Wikipedia

David Rowland (industrial designer)

For the British property developer, see David Rowland (property developer). For the Welsh author, see David Rowland (translator).

David Lincoln Rowland (February 12, 1924 – August 13, 2010) was an American industrial designer noted for inventing the 40/4 Chair. The chair was the first compactly stackable chair invented, and is able to stack 40 chairs 4 feet (120 cm) high.[1]

David Rowland
Rowland holding a scale model of his 40/4 chair
Born
David Lincoln Rowland

(1924-02-12)February 12, 1924
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
DiedAugust 13, 2010(2010-08-13) (aged 86)
Marion, Virginia, Virginia, U.S.
Occupation(s)Industrial designer
Inventor
Known for40/4 Stacking Chair
Softec Chair
Spouse(Miss) Erwin Wassum (m. 1971–2010, his death)
AwardsGrand Prix, Milan Triennale for "40/4 Chair", 1964
First Prize, American Institute of Designers (AID), 1965
Austrian Gold Medal Award for Furniture, 1969
Gold Medal, Institute of Business Designers (IBD), 1979
Military career
Allegiance United States of America
Service / branch United States Army Air Corps
Years of service1943–45
Rank 1st Lieutenant
Battles / warsWorld War II
Websitedavidrowland.design ———————————
Signature

Early life and education

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David Lincoln Rowland was born on February 12, 1924, in Los Angeles, California, the only child of Neva Chilberg Rowland, a violinist and W. Earl Rowland, an artist, lecturer and teacher.[2] In 1936, he moved with his parents to Stockton, California, where his father became director of the Haggin Museum.[3] In the summer of 1940, at the age of 16, Rowland took a course with László Moholy-Nagy, one of the founders of the Bauhaus school, at Mills College in Oakland, California, on Basic Bauhaus Design. After graduation from Stockton High School in 1942,[4] he studied drafting, and worked as a draftsman for the Rheem Manufacturing Co., drawing plans for war munitions, before entering military service in World War II.

From 1943 through 1945, Rowland was a 1st Lieutenant in the United States Army Air Corps, the 8th Air Force, 94th Bomb Group, and 333rd Squadron, as a B17 ("Flying Fortress") pilot. He was stationed in Bury St. Edmunds, England, and conducted 22 combat missions. Rowland was awarded the Air Medal with several clusters.[5]

After the end of the war, Rowland studied at Principia College in Elsah, Illinois, graduating in 1949.[6] He went on to study industrial design at the University of Southern California and afterwards at Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, earning a master's degree in Industrial Design in 1951.[7]

Early career

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After graduating, Rowland worked outside of the design field and worked on his own designs in his spare time. He later took a job as head draftsman doing architectural renderings for Norman Bel Geddes.[8]

Rowland also designed commercial interiors,[9] including a Transparent Chair for the No-Sag Spring Co.,[10] a Zig Zag Cantilever Chair that was exhibited in 11th Milan Triennale in 1957[11] and a Drain Dry Cushion, licensed to Lee Woodard & Sons. In 1956, the royalty income from the Drain Dry Cushion allowed Rowland to open his own office.

The 40/4 chair

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40/4 Chair with Stack

Rowland developed the 40/4 Chair over a period of eight years and was awarded a patent on it in 1963.[12][13][14][15][16][17][18]

Initially, Rowland showed the chair to many companies in an effort to license the design. In 1961, Florence Knoll licensed the chair for her company, Knoll Associates, however canceled a license after six months. Rowland later showed the chair to Davis Allen, head of interior design at the architectural firm of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM). Allen requested 17,000 chairs for the a campus SOM was designing for the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). To fulfill the request, Rowland licensed the design to General Fireproofing Co. (GF) in Youngstown, Ohio.[19][20] In May 1965, While the first order for was still being produced, 250 chairs were hand assembled and installed in the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York City for the opening of its new wing.[21][22] MOMA also included the 40/4 in its permanent collection.[22]

The 40/4 was an immediate success.[13][23] It won the grand prize at the 13th Milan Triennale,[2] and has been included in museum collections and exhibitions internationally.

