Iconic modern design at a San Francisco modernist landmark
CCA alum and professor Eric Heiman’s Volume Inc. designs exhibition for the Eames Institute of Infinite Curiosity
High plinths display each chair at eye level so visitors can more closely appreciate structural details that are often overlooked. Photo by Nico Zurcher.
Step into the exhibition Past as Prologue: The Last Decade of Furniture Design by Ray and Charles Eames (1968–78) and you are swept into the heart of 1970s San Francisco. There at the base of the Transamerica Pyramid—the tallest building west of Chicago when it opened in 1972—visitors can imagine each of the chairs on display furnishing the modern offices throughout this landmark building, which still defines the city skyline over 50 years later.
Past as Prologue is the most recent project of the Eames Institute of Infinite Curiosity, founded formally in 2022. Curated by Llisa Demetrios, chief curator of the Institute and granddaughter of Charles and Ray Eames, and designed by CCA alum and professor Eric Heiman’s studio Volume Inc., the exhibition focuses on furniture from the latter years of the Eames’ partnership, featuring many familiar forms—fiberglass shell chairs, padded leather office seating, bent plywood classics—but with tweaks and improvements to materials, fittings, and other details. It shows that Ray and Charles constantly reconsidered existing designs to improve function and comfort, while also decreasing the environmental and manufacturing impacts without compromising the originals. The historic setting is perfect for a thoughtful consideration of how past products can evolve to meet current needs.
The entry wall to the exhibition includes an oversized ruler to mark the heights of Charles, Ray, Llisa and other Eames Institute folks visiting the exhibition. Photo by Nico Zurcher.
The evolution of the furniture was often driven by concerns for the environment relative to material choices and production processes. Herman Miller, the Eames’ longtime partner in manufacturing, was also keen on producing in more sustainable ways to achieve what Ray and Charles described as “goodness all the way down.” Demetrios explains this philosophy in more detail as “good for the company, good for the person making it on the line, good for the designer, good for the community, and good for the environment.” For example, when Ray Eames learned that harvesting Brazilian rosewood for the classic Eames Lounge Chair and Ottoman led to deforestation, they discontinued it. She directed Llisa’s mother, Lucia, not to bring it back until a more environmentally-friendly material could be sourced. Another example is the EC127 dining chair that was redesigned with cast shock mounts, which allowed for one less step of fabrication, making it more environmentally friendly. Replacing materials and physical components with design intelligence in many pieces resulted in more durable, sustainable products.
The Eames Institute of Infinite Curiosity is a beacon for Bay Area design now. By engaging in the physical and the publishing world, they are leading an important alternative to the focus on the tech industry.”
The street level of the Transamerica building is an airy, light-filled space that comes to life for the exhibition with Eames-inspired color films on the exterior windows. Photo by Nico Zurcher.
Taking full advantage of the gallery’s complex angular geometries and the floor-to-ceiling glass walls and atrium, the Volume Inc. team used a series of primary color films on the glass panels to draw people in and define the space. From inside, it’s easy to catch a glimpse of the lush Transamerica Redwood Park at the base of the building. Alternatively, from the outside, visitors to the park are invited to peek directly into the exhibition. This easy flow between nature and structure, and the bold use of color, echoes the exterior of the famed Eames Case Study house in Pacific Palisades, in which prefabricated expanses of glass and color-blocked panels bring the outside in and the inside out.
The exhibition concept, Past as Prologue, began with a question posed to Charles about the development of the classic Eames leather lounge chair and ottoman, designed for Herman Miller in 1956. When asked, “Did you think of the Eames chair in a flash?” Charles replied, “Yes, sort of a 30-year flash,” meaning that it took 30 years to develop the deep foundation of technical, material, functional, and aesthetic knowledge so that the inspiration could take place in what seemed like a flash.
“Sort of a 30-year flash” also accurately describes the way that Heiman and his Volume Inc. team developed the exhibition on an ultra-short five week timeline from concept to opening. Heiman and partner Adam Brodsley built upon decades of knowledge and experience in graphic and architectural system design to realize the exhibition in their own version of the 30-year flash. They began by immersing themselves in the Institute’s Richmond archives, where they noted a sophisticated warmth permeating the space that was especially notable in the later versions of the classic pieces that supported the physical needs of office workers at the same time as they visually complemented the modern spaces they were designed to inhabit.
Our goal was to synthesize the ‘30-year flash’ from Charles’ historic quote.”
Exhibition designer Eric Heiman of Volume and chief curator Llisa Demetrios of the Eames Institute of Infinite Curiosity at the opening of Past as Prologue. Photo by Nico Zurcher.
The exhibition design also demonstrates how an effective graphic system can orient a visitor and unify a physical space. For this, Heiman credits the Institute’s excellent branding work by San Francisco-based design studio, Manual. “Manual designed a dynamic branding system for the Institute that we were easily able to adapt to display both furniture and printed materials that could clearly explain this often overlooked period of the Eames story and best represent Demetrios’ vision."
Charles famously said, “The details are not the details. The details make the product.” This approach is aptly revealed in the conscious choice to place each chair at eye level in order for visitors to see more clearly the connections, fittings, pads, base structure integration, and other details that are normally hidden from a standing or seated perspective. These typically overlooked details are as much a part of the design intelligence as the curved outline of a fiberglass seat or a stretched leather cushion that offers visual interest and seated comfort. Labels in large Century Schoolbook Mono type highlight materials, manufacturers, and design and production dates to reveal more about the development of a concept into a product.
When designing furniture, my grandparents called it designing seating. They said if you call it designing chairs, then you are eliminating the ottoman before you have thought of it.”
Past as Prologue is free and open to the public, a move that supports the Eames design philosophy to make “the best, for the most, for the least” that resulted in durable furniture made from humble materials, educational exhibitions that made complex concepts understandable, and films that celebrated the vast creativity of ordinary people across the world, among other projects. The Eames Institute of Infinite Curiosity carries forward many of the key principles and philosophies that guided both Ray and Charles—designing for people, industry with purpose, intentional accessibility, and perhaps most importantly, curiosity that is not bounded by time or place—the infinite kind.
Past as Prologue: The Last Decade of Furniture Design by Ray and Charles Eames (1968–1978) is open daily until October 31, from 10 am to 5 pm at the Transamerica Pyramid Annex Gallery, 535 Washington Street, San Francisco.
—Mara Holt Skov
August 26, 2025