David Lincoln Rowland (February 12, 1924 – August 13, 2010) was an American

industrial design Industrial design is a process of design applied to physical Product (business), products that are to be manufactured by mass production. It is the creative act of determining and defining a product's form and features, which takes place in advan ...

er noted for inventing the 40/4 Chair. The chair was the first compactly stackable chair invented, and is able to stack 40 chairs high.

Early life and education

David Lincoln Rowland was born on February 12, 1924, in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

, the only child of Neva Chilberg Rowland, a violinist and W. Earl Rowland, an artist, lecturer and teacher. In 1936 he moved with his parents to

Stockton, California Stockton is a city in and the county seat of San Joaquin County, California, San Joaquin County in the Central Valley (California), Central Valley of the U.S. state of California. Stockton was founded by Carlos Maria Weber in 1849 after he acquir ...

where his father became director of the

Haggin Museum The Haggin Museum is an art museum and local history museum in Stockton, San Joaquin County, California, located in the city's Victory Park. The museum opened in 1931. Its art collection includes works by European painters Jean Béraud, Rosa Bo ...

. In the summer of 1940, when he was 16, he took a course with

László Moholy-Nagy László Moholy-Nagy (; ; born László Weisz; July 20, 1895 – November 24, 1946) was a Hungarian painter and photographer as well as a professor in the Bauhaus school. He was highly influenced by constructivism and a strong advocate of the i ...

, one of the founders of The Bauhaus school, at

Mills College Mills College at Northeastern University is a private college in Oakland, California and part of Northeastern University's global university system. Mills College was founded as the Young Ladies Seminary in 1852 in Benicia, California; it was ...

Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...

on Basic Bauhaus Design. After graduation from Stockton High School in 1942, he studied drafting, and worked as a draftsman for the Rheem Manufacturing Co., drawing plans for war munitions, before entering military service in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. From 1943 through 1945 Rowland was a 1st Lieutenant in the

United States Army Air Corps The United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) was the aerial warfare service component of the United States Army between 1926 and 1941. After World War I, as early aviation became an increasingly important part of modern warfare, a philosophical r ...

, the 8th Air Force, 94th Bomb Group, and 333rd Squadron, as a B17 (“Flying Fortress”) pilot. He was stationed in Bury St. Edmunds, England and conducted 22 combat missions. Rowland was awarded the Air Medal with several clusters. After the end of the war, Rowland studied at

Principia College Principia College (Principia or Prin) is a private liberal arts college in Elsah, Illinois. It was founded in 1912 by Mary Kimball Morgan with the purpose of "serving the Cause of Christian Science." "Although the College is not affiliated wit ...

in Elsah, Illinois, graduating in 1949. He went on to study industrial design at the

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in C ...

and afterwards at

Cranbrook Academy of Art The Cranbrook Educational Community is an education, research, and public museum complex in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. This National Historic Landmark was founded in the early 20th century by newspaper mogul George Gough Booth. It consists of C ...

in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, earning a master's degree in Industrial Design in 1951.

Early career

After graduating, Rowland worked outside of the design field and worked on his own designs in his spare time. He later took a job as head draftsman doing architectural renderings for

Norman Bel Geddes Norman Bel Geddes (born Norman Melancton Geddes; April 27, 1893 – May 8, 1958) was an American theatrical and industrial designer. Early life Bel Geddes was born Norman Melancton Geddes in Adrian, Michigan and was raised in New Philadelp ...

. Rowland also designed commercial interiors, including a Transparent Chair for the No-Sag Spring Co., a Zig Zag Cantilever Chair that was exhibited in 11th

Milan Triennale The ''Milan Triennial'' (Triennale di Milano) is an art and design exhibition that takes place every three years at the Triennale di Milano Museum in Milan, Italy. History The exhibition was originally established in 1923 as a biennial architect ...

in 1957 and a Drain Dry Cushion, licensed to Lee Woodard & Sons. In 1956, the royalty income from the Drain Dry Cushion allowed Rowland to open his own office.

The 40/4 chair

Rowland developed the 40/4 Chair over a period of 8 years and was awarded a patent on it in 1963. Initially, Rowland showed chair to many companies in an effort to license the design. In 1961,

Florence Knoll Florence Marguerite Knoll Bassett ( Schust; May 24, 1917 – January 25, 2019) was an American architect, interior designer, furniture designer, and entrepreneur who has been credited with revolutionizing office design and bringing modernist desi ...

licensed the chair for her company, Knoll Associates, however canceled a license after six months. Rowland later showed the chair to Davis Allen, head of interior design at the architectural firm of

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) is an American architectural, urban planning and engineering firm. It was founded in 1936 by Louis Skidmore and Nathaniel A. Owings, Nathaniel Owings in Chicago, Illinois. In 1939, they were joined by engineer Jo ...

