OUR WORLD

Front cover illustration by Philippe Starck

“A chair must be really important as an object, because my mother always told me to offer my chair to a lady.”

Ettore Sottsass

Front cover illustration by Philippe Starck

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Emeco (Electric Machine and Equipment Company) was founded in 1940 in Hanover, Pennsylvania. Drawing upon the ability of local craftsmen on the American east coast, Wilton C. Dinges founded the initial furniture venture using scrap aluminum to create chairs, tables and lockers for the American Government.

Emeco engaged in the challenge of research and experimentation and the defining moment was when the firm entered the quest to fit the new Navy submarines with chairs strong enough to withstand torpedo blasts. Together with Alcoa experts, Wilton C. Dinges created the 1006 Navy Chair made of recycled aluminum, using 77 steps to create a seamless one-piece look. The Navy Chair was a chair so durable, it had an estimated life cycle of 150 years and far exceeded the Navy’s specifications. The 1006 was a humble but proud four-legged chair, weighing only seven pounds but ranked right up there alongside such unimpeachable symbols of no-nonsense American ingenuity as rag-top Jeeps, Converse high-tops, Zippo lighters and button fly Levi’s. In the boomtown postwar years, Emeco branched out, outfitting not only the Navy, but also federal prisons, state hospitals and government offices. Hundreds of thousands of chairs were handmade and sold to the government. The end of the Cold War marked a significant decrease in the size of the U.S. military and, as a result, sales of the 1006 chair plummeted.

In 1998, Gregg Buchbinder purchased Emeco and repositioned the company, making chairs for architects and designers. This was an important turn for Emeco, which realized the multiple possibilities combining traditional craft with design. In 1999 Buchbinder began a close working relationship with French designer Philippe Starck and together, they developed the first series of products specifically designed for hotels and restaurants. The perfectly handmade aluminum chairs and stools soon established a reputation as the perfect combination of refined forms and sustainable quality materials.

The Emeco story is characterized by a special mix of design and engineering, material knowhow and handcraft – with the mission to make things that last.

OUR STORY

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OUR STORY

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OUR LEADER

I grew up in California, on the ocean. Our house was close to the beach and I used to surf, swim and sail. My mother was a designer influenced by European chair designers and my father was an engineer working on creating chair structures. Our home was filled with design inspiration and Mid Century Modern rejects from designers like Charles Eames and George Nelson.

When I first took over Emeco, we only had sales reps who called on the US Government – Navy ships, submarines, prisons, etc.  The sales had dwindled down to almost nothing. I was at Emeco and I heard our customer service employee, Paulina, yelling into the phone, “No, I will not ship your chairs!  You send the money first.” I asked her who was on the phone and she said, “Somebody – Giorgio Armani.”  I looked through the file cabinet to see who was ordering chairs and found a recent order from Ian Schrager’s office ordering chairs for the Paramount hotel. Terrence Conran was also ordering chairs. This is when I decided Emeco needed to find a new market in order to survive.

Emeco makes chairs the way no one else makes them. I realized that in order to make the company succeed we needed to focus on what we do best. Emeco has used reclaimed and recycled materials since the 1940’s and the principles and values that built the first chair still guide us today. Most industrial manufacturing uses a lot of raw materials and creates a lot of waste. Emeco’s heritage is to manufacture using as little as possible, producing chairs that last a lifetime. The heritage of using materials in a smart, responsible way – that’s what I saw in Emeco. Making things that people really love of extraordinary beauty and lasting value is what we do and who we are. Working hand in hand with architects, designers, and companies that share our vision for beautiful products made responsibly, and improving the earth for future generations – that is my dream for Emeco.

Gregg Buchbinder

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OUR LEADER

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FIRST LET’S MAKE THINGS THAT LAST.

As we apply what we’ve practiced in the past, we are looking toward the future. We are on a mission to make a positive impact on the environment. Our goals are to use waste material in our products, use as little energy as possible in our manufacturing, generate a minimum of waste in the process, and build strong, durable, beautiful chairs that last through generations. We’ve been on the same mission since 1944 and we will continue to search for new ways to recover and utilize discarded materials and make products that last.

OUR MISSIONEmeco is a responsible furniture maker helping architects and designers create a sustainable future.

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OUR MANIFESTOAt Emeco we,Build the finest product we can, Make the best possible choices for our planet and inspire others to do so, Collaborate with the world’s best, Trust in simplicity, and Know that our heritage is our future.

