Photographed inside a Russian submarine, this EMECO NAVY ...

Photographed inside a Russian submarine, this glossy EMECO NAVY CHAIR is a tribute to the chair's iconic form, but in a chic high-fashion finish.

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Handmade from 80 percent recycled aluminum, the Emeco barstools are a modern twist on

the chair's origin and feature the same 77 step manufacturing

process. All photography courtesy Emeco.

Locally made, internationally adored, Emeco chairs transcended their utilitarian origin and have become a ...

DESIGN ICON

BY CINDY KALINOSKI

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If you think there's something familiar about these chairs, you've been paying attention. You might have seen them in the interrogation room on Law & Order, during a brainstorming session on House, or starring front and center in the Britney Spears video for her hit "Stronger." You may have even noticed them in Martha Stewart Living. But you're probably not aware that these chairs are designed and manufactured right here in the Susquehanna Valley. It's true: These celebrity chairs hail from Hanover, and from there, they've gone, so to speak, global. Handmade by Emeco [pronounced EH-meh-co], these

To put this in context, these two designer/architects are known for enriching the global cityscape with striking, concept-rich structures and objects. Starck has designed everything from a Fossil watch to housewares at Target to a space vehicle to the interior of the Elys?e Palace for Francois Mitterand. Gehry, for his part, has been called the most important architect of our age; his installations include the titanium-covered Guggeneim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, and the Dancing House in Prague.

HOW IT ALL BEGAN

chairs are not only famous, they're indestructible--and

While this is impressive, Emeco is unique not just because of who

they're iconically stylish. They're versatile, enduring and designs its chairs, how they look, or where they end up, but also because

resilient. Also, they're very, very green. As in, they were already green back of their eco factor and their suitability for tough environments. The story

when a "green house" meant a place where you grew seedlings.

goes that a very specific need during World War II prompted the first big

So it is for these key attributes of sustainability, durability and pa- design. "Everything started with the Ten-06," says purchasing agent Pete

nache--not necessarily in that order--that Emeco chairs have become Harmon of their most iconic chair. Pete, who has been with the company

recognizable worldwide. While some do end up in obscure places, like old since 1966, explains, "Years ago the Navy needed a chair made out of non-

government offices and the odd vintage shop, they've also been featured on magnetic materials. It had to be lightweight and durable. We came up

the big screen in The Adventures of Tintin, Jurassic Park, and on the small with this chair back in the '40s."

screen in Candid Camera and Sex in the City. Other high-profile cameos

The Navy's requirements for its submarines and Navy boats meant

chairs not only had to be durable and lightweight, they

"EMECO'S CLIENT LIST TODAY

had to resist hard wear (think explosions) and salty moisture and be made of materials that enemy ships

WOULD MAKE ANYONE JEALOUS: couldn't detect. Also, they couldn't interfere with the Navy's own sensitive onboard equipment. Satisfying

EST?E LAUDER, MCDONALD'S,

all this was the perfect challenge for the then-Electric Machine and Equipment Co., whose founder, Wilton

GOOGLE, SIMON COWELL ..."

Dinges, had begun working with chair designs in his basement in 1944.

The Ten-06 was designed and produced, and Emeco

include movie scenes with Clint Eastwood and Jodi Foster. These chairs began receiving massive orders from the government for anywhere from

could tell some stories.

schools to hospitals to prisons. This kept the Emeco craftsmen hopping

The Emeco chairs were selected for these roles for various reasons, but for years, but there were two problems with this business model. One, the

what really put them on the style map was a chance encounter with a phe- chairs were so durable the government never had to replace them. Two, it

nom designer named Philippe Starck. Emeco president Gregg Buchbinder depended heavily on one client, even if it was the United States govern-

bought the company from his relatives in 1998, and it was in 1999 that he ment; after the Vietnam War, the military orders contracted, and a new

attended a trade show in New York City and met the man who would help direction was needed.

transform Emeco into the high fashion legend it is today. Their collaboration

Fortuitously, that's when the designer angle began driving the sales and

was not exactly a makeover, but it had the same astonishing effect.

visibility of Emeco chairs. When the sustainability movement kicked in and

Starck had used Emeco chairs in several projects, such as the Paramount, the original chair became retro-chic, their popularity exploded.

a boutique hotel in Times Square. He was completing the plans for another

Emeco's client list today would make anyone jealous: Est?e Lauder,

posh New York hotel, the Hudson, and he had been wanting, of all things, to McDonald's, Google, Simon Cowell, Baccarat crystal, and the Smithson-

design an Emeco chair. He promptly created a new chair and stool model and ian. A recent order, for 2,500 chairs, came in from Disney. It's like ev-

put in an order for a thousand of them. The Hudson was born.

eryone, everywhere, wants an Emeco chair. Walk through the company's

Word got out. The Hudson is now just one of several chairs Starck has staging area and you'll see labels for Singapore, Milan, Brussels and Japan.

designed for the company; this has led to a barrage of requests for "a Starck-

As compelling as their clients and locales is what the chairs are

designed chair" and to partnerships with other fashionable designers, in- made of--and how they're made. A lot of chemistry (shrinking mol-

cluding Frank Gehry.

ecules and such), along with hours of detailed hand work, happens

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Top: A humorous vintage Emeco ad makes the case for the chair's

extreme strength. Top right: A high-polish Phillipe Starck barstool graces the showroom at Baccarat crystal. Right: An archival shot from Emeco's early years of manufacturing chairs for the United States Navy. Above: The Lancaster chair, released last year, features reclaimed ash from

Lebanon County.

