The Eames Design Legacy
A Three Part Design Lecture Series
Featuring Eames Experts Steve Cabella, Joe Rosa, David Meckel and Eames Demetrios
Hosted by Steve Cabella
Wednesdays, February 27, March 27, April 24, 2002 @ 7p.m.

Key innovators in modern 20th century design, Charles and Ray Eames worked in a broad spectrum of design media - architecture, furniture design, film, photography, graphic design, toys, and public exhibition. Taking the Eames classic 1961 Mathematica: The World of Numbers…and Beyond exhibition currently on display at the Exploratorium as a point of departure, the Exploratorium presents The Eames Design Legacy: A Design Lecture Series. The series features Bay Area collector, curator, and design historian Steve Cabella with SFMOMA’s new Director of Design & Architecture Dept., Joe Rosa, on Wednesday, February 27; designer David Meckel, who began his career at the Eames Office, on Wednesday March 27; and Eames Demetrios, Director of the Eames Office, on Wednesday April 24, all at 7pm. These events are free with admission to the Exploratorium. Design historian Steve Cabella will act as host. The three part series on the Eames design legacy is free with admission to the Exploratorium. The program is as follows:

Steven Cabella and Joe Rosa

Bay Area collector, curator, and design historian Steve Cabella, and Joe Rosa, SFMOMA’s new Director of Design & Architecture Department, will discuss the impact of the Eames work on contemporary design today. Cabella's discussion of the Eames work will blend his extensive knowledge of the Eames with personal stories about the Eames design process by people who worked with them. He will also discuss how their work reflected and changed the broader cultural landscape. Steven Cabella, a Bay Area native, is the owner of one of the oldest vintage Mid-Century design shops in America, The Modern 1950's Shop. A writer and design historian who, in 1979 organized one of the first 1950's retrospective in America, he has been collecting and documenting the work of designers Ray and Charles Eames for over 20 years.

Cabella maintains the Web site www.eamescollector.com, among many other Eames related pursuits. Details on Joe Rosa to follow.

Wednesday, March 27
David Meckel
McBean, 7pm

David Meckel investigates the Eames' legacy in the world of modern design, information architecture, museum exhibit design, and their personal legacy. Meckel, FAIA, holds a Masters in Architecture from Columbia University. He began his career working with Charles and Ray Eames in their Venice California studio. He directed all of the design work for the 1984 Olympics and was chosen as one of ID Magazine's "ID Forty" Design and Technology Innovators in 1997, and was selected to the American Institute of Architects College of Fellows in 1998. He co-founded the Interior Architecture program at Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles with Richard Saul Wurman and founded the Architecture program at CCAC in San Francisco where he serves in the Office of the President. In addition to these and many other activities he is principal of Meckel (Design) Consulting.

Wednesday, April 24
Eames Demetrios
McBean, 7pm

In the final event in this series on Eames design, the Exploratorium presents Eames Demetrios, a multimedia and exhibition designer, lecturer, filmmaker and author. Additionally, as the principal of the Eames Office, he directs the "preserving, communicating and extending the work of Charles and Ray Eames." Demetrios frequently lectures to museum staff and educators and participates with corporations on topics related to design, Powers of Ten, and connecting physical space and cyberspace. His recently completed book, An Eames Primer, provides the first documentation of the real design process of his grandparents, Charles and Ray Eames. It is published by Universe, a division of Rizzoli Books.

The Eames' Mathematica: The World of Numbers…and Beyond at the Exploratorium provides a rare opportunity to walk through an exhibition designed by world renown Charles and Ray Eames - their only one still extant. It is on view through May 5, 2002, and will be open from 10am-9pm on the days of the above lectures.