“For decades, SOM’s furniture existed in plain sight, but outside the public narrative of modern design,” says David Rosenwasser, co-founder of Rarify, the independent, designer-led source for rare and collectible furniture. “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.”
The first-ever exhibition of furniture designed by SOM is now on view at LuisaViaRoma’s New York flagship. Organized and curated by Rarify, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill: Hidden Furniture Masterpieces 1950-1991 showcases more than 60 pieces of custom, archival furniture alongside more than 100 artifacts, including original architectural photographs by Ezra Stoller, archival drawings, and ephemera.
The exhibition reasserts SOM’s eminent history of total design and traces the firm’s evolving material language over four decades—hand-polished stainless-steel frames, glass and stone surfaces, walnut and teak for managerial spaces, and rosewood and exotic burls reserved for executive environments—while highlighting the extraordinary craftsmanship, customization, and modernist opulence that distinguish the firm’s furniture from contemporaneous commercial offerings.
This exhibition traces a lineage from the mid-20th Century that continues in SOM’s work today, with recent product launches with major manufacturers, including Tetras Lighting for Artemide, Nebula for Neri, and more. Hidden Furniture Masterpieces is open to the public at 1 Bond Street through April 30.
