The Eames Lounge Chair and Ottoman is an undeniable status symbol in architecture and entertainment circles, but Michael Ford, Assoc. AIA, wants to take it to a whole new meaning. The iconic two-piece set, created in 1956 by the venerated design duo Ray and Charles Eames, has long carried its original tagline as a “special refuge from the strains of modern living.” Considering the country's history of systemic racism, which manifests itself in nearly every measurable data point, Ford wanted to know, “Where is that 'refuge' from the strains of 'modern living' for Black Americans? What does that 'refuge' mean for Black boys and girls today?”
As a result, the Madison, Wis.–based social justice activist and founder of the Hip Hop Architecture Camp is flipping the narrative of the beloved furniture piece. In a collaboration with Herman Miller—one of two authorized manufacturers of Eames products—Ford has remixed a classic Eames Lounge Chair into a bespoke centerpiece for a newly launched campaign. Titled "Conversations for Change," the fundraising campaign aims to raise awareness about the "systemic racism and racial inequities faced by Black and Brown people" every day, according to a joint press release issued by HHAC, Herman Miller, and the Boys and Girls Clubs of Dane County, in Wisconsin.
The National Tour
On Jan. 18, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the Mike Ford Eames Lounge Chair and Ottoman (ELO) will embark on a national tour to places of significance in the history of social and racial justice. The chair will start in Detroit before heading across the country, with stops that currently include Washington, D.C., Atlanta, and Los Angeles. Ford will remotely conduct Instagram Live interviews (via @hermanmiller as well as Ford's @thehiphoparchitect account) with activists, artists, actors, and design professionals local to each city as they sit in the landmark chair. Conversation topics will include racial disparities in the guests' respective industries, experiences with injustice, and "steps to encourage positive change," according to the press release.
The current guest roster includes Detroit vs Everybody founder Tommey Walker; Tuskegee Airmen Detroit Chapter vice president Gwen McNeal; Chicago-based artist and radio personality Ed Lover; and jazz musician Keyon Harrold, whose 14-year-old son was falsely accused of stealing an iPhone in a confrontation that Harrold was able to partly capture in a now-viral video.
Online audiences can join the live conversations and donate to the campaign. A $200 donation will cover the enrollment of one student in a weeklong session of the HHAC, while a $500 donation will cover a week's pay for a student intern in the design industry.
After the chair ends its tour in February in Wisconsin, where Ford resides, it will change hands for perhaps the final time. Anyone U.S.–based donor giving $1,000 or more to the campaign by the end of February will be eligible to win the chair; they must also submit a statement “on why they are ‘taking a stand,” according to the campaign website. A supporter can submit a different statement for every $1,000 donated. The chair will be awarded to the donor with the best statement, as determined by panel of reviewers, on March 12. BGCDC and the Hip Hop Architecture Camp, which Ford founded in 2016 to introduce underserved middle- and high-school students to design and planning, will apply the funds raised toward their respective missions. The group will also create a grant to support grassroots organizations that provide "places of refuge," according to the press release.
The Design Concept
For his ELO remix, Ford chose to commemorate Black victims of racism who "were not afforded the privilege of refuge," the press release states. Ford tells ARCHITECT, “I wanted people to literally see the names. These are people.” He drew inspiration from 526 Missed Opportunities, a mural he completed last June for the city of Madison that features 526 white stripes painted on a black expanse; each stripe represents each second that Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was initially reported to have knelt on the neck of George Floyd, ultimately killing him. (The total time was later debated, but not before 8 minutes, 46 seconds became a symbol in worldwide protests against police brutality.)
Ford preserved the classic black, full-grain leather upholstery of the Eames Lounge Chair, but stripped and refinished the characteristic walnut veneer of the four-piece molded plywood shell in high-gloss, black automotive paint. The edges of the wood panels and the lounge chair’s back braces are finished in “blood red,” Ford says.
