Thanks, Peter Lewis: More Fun With Expensive Chairs

Lewis Library  -- The cavalcade of chairs continues!

To recap: Insurance magnate gives $60 million, Princeton builds library.  Princeton must choose what to put in said library.  Chairs or books, books or chairs?  Decision time!  Chairs.  Totally chairs.  No wait -- super sexy expensive futuristic chairs!  $5000 never felt so good to sit on.

But there's more.  So much more.

A brief rundown of the rest of the best.  Just 'cause they're not $5000 doesn't mean they're cheap:

The Chair: Management by Eames.

The Count: 74 in Lewis Library

The Price: starts at $1,199 at Design Within Reach (bulk prices may vary)

The Scoop: From famed designers-slash-directors-of-trippy-high-school-physics-movies comes this classic work chair, found exclusively in the library’s second-floor tree house (which is neither a house nor built on a tree – discuss amongst yourselves).  According to Design Within Reach, the Management’s wide construction and sling-like seating pocket created a “revolution in seating” when the chair was first introduced in 1958.  The revolution can be yours for only a thousand bucks and change.  Princeton, ever the radical hotbed, has bought several dozen.

Who needs upper-level Swahili classes (or other budget-cut course casualties) when you’ve got these beauties?  Seriously, though, they’re my pick for Best of the Rest after the Egg Chair.  Comfortable, stylish, whisper-quiet.  The swiveling action’s like butter.

Also, on the subject of Eames, Lewis’s cafeteria chairs are also stunners.

The Chair: Eames Molded Plastic Armchair

The Count: 48

The Price: $349 each at Design Within Reach

The Scoop:  Eco-friendly polypropylene body.  Adjustable pod feet.  Designed in 1948.  Attractive shape, attractive price.  Well played, Louie Lib.

And to round out the day’s round-up…

 The Chair: Krefeld Lounge Chair

The Count: 48

The Price: starts at $1720 each at Motiv

The Scoop: Sketched in 1927 by legendary designer-slash-architect Mies van der Rohe and later resurrected from unproduced designs by the Knoll furniture company, the Krefel Lounges have broad seats, a boxy appearance, and clean minimalist lines.

All right.  That's enough - I won't write about this subject ever again.  Or maybe I will.  What's the purpose of starting your own blog if not to document all your strange furniture-based obsessions?  Never change, Lewis Library.  Never change.

(Photo sources: Design Within Reach, Patricia Gray design, Motiv Design)