Design is alive and living at Frank Gehry’s building at MIT!

For those of you who are not familiar with Frank Gehry’s work at MIT, you need to plan a trip to Cambridge, MA (Central Square to be more specific).
Perhaps his best work since the Gugganheim in Bilbao…(even if Gehry is being sued over it)

To Learn more about Frank Gehry and this project, check out these links:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/07/us/07mit.html

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.05/mit.html

http://www.feld.com/wp/archives/2007/11/frank-gehrys-painful-mit-experience.html

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Check out our new website!

Nelsonbridge.com has been expanded to include a wider spectrum of it’s design capabilities. We now have portfolios of our work in : Interiors; Furniture; Floral Design; and Vintage Design. We hope you’ll enjoy our new expanded website and look forward to your next visit.

Another Happy Furniture Installation

"Onda" Chair in "Dot In The Box" by Robert Allen Textiles

The recent installation of our “Onda” Chair in C.O.M. shows the versatility of the design.  Here, Robert Allen’s “Dot in the Box” fabric is used to totally transform the “Onda” for our customer.

Available for purchase here

NELSON BRIDGE’S LIST OF TOP TEN MODERN CHAIRS - #1 - THE EGG CHAIR

The Egg Chair, #1 in our list of Most Favorite Modern Chairs.

Ah, the #1 most wonderful modern chair.  Can there really be only one for all modern occasions?  Perhaps not… But the Egg Chair, nonetheless, is surely among the ten greatest.  It is on the one hand, like so many of the other chairs in our list: an innovative use of material, utilizing a fiberglass shell. But beyond that, it is an icon that recognized a new freedom of form brought on by the modern movement.  Many other chairs have been compared to the Egg, including Eero Saarinen’s womb chair but the Egg is far more pure in form and concept than the Womb (that tends to be a more contrived shape).

Designed by Arne Jacobsen in 1958, the Egg was first used throughout the SAS Hotel in Copenhagen. Fritz Hansen  has continuously manufactured the Egg since its inception, and recently celebrated 50 years of the egg’s production with a commemorative Egg in Brown Suede. While Jacobson is perhaps best known for his chairs, including the Ant and the Swan as well as others, he is also recognized as one of Denmark’s best architects of the 20th century.  His commissions included the St. Catherine’s College at Oxford.

Nonetheless, his chairs continue to be his finest and most memorable achievements.  The Egg chair in particular continues to be as fresh and original today as it was 50 years ago.  It is a remarkably memorable icon of modern furniture whose expressive form adds life to any room it inhabits and makes this our #1 most favorite Modern Chair.

Learn more about Arne Jacobsen and The Egg Chair:

Fritz Hansen Furniture

Wikipedia: Egg Chair

Wikipedia: Arne Jacobsen

Design Within Reach: Egg Chair

EggChair. Com

NELSON BRIDGE’S LIST OF TOP TEN MODERN CHAIRS - #02 - The Platner Chair

The Platner Chair, #2 in our list of Most Favorite Modern Chairs.

The Platner chair is all about the material.  And that material is nickel-plated steel rod.  Though our #3 chair (The Bertoia Bird Chair) is also made of steel rod, the Platner chair is more about metal rod whereas the Bird chair is more about sculpture.  That is not to say that the final form of the Platner is not sculptural.  But here, the repetition of the material is what gives this chair its striking appearance, its first impression, not so much its shape. In some ways the Platner Chair is reminiscent of our #10 chair (Pesce’s Feltri) as well, in that, rather than having a traditional base or set of legs with the body supported above, the material itself is structural and form giving, as a vertical blanket of wire.

By all accounts Warren Platner was not as flamboyant as some of the other chair designers represented in our 10 Best Modern Chair series (there are no ”Today Show”  Utube recounts for example).  Nonetheless he was no less accomplished. After receiving his Architectural degree from Cornell, Platner worked in the offices of notables such as Saarinen, Roch and I.M. Pei, before forming his own office in 1965.  His practice included little architectural work and instead centered on Furniture and Interior design.  His furniture collection for Knoll has been in continuous production since the sixties and some of his most notable interior design accomplishments include the Ford Foundation Headquarters and The Windows to the World restaurant, lost on 9/11.

Some have described The Platner Chair as being like a sheaf of wheat, bound together with rope… However you describe it, the Platner chair transforms its material makeup into a new language of chair and this is why it is our #2 most favorite Modern Chair.

Knoll Product Information

Knoll PDF

Wikipedia - Windows On The World

Mid-Century-Modern Product Information

Hausmodernliving Product Information

NELSON BRIDGE’S LIST OF TOP TEN MODERN CHAIRS - #03 - The Bird Chair

The Bird Chair, #3 in our list of Most Favorite Modern Chairs

The Bird Chair is as much “sculpture” as it is “chair” which is not surprising since its creator Harry Bertoia went on to become a Sculptor in his own right.  Ironically it was the great success of his furniture for Knoll International (and the income it generated) that enabled him to pursue his sculptural ambitions (his later life was almost exclusively dedicated to his Art).

As Bertoia said of his furniture designs: “they are mainly made of air, like sculpture. Space passes through them.”

Through his revolutionary use of wire rod, Bertoia was able to create an incredibly strong and yet seemingly delicate and fluid shape through this basket weave of metal.  Though the Bird chair is one of the lesser known of the series of chairs that he made for knoll with this technique (the Diamond Chair was more successful), it is perhaps the most evocative and animated.

