SUMMER 1955 - Eames and Saarinen chairs

Eames and Saarinen chairs

That year I had been an exemplary student at the fledgling School of Architectural Engineering , California State Polytechnic, College then, Univ. now. George Hasslein, the late and much loved Prime Mover behind the Department wanted a School of Architecture, instead of an engineering school of narrow vision. He proposed to me that I could become the "equalizer", i.e., if I challenged and passed the 5-year School of Architecture at Univ. of So. Calif. in one year then the State Board would consider that as an "articulation of courses" and grant Cal Poly the required 5th. Year equivalency and thus there would be a 5-year School of Architecture at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo.

Since it mirrored my own ambition, I was enthusiastic, but I worried as to how I would pay for tuition, food and housing. USC was $35 a unit then so a 17 unit semester tuition would have been $595, a vast sum of money when my later job paid me $1.75/hour.

George said that he had already made 2 phone calls for me, both of whom he felt I had an affinity for. The first was a young designer who had some 5 years earlier designed and built 2 steel cubes. Charles Eames. The second was a USC 5th. Year Design Professor whose afternoon practice was Lockheed hangers and tech stuff in steel, George V. Russell, Architect.

My mother gave me a symbolic $5, my now brother-in-law who was then courting my sister, "sold" me his Studebaker Commander (Raymond Loewy) for $65. With gas in the tank I drove south to Venice, California for my first apprenticeship. The Eames' offices were indistinguishable from many of the brick warehouses on Abbot Kinney. But once within and past the reception room, it was a hive of design work. Mr. Eames was expecting me, showed me his conference / office, the seating and the projection screen, his selling method, his picture memo of storage for things large and small , he was generous with his time, gave me lunch, took me to see his Chataugua home. The one next to that designed by his friend Eero Saarinen. At the end of the day, he asked if I could begin work tomorrow. I asked him whether he was a licensed Architect. He said no. I said that I had one other office to call and that I would talk to him following that. The next day, I was interviewed by George Russell who was also expecting me. He showed me the structures he was working on - 10' high trusses to span 280' - in steel. I didn't want to leave. Later, in that same office, when we were designing the homes of the President and others from Lockheed, whenever we needed to specify furniture and décor, my thoughts always turned to Eames and Saarinen. This is the reason I have always collected Eames and Saarinen.

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