave Werner the inspiration to blend his craftsmanship with design.
- Under the direction of architects Arne Jacobsen and Erik Møller, Wegner designed furniture for the town hall in Aarhus, Denmark. He went on to make furniture for Jacobsen for several years before starting his own company.
- Though Wegner produced numerous iconic chairs that drew inspiration from other cultures and time periods, his most famous chair, referred to as “The Round One”, was a creation of his own imagination and parlance. The chair moved American Interiors magazine to produce the first ever foreign report on Danish design. The chairs reached a broader audience during the first-ever televised debate in 1960 between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon.
- His work is described as being comfortable above all else, reflecting his personal philosophy of function over form. Wegner describes his style as emphasizing traditional elements in its purest form. His work stands among the top 20th century Danish modern designers.
- Edward Morley, born in Oswego, Illinois on 31 December 1907; died Connecticut, USA on 3 November 1995.
- Upon having met Le Corbusier and Emile-Jacques Ruhlmann during a 1930 trip to Paris, Wormley began creating pieces with simplified silhouettes and plain surfaces.
- Wormley made himself a lasting career at Dunbar Furniture Company. Within five years of joining, his furniture had made Dunbar the top producer of modern in America, helping to bring Mid-Century Modernism into the homes of everyday Americans.
- He was also a pioneer collector of Art Nouveau, especially Tiffany lamps and glass vases. Wormley inlaid Tiffany glass tiles in tables that he designed for Dunbar in 1956, two years before the revival was recognized by any museum.
- Unlike many of his contemporaries, his designs were primarily “made to order” and did not involve such standardization methods as molds or assembly line production.
- One of his most interesting contributions to the design world was the introduction of his “Tete-a-Tete” sofa in the 1960s. This unique sofa had opposing back and arm rests which allowed those sitting on it to face each other.