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OUR AIM

TOWARDS ZERO WASTEDuring World War II, The Office of Civilian Defense, created in May 1941, organized salvage drives for rubber, tin, paper and aluminum. Small towns across the United States undertook a series of conservation measures including collection of scrap materials to be remanufactured. The scrap drives helped build morale at home and helped to illustrate and encourage conservation and provide much needed resources for the war effort. It was during this emotional time of national pride that Emeco began to design, build and ship indestructible, lightweight aluminum chairs – the original “Navy Chair” – for use on submarines and in the government and military buildings. The value of doing more with less, of salvaging scrap to build new products is part of the heritage of Emeco.

Today, Emeco is still manufacturing and designing chairs built from 80% recycled aluminum. Of this recycled content, half comes from pre-consumer waste (manufacturing scrap) and half comes from post-consumer waste (soft drink cans).

In 2006 Coca-Cola approached Emeco with a problem: Billions of plastic bottles were being sent to the landfill every year. By upcycling, we transformed the waste into a new material, made from recycled plastic bottles. We call it the 111 Navy Chair because every chair we make takes 111 plastic bottles out of the landfills.

Philippe Starck and Emeco came together in 2012 to create the Broom chair. The chair is made out of 90% pre-consumer waste, 75% waste polypropylene and 15% reclaimed wood fiber, that would normally be swept into the trash.

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OUR AIM

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OUR FACTORY

Emeco’s factory in Hanover Pennsylvania, U.S.A., is one of the few remaining manufacturing plants in the area, and relies on the local heritage of manufacturing expertise brought to the United States by German immigrants over 100 years ago. Today, our craftsmen continue to work at our factory, engineering the designs, forming aluminum, welding, polishing, grinding, heat treating, hand finishing, anodizing and inspecting our chairs to make sure we are shipping out products that will uphold our reputation for quality.

Some of our craftsmen have been with us for over 50 years perfecting their skills, and they have passed down the values of conservation of resources, and the work ethic of creating superior quality products through teamwork and expert workmanship.

We design our chairs to comply with ANSI/BIFMA safety and performance standards that ensure the safety, durability, and the structural integrity of our products. All Emeco chairs are LEED™ compliant, made of recycled or reclaimed content. At the beginning of each project we determine the technical requirements and conceptual approaches that best suit the needs of the end user.  We also formulate a comprehensive strategy to overcome any challenges we are sure to face throughout the design process.

Today, Emeco has 63 employees who work to carry on our heritage and vision.

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OUR DESIGNERS

In 1999 Gregg Buchbinder began a close working relationship with French designer Philippe Starck and together they developed the first series of products specifically designed for hotels and restaurants, starting with Hudson Chair for Hudson Hotel, NYC. The collaborations continued in 2004, when Buchbinder began working with Frank Gehry developing the Superlight chair and in 2005, designer Adrian van Hooydonk, BMW Design Group Designworks USA, transformed a long-lost Emeco hospital chair into an updated design classic. This was followed by Foster and Partners designing the 20-06 – a stacking chair for the 2006 Smithsonian addition in Washington, DC and the introduction of Nine-0 Collection by Ettore Sottsass in 2008.

During the following year, Emeco launched the Morgans chair by Andrée Putman, designed for the restored Morgans Hotel in NYC. In 2010 Emeco developed the Lancaster Collection designed by British designer Michael Young and in the same year Emeco presented a joint environmental venture with the Coca-Cola Company, a reinterpretation of the classic Navy Chair from the 1940’s, made of recycled PET, using 111 recycled plastic bottles for every manufactured 111 Navy chair. In 2012 Emeco and Christophe Pillet collaborated on the Sezz Collection for Sezz Hotel in St. Tropez and in the same year Emeco and Philippe Starck launched the Broom Chair, made of 90% industrial waste. In October 2012 Emeco and Jean Nouvel launched the recycled aluminum collection SoSo, first installed at Hotel Sofitel in Vienna. In 2013 we officially launched the Parrish Chair, the result of our collaboration with German designer Konstantin Grcic, designer of the interiors of the new Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill, New York.

