An old campus stalwart enjoys a comeback.
It was 1957, and lightweight aluminum furniture was all the rage. Organic was not in (wood, after all, could rot, warp, and attract insects), and no one had heard of "ergonomics."
Aluminum was the material of the moment. Durable, lightweight, and refreshingly unfamiliar, it was to the '50s what plastic would be to the '60s. Never mind that the Good Form chair--the basic four-legged version--was actually introduced in 1932 by GF Office Equipment. The chairs didn't become part of the American landscape (or Swarthmore's dining room, then in the center of Parrish Hall) until after World War II, when manufacturers began churning out suites of aluminum furniture.
By then, GF had mastered the technology and stockpiled mountains of aluminum in their Youngstown, Ohio, factory while manufacturing pilot seats for planes used in the war. Perhaps it was this connection to victory that made the sleek brushed metal look so right for the postwar office: lean, mean, and light enough for takeoff. Many a suburban den sported the swivel version of this chair, with matching aluminum desk and file cabinet.
At Swarthmore, the chairs became indelibly linked with memories of the dining room's social whirl. Still found on campus but in semiretirement, they now rest quietly in a dark storage closet at the Lang Music Building, where the College orchestra brings them out for each performance-- a noble duty for their golden years.
We brought one into the office of Barbara Haddad Ryan '59, now associate vice president of external affairs at the College. "Remember these?" we asked. "Are you kidding?" she shot back. "They're part of my DNA." Nancy Lehman '87, our managing editor, would agree, though her memories are not so fond: "Unless you were wearing jeans, they were pretty uncomfortable."
By the 1980s, when Lehman attended Swarthmore, the horrors of a bad chair were coming to light. Woe to the spinal columns of those who failed to invest in lumbar support. Like most office furniture makers, GF discarded their aluminum tools and dies and began cranking out ergonomic wonders. "Everything is adjustable now, with endless levers and gears," says David Carr, GF's marketing director. "A stable, stark, nonmovable chair is not the correct thing to offer."
Still, he admits, GF may have tossed the Good Form mold a little prematurely. "Dad's Office Makes a Comeback," announced The Wall Street Journal last October, in a layout peppered with furniture many of us left at the Salvation Army years ago. It seems that vintage galleries are hunting down and reselling that furniture, and chains like Crate & Barrel are cranking out knockoffs. No one is sitting in these chairs for hours on end, but they look just right around the urban-chic kitchen table. As the demand for '50s decor rages on, the cost of vintage aluminum climbs. Current asking price for a Good Form on castors: $850. Swarthmore's old stalwarts may have a second career yet.
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Swarthmore College. All rights reserved. 1999