In 1978, on the 21st floor of the imposing Olympic Tower, a midtown Manhattan icon designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), fashion visionary Roy Halston Frowick sought to anchor his expansive office and showroom. The legendary designer, renowned for his sartorial influence on figures like Jackie Kennedy and Elizabeth Taylor, articulated a clear design philosophy: “High up in New York, everything is gray,” he observed. “I needed something that would stabilize the space so the room wouldn’t float.” His audacious solution was an immersive embrace of the color red.
The Genesis of the SOM79 Chair
The narrative unfolds with Halston’s encounter with a striking crimson-lacquered Parsons table, conceived by Charles Pfister of SOM’s interiors division. This piece so captivated him that he commissioned thirty. This led to his direct inquiry, “And how about a chair? What can you design for me?” Within a year, Pfister unveiled a masterwork in red-on-red: a cantilevered tubular-steel form that culminated in a distinctive, chic racerback silhouette. Halston immediately procured approximately twenty of these chairs to furnish his mirror-clad space, where they seamlessly complemented the Parsons tables, serving dual purposes for work, dining, and as elegant seating during his exclusive fashion presentations.
Architectural Resonance and Design Philosophy
“It feels fitting that such a gracefully contoured chair would find a home within a fashion atelier and showroom,” reflects Julia Murphy, a partner at SOM. “Much like a couture garment, it possesses a 360-degree design; its singular frame line maintains its integrity even when viewed from beneath.” The firm, commemorating its 90th anniversary, has recently reintroduced the SOM79 chair in collaboration with IKONstudio, offering it in contemporary finishes. This piece, part of a distinguished series of furniture developed by SOM over several decades as innovators in the complete office environment, was selected from their archives for its “inherent structure, exceptional balance, and purity of platonic form—principles that have consistently guided our design trajectory for 90 years,” notes Chris Cooper, another SOM partner.
Positioned within the sharp, geometric framework of the Olympic Tower, the chair’s fluid, almost organic form, introduced at the cusp of the 1980s, signifies a subtle evolution in design sensibilities. Cooper aptly describes it as “a softening of the preceding decade.”
Business Style Takeaway: The SOM79 chair embodies a masterful fusion of artistic expression and functional design, reflecting a sophisticated approach to personal and professional environments. Its enduring appeal lies in its ability to provide both aesthetic distinction and a sense of grounded elegance, elevating the status of any curated space.
Original article : www.architecturaldigest.com