Remembering Charles & Ray Eames

Remembering Charles and Ray Eames: A Granddaughter’s Memories

Hosted By: M3 Office Inc., Herman Miller

Explore how renowned designers Charles and Ray Eames lived and worked at their home—Case Study House #8. Designed to facilitate a life in work, the award-winning Eames House was the perfect retreat for pondering and honing ideas as well as enjoying an idyllic breakfast or taking photographs in the meadow.

Charles and Ray took their pleasures seriously, and they shared that joy. Family and friends were always being invited into their world of fun. On one visit, you might be filmed chasing a diary-stealing boy; on another, you might be chasing through a cloud of dancing monarch butterflies. Their home, being the fruit of their dedication to the deep anticipation of the need, was the perfect venue.

Only years later did we as grandchildren see past the fun to the serious work. As the Eames’s wrote about the circus, “Within this apparent freewheeling license, we find a discipline, which is almost unbelievable.”

Their rigor, their appreciation of good goods, the honest use of materials, and the importance of connections, but most especially the joy found in a deep understanding of the need, generated the sense of “way-it-should-be-ness” that is present in all their work, from chairs and architecture to film and exhibitions.

Please RSVP to Andrea Raabe by Monday, September 3 if you plan on joining!

Acknowledgements: M3 Office Inc., Herman Miller, Eames Foundation, and AIA|LA Interior Architecture Committee

5:30-6:30PM – Cocktails, Appetizers, and Networking

6:30-7:30PM – Presentation

7:30-8:00PM – Q&A

PRESENTER:

• Lucia Dewey Atwood – Director, 250 Year Project, Eames Foundation

Lucia Dewey Atwood – Director, 250 Year Project, Eames Foundation

Lucia Dewey Atwood is a Board Member and Director of the 250 Year Project at the Charles and Ray Eames House Preservation Foundation, Inc. (“EF”).  She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Hispanic Studies from Harvard University and a Masters of Business Administration in Finance from Babson Graduate School of Business.  Prior to joining the EF in 2008, she was a Vice President, Professionals Banking Division at Citizens Bank of Massachusetts.  One of Charles and Ray’s five grandchildren, she interned at the Office of Charles and Ray Eames in 1976.  A dance critic, she also worked with Ray Eames from 1982 to 1988 on various computer, inventory and Eames House projects, where she learned first hand about the presentation and use of the Eames House.