Harry Bertoia was born in San Lorenzo, Pordenone, Italy in 1915.  At the age of 15 he traveled to Chicago to visit his brother and ended up making the US his home.  Upon arriving here,   he  began his studies at Cass Technical High School in Chicago and finished at the Cranbrook Academy of Art.  There he met and began work with Charles & Ray Eames.  After helping to develop some of the Eames’ most well known plywood and metal rod chairs, he moved to Pennsylvania to begin his own furniture collection for Florence Knoll (of Knoll International) who he had met during his time at Cranbrook.  This is where he further developed his use of metal wire in the creation of his series of chairs for Knoll.

Of all the chairs he developed for Knoll, the Bird Chair took the modern chair to a new, more sculptural realm and that is why it is our #3 most favorite Modern Chair.

Learn More About Harry Bertoia and The Bird Chair:

http://www.knoll.com/designer/designer_detail.jsp?designer_id=22

http://www.knoll.com/products/brochures/Bertoiabird.pdf

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Bertoia

http://bertoiaharry.com/

NELSON BRIDGE’S LIST OF TOP TEN MODERN CHAIRS - #04 - The Wassily Chair

The Wassily Chair, #4 in our list of Most Favorite Modern Chairs

The Wassily chair, as it is known today, was originally named the B3 chair when it was first designed by Marcel Breuer at the Bauhaus in 1925. The chair soon became a favorite of fellow Bauhaus professor, Wassily Kandinsky. Kandinsky liked it so much, in fact, that Breuer made him a duplicate for his own, and when it was later put into production it took on Kandinsky’s name through this association.

Breuer’s Wassily along with his Cesca chair have become some of the best-known furniture to come out of the Bauhaus. They were both developed using techniques gleaned from the production of bicycles. While the Wassily chair is perhaps less known than his Cesca chair to the general public. The Cesca has become a favorite of kitchenette stores and bargain producers and has been cheapened both in price and quality by the multitude of knock offs available. The Wassily, on the other hand is far more innovative and complex, and a bit more difficult to produce than the Cesca and therefore retains, for the most part, its quality and stature in the design world. Its form follows the shape of a traditional club chair, where all the parts have been distilled down to their most basic structural elements. It becomes, in essence, the outline of a club chair in its purest form. It is just this essential purity that makes Breuer’s Wassily chair one of our ten most favorite modern chairs.

Learn More About Marcel Breuer and The Wassily Chair:

Wassily Chair @ Wikipedia

Marcel Breuer @ Design Language Etc.

Wassily Chair @ Knoll.com

Marcel Breuer @ bauhaus2yourhouse.com

NELSON BRIDGE’S LIST OF TOP TEN MODERN CHAIRS - #05 - The Big Easy Chair

The Big Easy Chair #5 in our list of Favorite Chairs

For anyone who has come to think that a chair is just a chair, enter the “Big Easy Chair” by Ron Arad. The Big Easy Chair is like a world unto itself, where all things are voluptuous and all things break the mold. Its groundbreaking and curvaceous form has given the designer a lot to explore in this world of “The Big Easy Chair”. Originally designed in the 1980’s, Mr. Arad has continued to develop and expand this recognizable form for over 20 years, producing it in metal, resin, carbon fiber, and upholstery. These many incarnations only further demonstrate the flexibility and timeless quality of this design.

Born in Tel Aviv and educated at the Jerusalem Academy of Art, Ron Arad moved to London, studied at the Architectural Association there and went on to develop his first studio: “One Off Ltd”. Since then he has become professor at the Royal College of Art, and a fixture in the international furniture and design scene. His work is among some of the great museums around the world, and his products are produced by Kartel, Alessi, Moroso and many others.

While the Big Easy Chair may not be as well known as some of our other favorite chairs, its power to transform the landscape of the modern chair makes it a must among our 10 most favorite chairs.

Learn More About Ron Arad and The Big Easy Chair:

Ron Arad @ Ronarad.com

Ron Arad @ Design Museum

The Big Easy Chair @ Bonluxat.com

The Big Easy Chair @ DesignBoom.com

Ron Arad for Moroso @ UnicaHome.com

NELSON BRIDGE’S LIST OF TOP TEN MODERN CHAIRS - #06 - The Barcelona Lounge

#6 in our list of Favorite Chairs, The Barcelona Lounge Chair

The Barcelona Chair has become one of the few icons of Modern furniture that has been embraced by popular culture. Seen in movies like 007’s “From Russia with Love”, the Barcelona chair has been used as a statement of “Modern” in cinema, hotels and homes since the Mid 19th Century. With it’s addition, spaces become at once “modern”.

The Barcelona Chair was designed by the famed Architect Mies Van der Rohe (who’s commissions included the Seagram’s Building in New York) and his long time companion Lilly Reich. It has come to be known as the Barcelona chair because it was originally designed for the German Pavillion at the Ibero-American Exposition of 1929 that took place in that Spanish city.

Said to have been inspired by the transportable folding chairs of ancient times, the Barcelona chair is neither foldable nor easily transportable. Perhaps, one could in fact make a case for it being the first Post-Modern chair; since it is inspired by the forms of the past without being made like or used like the original design. Modern or Post-Modern, the Barcelona chair is nonetheless one of our ten favorite chairs.

Learn More About Mies Van Der Rohe and The Barcelona Lounge Chair:

Barcelona Chair @ Wikipedia

Barcelona Lounge Chair @ Knoll.com

Barcelona Lounge Chair @ Modern Collections .Com

Barcelona Lounge Chair Catalog PDF @ Knoll.com