Clement Meadmore, in his 1975 book The Modern Chair, described the chair as having "beautiful simplicity and total appropriateness".[1] Twenty-five hundred 40/4s were installed in St. Paul's Cathedral in London in 1973, site of the wedding of Prince Charles and Princess Diana,[2] and remain in use. The chair has been in continuous production since its introduction and has sold more than 8 million units.[20][24][25]

General Fireproofing held the license for the chair from 1963 until 2002, when the company was taken over by OSI Furniture LLC. In 2013, Howe Europe (now Howe a/s) of Denmark, which had had a sublicense to the chair in Europe, Africa, Australia, New Zealand and Asia (except for Indonesia), acquired the license for the 40/4 in the United States and Canada.[26][27]

In 2010, Contract Design Magazine named the 40/4 chair number one of the top 10 commercial interiors products of the past 50 years.[28]

Personal life

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Rowland married Miss Erwin Wassum, a crafts designer, in 1971. They lived in New York City, before moving to Marion, Virginia, in 2001.[29]

Honors and awards

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  • 37 U.S. Patents and numerous international patents
  • 1964 Grand Prix, 13th Milan Triennale for "40/4 Chair"[30]
  • "40/4 Chair" named No. 1 of The Top 10 Commercial Interiors Products of the Past 50 Years by Contract Design Magazine, 2010[28]
  • Design in America: The Cranbrook Vision. 1984 exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum in New York.[31]
  • Design in America: The Cranbrook Vision, 1984 book<[31]
  • International Council of Societies of Industrial Design (ICSID) Exhibition, 1980
  • Best of Competition Gold Medal, Institute of Business Designers (IBD) and Contract Magazine, 1979[32]
  • Design in America: The Cranbrook Vision. 1984 Exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum in New York.
  • Gold Award for Product Design Excellence (Seating), Institute of Business Designers (IBD) and Contract Magazine, 1979,
  • Meadmoore, The Modern Chair, 1975[33]
  • Austrian Government Gold Medal Award for Furniture 1968[12]
  • Master Design Award 1965, Product Engineering Magazine[34]
  • National Cotton Batting InstituteAward, 1958 for chair design[9]
  • Illuminating Engineering Society Award, for lighting design, 1951[9]
  • Best Piece of Business Furniture award from American Institute of Designers (AID)[35]

Museum collections containing Rowland's work

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The Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York[36] The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York[25] Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania[37] The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois[38] Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York[39] Palais du Louvre, Musée des Arts Decoratifs, Paris, France[40] Design Museum, London, England[41] Victoria and Albert Museum, London[42] Museu de Arte Moderna, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil[43]

Publications

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  • Rowland, Erwin; Schenone, Laura; Magnussen, Carl (2024). David Rowland: 40/4 Chair. London: Phaidon Press. p. 224. ISBN 9781838668129.

Education

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Die Neue Sammlung, Munich, Germany[43]

