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Hand-polished stainless steel structures, glass and stone surfaces, walnut and teak furnishings for corporate spaces, rosewood and exotic burl woods for executive interiors: the evolution of SOM’s (Skidmore, Owings & Merrill) modernist material language is explored in the exhibition Skidmore, Owings & Merrill: Hidden Furniture Masterpieces, currently on view in New York.
Timed to SOM's 90th anniversary, he exhibition was initiated by Rarify, company specializing in the curation, sale, and creation of rare and collectible vintage and contemporary furniture and lighting. Curated by David Rosenwasser, co-founder of Rarify, it is staged in the flagship store of LuisaViaRoma, which, through this initiative, positions itself as a cultural platform for promoting and hosting artistic expression. The exhibition opened on February 10 during New York Fashion Week and will remain on view through April 30.
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill: Hidden Furniture Masterpieces is the first exhibition ever entirely dedicated to SOM’s legacy in furniture and interior design, and also marks Rarify’s first public presentation drawn from its own archive. The show unveils a largely unseen body of work that helped shape the visual language of corporate modernism in the second half of the twentieth century.
Spanning four decades, the exhibition brings together 60 historic pieces, predominantly custom-made, alongside more than 100 archival materials drawn entirely from the Rarify collection. The result offers an unprecedented insight into SOM’s total design philosophy, in which architecture, interiors, and industrial design form a unified system.
Beginning with early projects such as the Manufacturers Hanover Trust Company in the early 1950s and extending to emblematic commissions like the Chase Manhattan Bank, SOM pursued a seamless integration of architecture, interiors, and furnishings under the leadership of architect Gordon Bunshaft and interior designer Davis Allen. SOM’s design culture functioned as an incubator for some of the most influential furniture designers of the latter half of the twentieth century. In addition to Davis Allen, the exhibition features works by Lydia DePolo, Alexis Yermakov, Charles Pfister, Carol Groh, Raul De Armas, and Nicos Zographos.
The exhibition path of SOM: Hidden Furniture Masterpieces 1950–1991 is further enriched by original photographs by Ezra Stoller, archival furniture drawings, and rare personal objects, including Gordon Bunshaft’s professional seal and the invitation letter informing him of his receipt of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, which the American architect was awarded in 1988 ex aequo with Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer.
“For decades, SOM’s furniture existed in plain sight, but outside the public narrative of modern design”, said David Rosenwasser. “These are not prototypes or side projects; there are thousands of meticulously designed, project-specific works that defined how modern corporations looked, felt, and functioned. This exhibition is the result of more than a decade of research and collecting, and it represents the first time this body of work has been studied, assembled, and presented as a coherent design legacy”.
© Lucas Blair Simpson, courtesy of SOM
