By Carla Atwood Hartman Receiving a gift was a delight—the surprise of the delivery and the anticipation of the opening—addressed like no other package—unusual spacing with looping cursive, symbols, embellishments, color, sometimes cut-out forms, drawings and/or stickers. Stamps often placed in different denominations in patterns. Ray’s gifts to family and…
News
Family Chronicles: Everyday Celebrations
Read MoreBy Lucia Dewey Atwood Food was an important part of Charles and Ray’s daily living, one element in living a beautiful life in which details were appreciated. Always fresh and beautifully presented, it was a part of the welcome for visitors that made visits to the Eameses memorable. Elegant, even…
Cirque Du Eames
Read MoreWhy the circus for our Members Appreciation Day theme? The circus fascinated Charles and Ray. “In the actions of circus people waiting to rehearse or preparing to perform, there is a quality of beauty which comes from appropriateness to a given situation… The concept of ‘appropriateness,’ this ‘how-it-should-be-ness,’ has equal…
Evolving Landscapes: Tree Work at the Eames House
Read MoreSo many of my memories of Charles and Ray’s life at home reflect the eucalyptus trees: Ray’s gatherings of fragrant seed pods in baskets (one still set by the entry door) or Charles pausing mid-sentence to photograph a branch, and then continuing on. As children we were swung – pushed…
Wrapping up 2022 at the Eames House
Read MoreIt has been busy at the Eames House! What a beautiful sight to have visitors back at Charles and Ray’s home. While still taking COVID-19 precautions to keep both visitors and staff safe, we have gradually reopened for tours, and even celebrated our annual Members Appreciation Day in person after…
Wrapping Up 2020 at the Eames House
Read More2020 was a challenging year for many. Around the world, many suffered the loss of a loved one during this terrible pandemic, or faced economic hardships as businesses and places of work shut down. Many historic and cultural sites, normally places of comfort and learning during difficult times, have had…
Black Lives Matter
Read MoreBlack lives matter. It’s time for design to address the need. The need for justice. The need for humanity. The need to be healed. The need to be seen—and the need to see. Too many black lives have been lost, in too many inhumane ways. A system-wide change is needed. Like many arts…
Reflections on Reflections
Read More“Many of the most pleasant things about the house are things on which we had not planned, but which came one by one as surprise. The difference between the shapes of things in sunlight, twilight, and at night, and the little things that happen in relation to the trees and…
Closed Thru May 15, 2020, a Reminder that "Eventually Everything Connects..."
Read MoreWe are closed through May 15, 2020, in compliance with California and Los Angeles ‘stay at home’ orders. “Eventually everything connects—people, ideas, objects…the quality of connections is the key to quality per se.” Charles Eames How would Charles and Ray be connecting right now? With a deep appreciation of…
Eames House Closure, Day 1
Read MoreToday is a grey, and overwhelming, day at the Eames House… We are CLOSED to visitors, as required by the City of Los Angeles, but are on-site, available to answer questions by phone and email. In support of our community, most staff is off-site focused on special projects to enhance…
Eames House Closure
Read MoreWe will be closed to visitors from March 15 through March 31, 2020. Staff will be on-site in order to respond to any questions (phone or email). We will continue to watch developments, and will be responding accordingly. For now, we can all help to flatten the curve. Today’s thought…
Unsettled Times
Read MoreDear friends of the Eames House, We hope you are all well in this difficult time. Moments like this remind us of how we are all connected: that we are a global community, with each individual more alike than different. Charles and Ray celebrated these connections. While we are still…
Eucalyptus LTR Memberships Available Again!
Read MoreWe have exciting news! We are releasing our reserve of special-edition, red-tone Eames Eucalyptus Low Tables (LTRs). Join now as a Eucalyptus LTR Member and experience the satisfaction of receiving one of these limited-edition gifts, as well as supporting critical conservation work on the Eames House.
A Busy Year for the Eames Foundation!
Read MoreThe past twelve months have been productive for us here at the Eames Foundation, as we guarded and conserved the prized Eames House alongside many other organizations and individuals. Here is what we were up to in 2019: The Conservation Management Plan After many years of meetings, research, planning,…
The Materials of the Eames House
Read MoreCharles and Ray Eames set out to design and build the Eames House by utilizing materials in an “honest” manner. When looking at a structural element made of steel, the Eameses wanted that steel’s performance to be visible and recognized. If steel is holding up the entire structure, why cover…
From Tree to Table
Read MoreThe creation of the limited-edition Eames LTR from the felled eucalyptus trees in the meadow surrounding the House was only possible thanks to a determined exploration by our partners, driven by their deep appreciation of the Eames House trees. After a site-wide study of the trees’ health and life expectancy,…
Join Our Special Eucalyptus LTR Membership
Read MoreReceive a very special Eames LTR table as the gift when you join the Eames Foundation as a Eucalyptus Member. This limited run LTR features a solid top made from eucalyptus trees harvested from the Eames House site under our landscape management plan. Repurposing the wood from these beloved trees,…
NPR on How Charles and Ray's Home "Made Life Better by Design"
Read MoreNPR presented a segment, Charles And Ray Eames Made Life Better By Design; Their Home Was No Exception, on “All Things Considered” by arts correspondent Mandalit del Barco. Lucia Dewey Atwood, the Eames Foundation’s 250 Year Project Director, and docent Jennifer Polito spoke of the home’s site, industrial materials, objects, and irreplaceable…
Eight books on Charles and Ray's Bookshelf that Allude to their Personal Philosophies
Read MoreShortly after the Eames Storage Unit was designed in 1950, a customized bookshelf appeared in photographs of the Eames House living room. The bookshelf looked uncannily similar to the ESU, however, the piece was double-sided, oversized, and sported anodized aluminum structural supports. The shelf is nestled closely to the nearly…
Celebrating the 4th with Charles's Firework Photographs
Read MoreThe Eames Office archivist, David Hertsgaard, revealed some film photographs taken by Charles on the Fourth of July in 1953 from the vantage point of the Eames House meadow. These images would have been developed in the darkroom that hid in the Eames House studio. Happy 4th from the Eames…
Case Study House for 1949
Read MoreIn December of 1949, seventy years ago, Charles and Ray’s house was completed and featured in Arts & Architecture magazine. The House was first introduced to the subscribers of Arts & Architecture in 1945, and the four years between designs was preoccupied with a residential, industrial, economic, and emotional recovery from…
LIFE's Images of a Newly-Constructed Eames House
Read MoreIn our continued celebration of the 70th-year anniversary of the Eames House’s construction, we are sharing images taken by Peter Stackpole for LIFE Magazine in 1950. These photographs, taken a few months after the construction’s completion, show the Eames House at its most bare state: with few objects inside and…
Looking Towards the Future: Celebrating the Launch of the Conservation Management Plan
Read MoreOn Wednesday, April 10, 2019, the Eames Foundation and Getty Conservation Institute (GCI) held a party in the Eames House meadow celebrating the availability of our tool for the future: the Eames House Conservation Management Plan (CMP). The day was perfect: sparkling blue sea, green grass (thanks to our many…
The Eames House as Tomorrow's House
Read MoreA look into George Nelson’s publication “Tomorrow’s House” (1945) and how it relates to the architectural designs of Charles and Ray Eames. How does the Eames House reflect a great example of “tomorrow’s house”? What problems did it solve — for society in terms of showcasing new housing construction techniques and for the psychological health of its dwellers, Charles and Ray? And how do these ideas relate to their overall design process?