(SOM). Allen requested 17,000 chairs for the a campus SOM was designing for the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). To fulfill the request, Rowland licensed the design to General Fireproofing Co. (GF) in Youngstown, Ohio. In May 1965, While the first order for was still being produced, 250 chairs were hand assembled and installed in the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

in New York City for the opening of its new wing. MOMA also included the 40/4 in its permanent collection. The 40/4 was an immediate success. It won the grand prize at the 13th

, and has been included in museum collections and exhibitions internationally. In the book ''the Modern Chair,'' Clement Meadmore described the chair as having “beautiful simplicity and total appropriateness.” Twenty five hundred 40/4s were installed in St. Paul's Cathedral in London in 1973, site of Prince Charles and Princess Diana's wedding, and remain in use. The chair has been in continuous production since its introduction and has sold over 8 million units. General Fireproofing held the license for the chair from 1963 until 2002 when the company was taken over by OSI Furniture LLC. In 2013, Howe Europe, (now Howe a/s), of Denmark, which had had a sublicense to the chair in Europe, Africa, Australia, New Zealand and Asia (except for Indonesia) acquired the license for the 40/4 in the United States and Canada. In 2010 Contract Design Magazine named the 40/4 number one of the top 10 commercial interiors products of the past 50 years.

Personal life

Rowland married Miss Erwin Wassum, a crafts designer, in 1971. They lived in New York City, before moving to

Marion, Virginia Marion is a town in, and the county seat of, Smyth County, Virginia, United States. It is positioned upon Interstate 81, in the Blue Ridge portion of the Southern Appalachian mountains in Southwest Virginia. The town is named for American Revolut ...

in 2001.

Honors and awards

* 37 U.S. Patents and numerous international patents * 1964 Grand Prix, 13th

for '40/4 Chair' * "40/4 Chair” named #1 of The Top 10 Commercial Interiors Products of the Past 50 Years by Contract Design Magazine, 2010 * Design in America: The Cranbrook Vision. 1984 Exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum in New York. * Design in America: The Cranbrook Vision,1984 book< * International Council of Societies of Industrial Design (ICSID) Exhibition 1980 * Best of Competition Gold Medal, Institute of Business Designers (IBD) and Contract Magazine 1979 * Design in America: The Cranbrook Vision. 1984 Exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum in New York. * Gold Award for Product Design Excellence (Seating), Institute of Business Designers (IBD) and Contract Magazine 1979, * Meadmoore, The Modern Chair, 1975 * Austrian Government Gold Medal Award for Furniture 1968 * Master Design Award 1965, Product Engineering Magazine * National Cotton Batting InstituteAward, 1958 for chair design * Illuminating Engineering Society Award, for lighting design, 1951 * ''Best Piece of Business Furniture'' award from American Institute of Designers (AID)

Museum Collections Containing Rowland's Work

The Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of th ...

, New York, New York

The Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

, New York, New York

Philadelphia Museum of Art The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMoA) is an art museum originally chartered in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The main museum building was completed in 1928 on Fairmount, a hill located at the northwest end of the Benjamin Fr ...

, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

The Art Institute of Chicago The Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago's Grant Park, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the world. Recognized for its curatorial efforts and popularity among visitors, the museum hosts approximately 1.5 mill ...

, Chicago, Illinois

Brooklyn Museum The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 1.5 million objects. Located near the Prospect Heights, Crown H ...

, Brooklyn, New York

Palais du Louvre The Louvre Palace (french: link=no, Palais du Louvre, ), often referred to simply as the Louvre, is an iconic French palace located on the Right Bank of the Seine in Paris, occupying a vast expanse of land between the Tuileries Gardens and the ...

, Musée des Arts Decoratifs, Paris,. France

Design Museum The Design Museum in Kensington, London exhibits product, industrial, graphic, fashion, and architectural design. In 2018, the museum won the European Museum of the Year Award. The museum operates as a registered charity, and all funds generat ...

, London, England

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...

, London Museu de Arte Moderna, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Education

Die Neue Sammlung Die Neue Sammlung is one of the leading design museums in the world, with the largest collection of industrial and product design. Founded in 1907 with the ideas of the German Werkbund, Die Neue Sammlung became an official state museum in 1925 ...

, Munich, Germany

Patents

*1956 Furniture Seating *1956 Automobile License Plate and Fuel Tank Filler Spout Arrangement *1957 Weatherproof Cushion *1957 Spring Assembly *1963 Compactly Stackable Chair *1966 Compactly Stackable Chair *1966 Compactly Stackable Chair *1967 Dolly for Stacking Chairs *1968 Compactly Stackable Chair *1969 Nested Armchair *1969 Collapsible and Stackable Paper Ash Receptacle for Cigarettes *1968 Dispensing Package for Paper-Cup Ashtrays and the Like *1972 Ash Tray *1972 Seating Unit *1973 Furniture for Seating People *1973 Seating and Sub-Assembly for Seats and Backs *1973 Seating Unit *1973 Seating and Sub-Assembly for Seats and Back and Method for Making Same *1973 Seating and Sub-Assembly for Seats and Backs *1974 Folding Chair *1974 Stackable Seating Units *1981 Stackable Chairs *1982 Chair and seat-back unit therefor *1983 Stackable Armchair *1984 Stackable Armchair *1987 Stackable Armchair *1994 Tubular Pedestal Assembly *2005 Panel *2011 Improved Panel *1981 Combined Seat and Backrest Unit for a Chair *1982 Armchair *1982 Chair *1983 Counter Armchair *1983 Armchair *1985 Tablet-Arm Chair *1993 Chair *2005 Stacking Chair

References

External links

David Rowland Official Website

Howe's Website for the 40/4 Chair
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rowland, David 1924 births 2010 deaths American industrial designers United States Army personnel of World War II Cranbrook Educational Community alumni People from Los Angeles People from Stockton, California People from New York City People from Marion, Virginia Principia College alumni United States Army Air Forces soldiers Military personnel from California American furniture makers American Christian Scientists