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Emeco’s expertise in making purpose-built, sustainable products has led to rewarding collaborations throughout the years, starting with the U.S. Navy and Alcoa - one of the biggest aluminum manufacturers -during World War II. Since that time we have had the privilege of collaborating with some of the world’s greatest companies and institutions like McDonald’s restaurants, Google offices, cosmetic brands Estee Lauder, Clinique and Bobby Brown, clothing retailers GAP and Ralph Lauren, Morgans Hotel Group, Starwood Hotels, Accor Hotels and many more, as the preferred supplier in their worldwide locations.

Our most renowned collaboration is our joint venture partnership with Coca-Cola for the 111 Navy Chair. It took several years for us to develop the new material we now use for the 111 Navy Chair. We worked together with experts at BASF, the world’s biggest chemical company, to develop the material that resulted in a strong, durable chair that has a deep beauty that people love when they touch it. Since the 2010 launch of the 111 Navy Chair, we have saved more than nine million plastic bottles from the trash heap, and the chair has won numerous awards.

OUR COLLABORATIONS

Kong Counter StoolBaccarat World Headquarters, Paris, FranceDesign by Philippe StarckPhoto by Yann Delacour

Kong Counter StoolBaccarat World Headquarters, Paris, FranceDesign by Philippe StarckPhoto by Yann Delacour

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OUR DISTRIBUTION AND SALES

Emeco is an unusual American company with a strong heritage, unique products, independent spirit, accessible profile and flexibility to do the right thing for future generations. With a business growth of more than six fold in the last decade, we take on the challenging responsibility of reaching out to conscientious decision makers who share our vision.

Our functional, sustainable and timeless products are appreciated in both public areas and private homes. We work closely with architects and interior designers who choose our products for many applications such as hotels, restaurants, schools, corporate offices, hospitals, airports and retail stores, just to name a few.

Emeco products are available in 50 countries overseas through selected dealerships and representatives in each of them. In 2012 our growing international business led to establishment of Emeco Europe Srl, our subsidiary based in Milan, Italy, along with our local warehouse that supports our daily operations and distribution in Europe. In our home market, United States, our customers are served from our company headquarters in Hanover, Pennsylvania, with the help of sales representatives in each state as well as the best retailers nationwide.

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111 Navy Chairs and 1006 Navy Chairs. Google Headquarters, Covent Garden, London.Design by Penson, photographed by David Barbour.

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OUR LOOK

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“Mr Buchbinder of Emeco is also pushing innovation by incorporating humble, recycled materials like sawdust into his chairs. Still, the Navy remains at the heart of his business, and he sees no other recourse to protect it than a legal one.” Julie Lasky, NY Times 2012

“More than ten years in the making, the designer’s new chair pushes Emeco – a manufacturer famous for its iconic aluminum furniture – in a whole new direction.” Marc Kristal, Metropolis 2012

"The tale of Emeco’s 111 Navy chair is that of a phoenix rising.” Michael Taylor, Dwell 2011

“That‘s one small step for Emeco, a giant leap for sustainability.” Real Estate & Décor 2013

“Not just a chair. A political statement.” Arian Moore, NCW Magazine 2012

“After partnering with Coke on the 111 chair, a revamp of the classic Navy made from recycled plastic bottles, the company set about finding another way to push the bounds of sustainability through the use of innovative materials. So Emeco’s director of product management, Magnus Breitling, began a quest for an eco-friendly substance made purely from waste, rather than from a food product such as corn.” Belinda Lanks, Fast Company 2012

“The seats are made by hand from recycled aluminium and are guaranteed for life, which the company estimates at 150 years. Emeco has more recently experimented with other recycled materials, including the plastic 111 chair made of coke bottles and the Broom chair made of debris from factory floors by Philippe Starck.” Dezeen 2013

American chair manufacturer Emeco continues to make good green use of discarded materials.“ Matt Hickman, Mother Nature Network 2012

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Emeco is honored to have been included in the permanent collections of many major museums around the world. We have also received many awards for our 111 Navy Chair, and Gregg Buchbinder has been asked to speak to design school, trade show, and design conference audiences worldwide.

