Charles Ormond Eames, Jr (June 17, 1907 - August 21, 1978) was an American

designer, architect and filmmaker who, together with his wife Ray, is responsible for

many classic, iconic designs of the 20th century. He was born in Saint Louis, Missouri,

where he studied architecture at Washington University and later opened an

architectural practice.

OneOne great influence on him was the Finnish architect Eliel Saarinen (whose son Eero,

also an architect, would become a partner and friend). At Saarinen's invitation, he

moved in 1938 with his first wife Catherine Woermann Eames and daughter Lucia to

Cranbrook, Michigan, to further study architecture and design at the Cranbrook

Academy of Art, where he would become a teacher and head of the industrial design

department.department. Together with Eero Saarinen he designed prize-winning furniture for New

York's Museum of Modern Art "Organic Design" competition. Their work displayed the

new technique of wood moulding, that Eames would further develop in many moulded

plywood products, including, besides chairs and other furniture, splints and

stretchers for the US Navy during World War II.

InIn 1941, Charles and Catherine divorced, and he married his Cranbrook colleague Ray

Kaiser, moving with her to Los Angeles, California, where they would work and live for

the rest of their lives. In the late Forties, as part of the Arts & Architecture magazine

"Case Study" program, Ray and Charles designed and built the groundbreaking Eames

House, their home. Located upon a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean, and

constructed entirely of pre-fabricated steel parts intended for industrial construction,

it remains a milestone of modern architecture.

InIn the Fifties, the Eameses would continue their work in architecture and furniture

design, often (like in the earlier moulded plywood work) pioneering innovative

technologies, such as the fiberglass and plastic resin chairs and the wire mesh chairs

designed for Hermann Miller. Besides this work, Charles would soon channel his

interest in photography into the production of short films. From their first one, the

unfinished Traveling Boy (1950), to the extraordinary Powers of Ten (1977), their

cinematic work was an outlet for ideas, a vehicle for experimentation and education.