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during Emeco's 77-step process (you can watch a video of the process

Tangen's favorite chair? "The next one." That next model is being honed

on their website, ). Briefly, this involves taking alumi- as this issue goes to print. It's designed by award-winning architect Jean

num, a soft metal, bending and shaping it, heat-treating it in 960-de- Nouvel and has yet to be named. Come April, Emeco will be unveiling that

gree molten salt, shocking it in cold water and then baking it overnight version and the new Sezz chair at the International Furniture Show in Mi-

in an oven. A day and night like that makes these lightweight chairs lan, Italy. Originally custom-designed for the Hotel Sezz-Saint Tropez on the

three times the strength of steel by weight (Emeco's chairs weigh only French Riviera, the Sezz riffs in a new direction, with a formed aluminum

about 8 pounds; a steel chair this strong would weigh three times sling-type shell that looks like it belongs in a sci-fi movie.

more). Next the chairs are anodized, which converts the aluminum to

Emeco's offerings, which now include tables, rockers and stools,

diamond-hard aluminum oxide, sealing and protecting the chair's sur- incorporate wood, plastic and upholstery as well as aluminum. Last year's

face against scratches, rust and other challenges.

newcomer, called the Lancaster, featured reclaimed ash from Lebanon,

Pennsylvania. No matter what material or shape the chairs take, though,

there is one way to tell whether you have an authentic Emeco: Check the

SUPER GREEN

base of the seat back. Each one is stamped with the name of the company and the designer, like a sculpture. Likewise, Tangen calls the chairs works of art.

Sustainability-wise, it's a strong story as well. These chairs are made

Some of them are priced like works of art--they run anywhere from

from 80 percent post-consumer and post-industrial waste. The manufactur- $400 to almost $4,000. Each chair takes 50 hands eight hours to make,

ing process has been honed until it, too, is uber-environmentally correct. A and polishing them to a high sheen adds another eight. (The company

joint collaboration with Coca-Cola, called the 111 Navy, is made from 111 re- makes, on average, 100 chairs per day, almost completely by hand; that's

cycled plastic bottles. Introduced in the summer of 2010, it's already diverted roughly a million chairs since 1944.) On the high end are the extremely

almost 4 million bottles from landfills.

shiny versions that transform Emeco's Kong stools into what Dinges

Once the chairs are built, they're also 100 percent recyclable. But called "sculptured masterworks."

you're more likely to include them in your will because, quite frankly,

So is the Emeco story about art or is it about function? Is it a story

these chairs will outlast all of us. They're guaranteed for the life of the of sustainability, changing with the market, or making some of the most

original owner, rare in any industry; the company estimates they'll last famous chairs in the world? Perhaps the most compelling story for most

about 150 years. In that century-and-a-half Harmon says the chairs of us, if we're honest, is the celebrity factor. When you think of the big

won't "scratch, bend or break."

names who have employed Emeco chairs, it's no wonder they're sought

"They're durable," he observes, shrugging, in the understatement of after. The custom Navy chair Britney Spears used in her video? It was

the year. On their Extreme Testing webpage, you can watch as an alu- auctioned on eBay for $100,000. Harmon jokes, "If she would sit on just

minum chair plummets from a third-story window, is catapulted against two chairs a day, I'd have it made."

a cement wall, and suffers other equally violent acts.

(Purchasers are encouraged to send their own roughhousing chair videos to the Emeco "cinema.") Human resources manager Barb Foulk recalls, "There was another test with bullets, for whatever reason. I'm not

THE EMECO EXPERIENCE

See more online!

quite sure what that was about." Foulk's own white, powder-coated Ten-66s endured outside by her builtin pool for years. "They'll last," she asserts. "They don't rust, the aluminum takes the rain, they're exposed to

Scan this QR Code with your smart phone or go to the all-new home page for links to an expanded Emeco experience online.

the chlorine, and they really hold up."

Watch the Emeco "77 Steps" video to see the Emeco manufacturing process compressed to a few minutes of video.

AN EVOLVING STYLE

Meanwhile, back at the literal drawing board, Emeco's head of development and production Denis Tangen "plays all day long," reconciling designers' ideas with structural requirements to generate up to 30 prototypes, until a design crystallizes. "Sometimes we don't even have time to make the final drawing," he says. "Sometimes the chair is the drawing."

Watch the Britney Spear's "Stronger" music video which features a high-gloss Emeco chair front and center throughout the video shoot.

And for something fun, watch the Emeco series of Extreme Testing videos, including a "Rifle Test," "Catapult Test," "Drop Zone Test" and more!

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susqu



FIND MORE ONLINE!

The colorful Emeco 111 Navy chairs are the result of an eco-minded initiative with partner Coca-Cola to keep plastic bottles out of landfills. Each chair is

made from 111 bottles. Read more about it at .

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