Two Brains Are Better Than One

Ray and Charles Eames were both experts in their fields, so when they joined forces it is no surprise that they quickly made history.

Charles Ormond Eames, Jr was born in 1907 in Saint Louis, Missouri. His interest in architect started when he was only 14 years old. Charles worked part-time at a steel manufacturer where he learned about engineering and architecture, and grew a profound love for it. He moved on to study architecture at Washington University where he met his soon to be wife Catherine Woermann. After only two years of study, he left the university for personal reasons, and began pursuing a life with his new wife. A year later they had a daughter, Lucia. Shortly thereafter Charles began working with two architects by the names of Charles Gray and Walter Pauley. After he felt that he had an ample amount of time working in the field, he moved himself his wife and his daughter to Michigan and began studies at the Cranbrook Academy of Art. He proved his talent and dedication for architecture and soon became not only a teacher, but also the head of the industrial design department. He went on to design award winning furniture for the Museum of Modern Art’s home furnishings competition along with a good friend of his, Eero Saarinen. They perfected the technique of plywood molding which would later give way to his most famous design, the Eames Lounge Chair. After many frustrating disagreements, Charles and his wife Catherine divorced. Charles soon after grew an infatuation for his colleague Ray Kaiser who he soon married. Charles and Ray moved to Los Angeles, California where they worked and lived for the remainder of their lives. They worked together creating architectural masterpieces including their place of dwelling dubbed the Eames House. Built from the ground up by hand, and constructed of industrial steel, it still stands today as a modern masterpiece.

Ray-Bernice Alexandra Kaiser Eames was born in 1912 in Sacramento, California. an American artist, designer, and filmmaker who, together with her husband Charles, is responsible for many classic, iconic designs of the 20th century. She was born in Sacramento, California. Having lived in a number of cities during her youth, in 1933 she moved to New York, where she studied abstract painting with Hans Hofmann.
In September 1940 she began studies at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, where she met Charles Eames, marrying him the following year. Settling in Los Angeles, California, Charles and Ray Eames would lead an outstanding career in design and architecture.

Ray Eames died in Los Angeles in 1988, ten years to the day after Charles.

I intend to finish this post, but have just been busy…