The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation has a unique task of both preserving and advancing the legacy of arguably the greatest architect of the US. While the preserving part is pretty straight forward, evolving Wright’s artistic, holistic and natural views of design into the twenty-first century is a far more complex and challenging task.
One such successful partnership includes Steelcase with the reintroduction and reimagining of the workspace-focused Racine desk and chair collection that debuted in 2023. Shifting attention to the home are the Rockford and Galesburg Collections for 2024 comprised of soft seating, an upholstered lounge chair, ottomans and a low table.
All of the pieces come from Wright’s Usonian period during which he designed approximately 60 homes for middle income clients. These were smaller scale residences, the majority of which were completed in the 1950s while midcentury design was taking off. You see a simplicity to these pieces that is a stark contrast to the prairie style furniture he designed with complex detailing and fine craftsmanship.
I had the opportunity to see pieces from both collections at the downtown NYC Designtex showroom(which also had Wright-inspired textiles on view). The Galesburg Collection includes an upholstered chair, sofa and sectional seating inspired by built-in banquettes from various Usonian homes in Wright-designed around Galesburg, Michigan. Atop a base of wooden slats is a blocky upholstered seat that appears to float. The inner sides of the seat appear to roll over the top of the arms, a nod to Wright’s frequently used wall to ceiling transition architectural detail. In person, this seam, that wraps around the back helps to visually lighten the mass of the seat.
The Rockford Collection consists of a lounge chair, polygonal plywood table and a movable pouf. Each have interesting subtle details. The lounge chair has tapered legs and upward rounded supports for the arms giving the chair a visual lift. The back is lined with vertical rails that slightly protrude to create a small shadow line. The tables are made from bevel cut sheets of plywood that broadly expose the end layers. Groups of tables can be arranged into a honeycomb pattern to create a larger surface. The pouf has discrete fabric handles and is sized to nest under the table for storage.
The back story to the Rockford collection reveals the challenge Wright faced when originally designing these pieces. They were inspired by similar furniture created for the Laurent house in 1952 in Rockford, Illinois. Wife and husband Phyllis and Kenneth Laurent commissioned Wright to design their home to accommodate Kenneth’s needs as a wheelchair user. Wright designed most of the pieces for the home to be accessible from any angle and for the home in general to be easy to move around. The Laurent house is considered ahead of its time for Wright’s solutions to accommodating people with different needs.
Both of these collections show the Wright Foundation’s commitment evolving Frank Lloyd Wright’s design philosophies. The partnership with Steelcase is intended to develop furniture from Wright’s vision that’s relevant to the functional needs and aesthetic desires of life today.
Photos and Text: Dave Pinter