Still, what stands out most is the rows of names, hand scribed in white marker and covering nearly every inch of the chair’s black shell and panels in a haunting aesthetic. Ford doesn’t know exactly how many names he wrote. The project’s website lists 88, but that only includes the individuals whose deaths made it to the news pages: Emmett Till, Sandra Bland, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, Botham Jean, Kayla Moore, Michael Brown, Malice Green, Rayshard Brooks, Tamir Rice—the list goes on.
Some names are of people who never got more than a blip in records. Among this group is Ford’s brother-in-law, who was killed as an 10th grader by a police officer in Detroit; Ford never had the opportunity to meet him. “There are no news articles that you can read,” he says. “There’s one small statement that my wife still holds on to this day.”
And like anyone, Ford can only guess how many names are missing. “It’s impossible to capture all the names,” he says. He added a couple “Unknowns” on the chair to acknowledge this absence.
Laying out and writing the names took Ford about a week, but he spent more time researching which names to include. “It took an emotional toll to relive some of those moments and some of the older stories that I learned about during [grade] school,” he says.
The Origin Story
The collaboration between Ford and Herman Miller may have never happened had Tricia Dunning not been watching the news one evening last June. A segment caught the attention of the A+D marketing manager at the Madison office of Interior Investments, a Herman Miller dealer. Ford had recently both completed his mural downtown and resigned from SmithGroup to become a full-time advocate and activist. Dunning quickly contacted Lauren Maki, the Wisconsin territory manager for Herman Miller. “Here’s your chance,” she said.
Maki had just been nominated president-elect of the Wisconsin chapter of the American Society of Interior Designers. Amid the increasing momentum of the Black Lives Matter movement, she had previously expressed to Dunning that she wanted her platform to “amplify African American designers and people of color in the state and [in the architecture and design] industry,” she tells ARCHITECT.
After reaching Ford via Instagram, Maki was impressed by his work on the HHAC and his dedication to diversifying the talent pipeline. She asked Ford to pitch a collaboration she could present to Herman Miller’s corporate leadership. Recalling the iconic photograph of rapper and artist Ice Cube reclining in an Eames DAT-1 Chair, Ford proposed remixing an Eames Lounge Chair to commemorate the current moment in history. Maki says the company “wholly embraced” Ford’s proposal. Interior Investments' Madison office donated the ELO set, which retails for $5,995.
For Ford, the collaboration with Herman Miller couldn’t be more serendipitous. By supporting a piece that addresses racism, the go-to furniture maker for many architects and interior designers might make ignoring or avoiding conversations on systemic racism harder. “Because of the lack of diversity in profession, some individuals have been able to shelter themselves from these conversations,” Ford says. “I hope that [the victims’] stories will be amplified and learned about by people who are not in diversity meetings. I hope [the Eames Lounge Chair] creates a source of empathy for people who come into contact with it.”
While 13% of the U.S. population identifies as Black or African American, only 2% of architects do. Last fall, the number of African American female architects in the U.S. reached 500—a resounding achievement, but also representing just 0.4% of the 116,000-plus licensed practitioners.
The Hope
Ford can’t help but feel bittersweet when he looks at the publicity photographs of his then-9-month-old son and him sitting in his remixed Eames Lounge Chair. The images themselves are a remix of a vintage Herman Miller advertisement featuring a photograph of a father relaxing, eyes closed, with his child in the chair.
During their photography session, Ford says all he could think about was “the fact that I will have to tell my son all these stories behind the names of the people on the chair, how to interact with police, and how to interact with people just so he can survive everyday living.” He knows that one day, his bright-eyed boy with the squeezable arm rolls will be “perceived as a danger” by society. And he knows that before that day comes, he will have to find the words to explain why, as Ford’s own father did with him.
“This chair did serve as a refuge for certain clientele,” Ford says. Now, he hopes, the Mike Ford ELO will help Black people find a refuge in today’s America.
