Charles Eames

Charles was born in St. Louis, Missouri, to Charles Eames Sr., a railway security officer, and Marie Adele Celine Eames (née Lambert) on June 17, 1907. He had one elder sibling, a sister called Adele. Charles attended Yeatman High School and developed an early interest in architecture and photography.

Eames studied architecture at the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis on an architecture scholarship. After two years of study, he left the university. Many sources claim that he was dismissed for his advocacy of Frank Lloyd Wright and his interest in modern architects. The university reportedly dropped him because of his "too modern" views. Other sources, less frequently cited, note that while a student, Charles Eames was also employed as an architect at the firm of Trueblood and Graf. The demands on his time from this employment and his classes may have led to sleep-deprivation and diminished performance at the university.

While at Washington University, Eames met his first wife, Catherine Woermann, whom he married in 1929. A year later, they had a daughter, Lucia Dewey Eames. Charles and Catherine were divorced in early 1941.

In 1930, Eames began an architectural practice in St. Louis with partner Charles Gray. They were later joined by a third partner, Walter Pauley. Their buildings included: Sweetzer House, St. Louis, Missouri, 1931 St. Mary's Church, Helena, Arkansas, 1934 St. Mary's Catholic Church, Paragould, Arkansas, 1935 Meyer House, Huntleigh, Missouri, 1936–1938 Dinsmoor House, St. Louis, Missouri, 1936 Dean House, St. Louis, Missouri, 1936 Eames was influenced by the Finnish architect Eliel Saarinen (whose son Eero, also an architect, would become a partner and friend).

At the elder Saarinen's invitation, Charles moved in 1938 with his wife Catherine and daughter Lucia to Michigan to further study architecture at the Cranbrook Academy of Art. Charles quickly became an instructor and the head of the industrial design department. In order to apply for the Architecture and Urban Planning Program, Eames defined an area of focus—the St. Louis waterfront. Together with Eero Saarinen he designed prize-winning furniture for New York's Museum of Modern Art "Organic Design in Home Furnishings" competition. He met Ray Kaiser during this project; she was a student at Cranbrook and helped with graphic design. Eames and Saarinen's work displayed the new technique of wood molding (originally developed by Alvar Aalto) that Charles would further develop with Ray in many molded plywood products, including chairs and other furniture, and splints and stretchers for the US Navy during World War II. The long-running BBC television program Mastermind features an iconic black chair that was designed by Eames.

In 1941, Charles and Catherine divorced, and soon afterwards, Eames married his Cranbrook Educational Community colleague Ray Kaiser. During their honeymoon, he relocated with her to Los Angeles, California, where they worked and lived together until their deaths. Together, Charles and Ray Eames internationally became two of the most recognized and celebrated designers of the 20th century.

Three years after arriving in Los Angeles, Charles and Ray were asked to participate in the Case Study House Program, a housing program sponsored by Arts & Architecture magazine in the hopes of showcasing examples of economically priced modern homes that used wartime and industrial materials. John Entenza, the owner and editor of Arts & Architecture, recognized the importance of Charles and Ray's thinking and design practices—alongside becoming a close friend of the couple. Charles and Eero Saarinen were hired to design Case Study House number 8, which would be the residence of Charles and Ray, and Case Study House number 9, which would house John Entenza, in 1945. The two homes (alongside other Case Study houses) would share a five-acre parcel of land in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood north of Santa Monica, which overlooked the Pacific Ocean. Because of post-war material rationing, the materials ordered for the first draft of the Eames House (called "the Bridge House") were backordered. Charles and Ray spent many days and nights on-site in the meadow picnicking, shooting arrows, and socializing with family, friends, and coworkers. They grew to love the eucalyptus grove, the expanse of land, and the unobstructed view of the ocean. They chose not to build the Bridge House and instead reconfigured the materials to create two separate structures nestled into the property's hillside. Eero Saarinen had no part in this second draft of the Eames House; it was a collaboration between Charles and Ray. The materials were finally delivered, and the house was erected from February through December 1949. The Eameses moved in on Christmas Eve, and it became their only residence for the remainder of their lives. It remains a milestone of modern architecture operated by the Eames Foundation, a non-profit organization instituted by Lucia Eames. The Eames Office designed a few more pieces of architecture, many of which were never built. The Herman Miller Showroom on Beverly Boulevard in Los Angeles was built in 1950 and the De Pree House was constructed in Zeeland, Michigan for the founder of Herman Miller's son, Max De Pree, and his growing family. Unbuilt projects include the Billy Wilder House, the prefabricated kit home known as the Kwikset House, and a national aquarium.

From 1943 until his death in 1978, Charles and Ray worked together with a team of staff and produced an unparalleled breadth of creative design work across many disciplines.

With their interest in communicating ideas visually, the Eameses also turned their attention to exhibition design, beginning in 1950, for the Chicago Merchandise Mart and the New York Museum of Modern Art, and continuing into the mid-1970s, for IBM.As ongoing consultants to IBM, Charles and Ray developed a special relationship with the company that involved not only the creation of films, presentations, and educational products, but also Charles and Ray's insights for the future of the company. During the 1960s and early 1970s, the Eameses designed a series of exhibitions for IBM, centered on scientific and mathematical themes, as well as famous individuals within those fields. If Ray was less passionate about computers than her husband, she shared his belief in their importance and used her talents to make them understandable and acceptable to ordinary people. In 1961, the IBM Corporation commissioned the Eameses to create Mathematica: A World of Numbers and Beyond, presenting mathematical concepts in a pleasurable way. Mathematica's success gave the Eameses confidence to continue using exhibitions to explore complex themes, and the prestige it brought IBM led that corporation to commission a pavilion and an exhibition for the New York World's Fair of 1964. For this project, Charles and Ray immediately entered into discussions on this project with Eero Saarinen. The result was a 1.25-acre site divided into several distinct exhibition areas, each covered with an enormous translucent plastic canopy held up by steel "trees." Some designers and critics, considered it somewhat excessive and vulgar and felt that the Eameses had gone too far in their popularizing science, technology, and "the modern." The general public, however, appeared to have loved it.

Charles Eames died of a heart attack on August 21, 1978, while on a consulting trip in his native Saint Louis. He was buried in the Calvary Cemetery in St. Louis. He now has a star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame.