Product Story
It's All in the Details
Expanded Options
Luxurious ComfortProduct Story
Eames Executive Work Chairs—known also as Time-Life chairs—were created, along with the Eames walnut stools, for the three ultramodern lobbies of the Time-Life Building in 1960. Also appropriate because, when you sit in this chair, you’ll have the time of your life.
What's In It For You
It's All in the Details
This luxurious chair is an example of Charles Eames's belief that "details are not details; they make the product." Generously sized, the executive work chair features a lightweight aluminum frame and base and finely detailed leather or fabric upholstery accented with covered buttons and edge details typical of traditional fine furniture.
Expanded Options
If you choose leather, you can opt for our contract-grade leather or our new MCL Leather, a premium, semi-aniline, dyed leather with 100 percent natural full grain. Color variations and surface marks are an inherent characteristic of this material, which will acquire wrinkles and creases and develop a rich patina over time.
The MCL Leather is available in black or pearl—and in more colors in fall 2011. And to complement lighter materials, we are offering powder coat finishes on the base and frame in white and graphite satin, along with the traditional polished aluminum.
Luxurious Comfort
Comfort comes first. The seat has 4-1/2-inch-thick foam cushions; the back cushions are 3 inches thick. Armrests are well padded.
Adjustable seat height, tilt-swivel mechanism, and a five-star base add to the comfort. Available with casters or glides, so the chairs can work well in a conference room, board room, conversation area, or behind a desk.
Design Story
When George Nelson asked Charles Eames to help in the design of the U.S. pavilion at the Moscow world exhibition in 1959, they needed to work fast. Eames called his friend Henry Luce, the chairman of Time-Life, to ask that Time-Life's vast archive of images be open to him. Luce's only condition was that Eames return the help one day.
A year after the exhibition in Moscow—a great success, featuring Eames's multi-screen slide show, a first—Luce called to ask Eames for a chair for the executive floors of his new building. The Eameses responded with the Time-Life chair and walnut stools. We still produce them, and with our new MCL Leather offering, we are returning the soft hand that characterized the original.
