ORGANIC DESIGN CASE GOODS DESKS

DATE - 1941

For their First Place Prize-Winning Case Goods for the Museum of Modern Art’s 1941 Organic Design Competition, Charles Eames and Eero Saarinen designed two different desks. Both had the same form and dimensions of a top, but for one, the top had only two legs affixed, solid wood dowels, similar in mass to the bench legs. The other side of the desktop was designed to be supported by a cabinet mounted on one of the benches. This made for very efficient use of space. They also designed a free-standing desk with four solid wood dowel legs.

Additional Information

The entire Case Goods system was only in production for two years, during 1941 and 1942. With World War 2 raging, there was little time or money for domestic furnishings. Over the years, Case Goods systems do appear in the vintage market, but the desks are among the rarest, suggesting that few desks were sold. Bloomingdales, the retailer who took the lead in marketing the prize-winning designs, advertised the sale of models of only two of the chairs, the Tri-Ang Table, the benches, and the two-legged desk.