While visiting a government building recently, I realized that almost all of its chairs are Eames. Dozens and dozens in all colors. Probably no one who works in that building knows their value or appreciates their beauty.
How do I liberate these chairs? I don't want to steal them--and I don't want them to forever be sat on by government drones who call them 'retro'. Any suggestions?
contact the building mangement
contact the building management and ask them if from time to time if they sell some of there old chairs. tell them you would like to buy them or sell them
if they have a lot get a storage unit and start loading them up the next step ebay or vintage shops you should do real well.. I know these buildings, colleges,have surplus, cause after 10 to 15 year they not only look bad they have been depreciated to 0 so time to go .. just make friends with the right person.
good luck
I tried for years at a government agency that I worked at for the same thing - to no avail. Government property is extremely hard to get. They usually have policies that hinder them from giving them to you, even when they don't want them. Usually their policy is to destroy what they don't want to use.
I don't know how it works...
I don't know how it works there but over here most government departments have auction houses that they deal with and they are promoted as being "ex government" auctions becuase the stuff is usally in good condition and been looked after. Perhaps something similar might appen there? To throw them away! obscene!
Drone on
Speaking as a former "drone" the GSA or general services administration conducts autions of surplus goods like office furniture but the reality is most furniture pushed by the GSA is used till it all but falls apart. Many of us 'drones' appreciated when we could put our ass in something nice. It didn't happen often.
our public servants live...
our public servants live like Kings, they order new furniture all the time becuase if they don't use up their budget allowances they get cut the next year. I've seen office chairs still in wrapping while delivering new ones (departemnt of defense, the same people responsible for letting thousands of weapons escape into the populace)
Bullshit
Saying public servants live like kings is bullshit. I worked for the USDOT for 12 years as a civil engineer. I used the desk and chair that was in the office when I got there and it was still there when I left. There no doubt is mokey business at the pentagon but I get royally pissed when people slather all civil servants with the same oily brush. They work hard, they don't get perks, they travel coach, they still drive a GSA plymouth K car for crissakes! Can you find someone a little more deserving to dump on here. ;-(
I agree. My stint at the gove...
I agree. My stint at the government office illustrated an entire building of nothing but old run down shit, computers and all. True, the bottom floor was absolutely packed with Eames shells, but they hadn't spent a dime since the building was erected in '69. To them those shells are in the same category with the rrest of their run down crap. Plus, many of the "good" items are rather worn. People use these every single day.
I have moved far away from the city where I worked, but I got word from a friend that after 38 years of service the furniture appears to have been retired. All of the shells are in stacks in the front lobby - ready to be thrown out. And no, he couldn't talk them into anything. The last government building in that city to rid of shells bulldozed well over 300 of them. Ouch.
There has been a stroke of...
There has been a stroke of luck twice for me. Out of that building years ago I got an Eames sofa (a rare 3473 sofa - look it up if you haven't seen one ... they were only produced for 9 years). I had to give this woman, who was also not in charge (no one is), a sad story about how I was engaged and we couldn't afford a sofa. The sofa was in bad shape with one side caved in. After 6 months of begging she let me have it. I paid around 700 bucks to have it redone professionally and later traded it even for an Eames lounge + ottoman.
A few years after that, right before I traded it, a friend who worked in the building scored 3 great Knoll-esque Steelcase sofas (the tufted ones with stainless legs). I had one redone, and that's when I traded the other. He only got them after telling the supllies manager he needed them in another government facility. Then he took them home.
So basically, the only way to get them is to be dishonest. Do I feel bad? No. Both items would be in the dump right now.
After 5 years I still haven't been able to lift two Bertoia diamonds out of the public library ... not even after offering $100. The library ladies hate them because they are "ugly." BUT - legally they can't part with them. They keep them hidden in a back corner to get them out of sight and no one uses them.
Great find Whitespike! I've n...
Great find Whitespike! I've never seen that model before it looks like a cross between the Compact and the Eames sofa
There is shoe shop in Manchester (UK) that has got a really great selection of tables which they display shoes on. In the centre of the shop they have a large Vitra Noguchi dining table and several Knoll Saarinen side tables dotted about, a number of these have marble tops, they have only been in the shop for a year or so and there already knocked about, the Nocughi in particular looks worse for wear. It's a shame to see such lovely pieces being mistreated, really i should enquire about them to see if they would be intersted in selling them next time the shop is refitted
i have been searching for ...
i have been searching for over 20 years for designer classics some of the great stuff that I got was a Florance Knoll stainless steel table for 15.00 I changed the teak top to the most fabulous piece of marble you can buy for 100. look on the knoll website it sells for around 2500.00 that was at a estate sale I bought 4 knoll Barcelona's for 100 each cause the cushions were separated split in the creases. I used super glue on them cause I was not ready to recover them for 500 each . The super glue worked fabulous on the seams and they are perfect. I used a leather cleaner and they look wonderful. The best of the best is a high end office store that closed down 15 years ago. a friend took me my cause he thought I might like to my the building I t was 4 stories and on the top floor just like out of a movie, a Eames lounge chair with no ottoman sitting in the back from 1968 filty dirty but perfect. and 10
lamps from Verner Panton, Arne Jacobsen, Robert Sononoman , Riggli from Italy and 5 lamps from the Mutual sunset lamp company made in Italy, after checking all my books the big lamp was a Paol Hennnginson,
lamp tht was to wonderful I bouy books all the time so i have schooled my self in the good stuff I gave 500.00 for every thing loaded up in my SUV and took off, The guy who owned the building was so happy to get $500.00 cash in his pocket he was the one being nice to me .
He said the old JUNK has been in the Warehouse for 30 plus years The lamps were in the original boxs with the price on them . and they had store tags from 1968, The Eames chair he told me his Dad was going to sell Herman Miller furniture
but a rival store ended up with the contract that his Dad just stuck the chair in the Warehouse never to look at it again. He did end up being a knoll distributor and they had lots of Warren Planter tables. I did go back and buy one for 250.00 just to be a sport I have enclosed a link that you might enjoy reading and it tells about my obsessions it features my home, in Tulsa People magazine this month here is the link on the online edition http://www.tulsapeople-digital.com/tulsapeople/200707/ then hit contents and it is on page 104 I hope you enjoy reading it and keep hunting cause that is what it is all about.
one more thing
one more thing ...... if you do read the story the the young writer did misspell the name Eames she spelled it Eams very sac religious but this was her first story on modernism she will learn.. Tulsa People magazine this month here is the link on the online edition www.tulsapeople-digital.com/tulsapeople/200707/ then hit contents and it is on page 104
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