Emeco in permanent museum collections

1006 Navy: The Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburg, USA

Hudson by Philippe Starck:The Centre Pompidou, Paris, FranceIllinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, USAMuseum of Modern Art, New York, USA

Superlight by Frank Gehry: The Cooper Hewitt National Design Gallery, New York, USACorcoran Gallery, Washington DC, USAIllinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, USAMuseum of Modern Art, San Francisco, USAThe Pinakotherk Der Moderne, Munich, Germany

1951 by BMW DesignWorks:The Cooper Hewitt National Design Gallery, New York, USA

OUR HONORS

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20-06 by Norman Foster: The Cooper Hewitt National Design Gallery, New York, USA

Awards for 111 Navy Chair

2012 International Plastic Design competition (IPDC) ; awarded the Best Show award, Building, Construction & Furniture Award and Sustainable Consumer Product award. 2011 Dwell Modern World awards; winner of the 2011 Work category.2011 Editors Choice Award at the 96th edition of International Hotel, Motel & Restaurant show (IHMRS) and the Second Boutique Design New York (BDNY); Awarded Best Green design. 2011 iF International Design Forum; Product Design Award2010 GOOD DESIGN award; Furniture category.2010 Interior Design Magazine Best of Year Finalist

Emeco in gallery and museum exhibitions

Andrea Schwartz Gallery, San Francisco, California 2012Center For Architecture, New York, New York 2006Whitespace Gallery, Atlanta, Georgia 2011Museum of American History, Washington, DC 2012Brazilian Sculpture Museum, Sao Paulo, Brazil, 2006The Art of Seating: 200 Years of American Design, Museum of Contemporary Art, Jacksonville, Florida 2011 / national traveling exhibition 2012

Emeco lectures

Parsons School of Design, New York City, New YorkArt Center College of Design, Pasadena, CaliforniaSavannah College of Art and Design, GeorgiaThe National Conference of the Society of Environmental Graphic Design, New OrleansNeoCon World’s Trade Fair, Chicago IllinoisSchool Of The Arts, SingaporePratt Institute, New YorkParsons School of Design, New York City

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CorporateAmazon Office, Tokyo

Aramco Oil, Saudi Arabia

Barclay Bank, Moscow

Gehry Partners, Santa Monica

Gensler, LA, SF

Google, Worldwide

Martha Stewart Omimedia, NYC

Media House, Docklands, Melbourne

Microsoft, Seattle, Boston

RJ Reynolds, Winston-Salem

Shinhan Bank, Seoul

The Wall Street Journal, NYC

TNT Green Office, Hoofddorp, Holland

Turner Broadcasting, Atlanta

Urban Outfitters, PhiladelphiaWieden + Kennedy, London

Hospitality15 by Jamie Oliver, London

Aka Renga Foodcourt, Yokohama

Akmerkez Shopping Mall, Istanbul

Akbati Shopping Mall Foodcourt, Istanbul

Alcazar, Paris

Alhondiga, Bilbao

Aloft Hotels, Worldwide

Burger King, Worldwide

CJ Foodpark, Seoul

F1 Lounge at Sham’s Tower, Abu Dhabi

Felix Bar at the Peninsula, Hong Kong

Hotel Royal Monceau, Paris

Hudson Hotel, NYC

IV Restaurant, Rome

Krispy Kreme, USA

Kruisherenhotel, The Netherlands

Le Paradis du Fruit, Paris Mardan Palace, Antalya

Marmara Sisli Hotel, Istanbul

McDonald’s, Worldwide

Mondrian Hotel, Los Angeles

Morgans Hotel, NYC

North Sydney Cellar, Sydney

Ono at the Gansevoort Hotel, NYC

Palazzina Grassi, Venice

Paramount Hotel, NYC

Ramses, Madrid

Sanderson Hotel, London

Schnippers, NYC

Sezz Hotel, St.Tropez

Sofitel Vienna Stephansdom, Vienna

St. Martin’s Lane, London

Starbucks, CA

The Luxe Restaurant, London

Tramshed, London

Velvet Bar, Warsaw

W Hotels, Worldwide

SOME OF OUR REFERENCES

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InstitutionalAvenues School, NYC

Drexel University, Philadelphia

Harvard University, Boston

Musashi Place Library, Tokyo

Museum of American History, Washington DC

Ohio State University, OH

Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC

Parrish Art Museum, NY

US Department of the Interior, Washington DC

US Navy, Worldwide

Yale university, New Haven, CT

Retail Stores Baccarat, Worldwide

Bergdorf Goodman, NYC

Bobbi Brown Cosmetics, Worldwide

Clinique Cosmetics, Worldwide

Diane Von Furstenberg, NYC

DKNY, London, USA

Estee Lauder, Worldwide

Excelsior Department Store, Milan

GAP, