

This is a great article about modern furniture...
Elizabeth (Dean) and Heinrich Hermann live in a nondescript ranch house in Concord, Massachusetts, that was built as affordable housing for returning World War II veterans. Its simple, functional lines perfectly suit the couple’s mix of mid-century modern furniture, which includes a red, upholstered “wire diamond” chair by Harry Bertoia, an elegantly proportioned Danish sofa by an unknown designer, and a high-backed, padded black-leather chair by Charles and Ray Eames. “When I sit on or handle an Eames chair, I think, ‘I could never be as brilliant as they were,’” reports Elizabeth, Ph.D. ’96, a professor of urban design, architectural history, and landscape architecture at Rhode Island School of Design.
Such enthusiasm for modernism is common among professionals in the visual fields (Heinrich, Ph.D. ’95, is an architect and historian of modern architecture). “But most people have never liked modernism,” Elizabeth allows. “North America is very traditional and many people thought modern design looked too industrial or cheap—in the case of ranch houses—or that it was trying to be too intellectual. Despite the fact that my architect grandparents had a modern home [in Wellesley, Massachusetts], my own family members are sometimes reluctant to sit on my furniture.”
In New England, at least, that sentiment is changing. Normand Mainville owns Machine Age in Boston, the region’s largest mid-twentieth-century-furniture store. He says that most of his customers are designers, artists, and architects, but that a growing segment of younger buyers of all types is also excited by the modern aesthetic. Some of them live in former industrial spaces, like lofts, and want furniture that fits that style, and others live in small apartments where efficiency is essential. “When I moved in and opened the store 15 years ago, people said that Boston was too provincial for this kind of furniture,” he says.

BARCELONA
® CHAIR AND STOOL Created by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe for his 1929 German Pavilion at theInternational Exhibition in Barcelona, the Barcelona Collection’s pure composition came to epitomize Modern architecture.
From the hand-buffed stainless or chrome frame to the individual leather squares carefully welted together, each Barcelona
piece is a tribute to traditional craftsmanship and meticulous attention to detail. In addition to the chair and stool, the
collection also includes a couch and a stool with black cowhide sling, as well as a child scale version of the iconic chair.
LUDWIG MIES VAN DER ROHE
acclaimed architect and Bauhaus director. As a leading Modernist architect and furniture designer, Mies elevated
industrial-age materials to an art form. His steel-framed buildings with large-scale glazing, like the Seagram Building
in New York (1958) and the Nationalgalerie in Berlin (1968), are landmarks of Modern architecture.