Patents

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References

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  1. ^ a b Meadmore, Clement (1975). The Modern Chair: Classics in Production. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Co. pp. 136–138. ISBN 0442253052.
  2. ^ a b c Hevesi, Dennis (August 25, 2010). "David Rowland, Maker of a Tidily Stacked Chair, Dies at 86". The New York Times. p. B12.
  3. ^ "History of The Haggin Museum's Leyendecker Collection".
  4. ^ Stockton Highschool Yearbook. 1942.
  5. ^ "Military Service Announcement". The Stockton Record. October 6, 1945.
  6. ^ Principia Alumni Directory. 2006. p. 298.
  7. ^ Cranbrook Academy of Art Alumni Directory. 1994. p. 54.
  8. ^ "99% Perspiration". Metropolis Magazine: 112. December 2004.
  9. ^ a b c Who Was Who in American Art. Sound View Printers. June 1985. p. 2847. ISBN 0932087574.
  10. ^ "Transparent Chair Shows Off Decorative Springs". Christian Science Monitor. August 30, 1951. p. 6.
  11. ^ Kathryn B. Hiesinger; George H. Marcus (1993). Landmarks of Twentieth-Century Design: An Illustrated Handbook. New York: Abbeville Press. p. 380. ISBN 1-55859-279-2.
  12. ^ a b Rowland, David (October 6, 1988). "STACKABLE CHAIR. Designer David Rowland tells how at first, everyone turned it down ..." Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved April 11, 2018.
  13. ^ a b US 3080194, Rowland, David, "Compactly Stackable Chair", issued March 5, 1963 
  14. ^ US 3275371, Rowland, David, "Compactly Stackable Chair", issued September 27, 1966 
  15. ^ US 3278227, Rowland, David, "Compactly Stackable Chairs and Chair-Rows", issued October 11, 1966 
  16. ^ US 3338591, Rowland, David, "Dolly for Stacking Chairs", issued April 29, 1967 
  17. ^ US 3404916, Rowland, David, "Compactly Stackable Chair", issued October 8, 1968 
  18. ^ US 3446530, Rowland, David, "Nested Armchair", issued May 27, 1969 
  19. ^ Von, Robinson (December 2004). "99% Perspiration". Metropolis: 149.
  20. ^ a b "40/4 Chair". University Library, University of Illinois at Chicago. Archived from the original on December 9, 2017. Retrieved March 19, 2018.
  21. ^ J., W. (June 1964). "David Rowland's 40/4 Chair". Interiors Magazine: 102.
  22. ^ a b "David Rowland. 40/4 Stacking Chair. 1964". The Museum of Modern Art. Retrieved March 23, 2018.
  23. ^ Hiesinger, Kathryn B.; Marcus, George H. (1993). Landmarks of the Twentieth-Century Design, An Illustrated Handbook. New York: Abbeville Press. p. 223. ISBN 1-55859279-2.
  24. ^ Design in America : the Cranbrook vision, 1925-1950. Clark, Robert Judson, Belloli, Andrea P. A., Detroit Institute of Arts, Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.). New York: Abrams, in association with the Detroit Institute of Arts and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1983. p. 129. ISBN 0810908018. OCLC 9393845.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  25. ^ a b "'40/4' side chair". The Met. 1960. Retrieved April 10, 2018.
  26. ^ "Danish Brand Howe Relaunches in the U.S. Market". Interior Design. January 28, 2014. Retrieved April 10, 2018.
  27. ^ "David Rowland - introduction". Howe a/s. April 20, 2018. Archived from the original on July 6, 2016. Retrieved June 24, 2018.
  28. ^ a b "The Top 10 Commercial Interiors Products of the Past 50 Years". Contract Design Magazine: 22. March 2010.
  29. ^ David Rowland Obituary - Marion, Virginia | Legacy.com Retrieved 2018-05-12.
  30. ^ "US Wins Triennale Grand Prize". New York Herald Tribune. September 25, 1964.
  31. ^ a b The Detroit Institute of Arts; Robert Judson Clark (1983). Design in America : the Cranbrook vision, 1925–1950 : [The Detroit Institute of Arts, December 14, 1983 through February 19, 1984 ... Victoria and Albert Museum, London, April 1, 1984 through June 30, 1985]. New York: Abrams u.a. ISBN 0-8109-0801-8.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  32. ^ "Thonet Takes Top IBD Award". Contract Design Magazine: 83. November 1979.
  33. ^ The modern chair: classics in production. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Co. 1975. ISBN 0-442-25305-2.
  34. ^ "New Fashions That Sit Well". Houston Chronicle. May 27, 1965.
  35. ^ "A.I.D. Gives Awards to 14 Designs". The New York Times. January 4, 1965.
  36. ^ "David Rowland. 40/4 Stacking Chair. 1964 | MoMA".
  37. ^ "Philadelphia Museum of Art - Collections Object : 40-in-4 Stacking Chair". Retrieved June 18, 2014.
  38. ^ "GF 40/4 Chair (one of a pair)". The Art Institute of Chicago.
  39. ^ "Decorative Arts | 'Sof-Tech' Side Chair". Brooklyn Museum. Retrieved June 18, 2014.
  40. ^ Mel Byars; Foreword by Terence Riley (2004). The Design Encyclopedia. London: King [u.a.] ISBN 978-0870700125.
  41. ^ "1960s - A Century of Chairs - Design Museum London". Retrieved June 18, 2014.
  42. ^ "Chairs - Victoria and Albert Museum". February 9, 2011.
  43. ^ a b "David Rowland 40/4". Howe: 12. 2011.
  44. ^ Rowland, David (March 20, 1956), English: David Rowland license plate gas cap cover, retrieved October 19, 2024
  45. ^ Rowland, David (August 15, 1972), English: David Rowland disposable safety ashtray, retrieved October 18, 2024
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