Episode 47: Ray Eames
We begin in sunny Sacramento, California on December 15, 1912. Bernice Alexandra Kaiser, nicknamed “Ray”, was born. Both of her parents had a love for the performing arts - such as ballet and film - which would later inspire Ray as well. She attended Sacramento Junior College, where she focused on illustration, poster art, art anatomy, and art history. Later from 1931 to the summer of 1933, Ray attended May Friend Bennett School for Girls in Millbrook, New York. There she learned from artists like Lucinda Davis (aka Lu Duble) and Hans Hoffman, who were very influential for Ray. In 1940, Ray left New York and returned to California to take care of her dying mother. After her mother passed, Ray was interested in building a house in California, but a friend told her she should go to the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan. While at Cranbrook, Ray worked alongside Charles Eames and Eero Saarinen to develop drawings for the mass production of a bent plywood chair. Unfortunately, they didn’t have success mass-producing the chair, but Ray found success in love and she married Charles in 1941, and they moved to California. In LA, Charles had a day job as a set architect at MGM studios while Ray painted and designed covers for Arts & Architecture Magazine. At night, in their spare bedroom, they worked together continuing the explorations that they started back at Cranbrook, molding plywood into compound curves that could be mass-produced.
In 1945 the Arts & Architecture Magazine announced a competition challenging architects to reconsider the design of the home. Together with their pal Eero Saarinen, they designed what would be one of their most famous works, Case Study House No. 8, more commonly known as the Eames House. After this, they worked on other case study houses as well as showrooms in LA for the Hermann Miller Furniture Company. In 1956, they designed the Eames Lounge Chair and Ottoman. Charles and Ray partnered with Hermann Miller to produce this high-end chair for the masses making it one of the most famous chair designs ever created. In August 1978 Charles Eames would pass away and ten years later almost to the day, Ray Eames passed away in 1988.
Caryatid: Lisa Iwamoto
Lisa Iwamoto is part of the award-winning firm IwamotoScott, with her partner Craig Scott. At their firm, they do traditional architecture BUT they also do interior projects where Lisa works on experimental fabrications similar to Charles and Ray. In addition to her practice, Lisa is the Chair at the University of California at Berkeley, where she has been teaching since 2001.
References
360Modern. “The History of the Eames Chair - 360modern.” Medium, 13 Dec. 2021, https://www.medium.com/360modern/the-history-of-the-eames-chair-ddee6b92aee2
“Charles and Ray Eames.” Herman Miller, https://www.hermanmiller.com/designers/eames Accessed 22 Jan. 2022.
Cook, William. “Charles and Ray Eames: The Couple Who Shaped the Way We Live.” BBC Culture, 18 Dec. 2017, https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20171218-charles-and-ray-eames-the-couple-who-shaped-the-way-we-live
https:\/\/eamesfoundation.org\/house\/eames-house\/#author. “Eames House | Eames Foundation.” Eames Foundation | Welcome, 17 Apr. 2020, https://eamesfoundation.org/house/eames-house
Kirkham, Pat. “Ray Kaiser Eames.” Pioneering Women of American Architecture, https://pioneeringwomen.bwaf.org/ray-kaiser-eames Accessed 25 Jan. 2022.
Sisson, Patrick. “10 Things You Didn’t Know About Charles and Ray Eames.” Dwell, 23 Apr. 2014, https://www.dwell.com/article/10-things-you-didnt-know-about-charles-and-ray-eames-b6739e45
---. “Cranbrook’s Golden Age.” Curbed, 17 Nov. 2015, https://www.archive.curbed.com/2015/11/17/9900436/cranbrook-academy-american-modern-design-charles-ray-eames-knoll
Woodward, Daisy. “Ten Things You Might Not Know About Charles and Ray Eames.” AnOther, 23 Oct. 2015, https://www.anothermag.com/design-living/7945/ten-things-you-might-not-know-about-charles-and-ray-eames
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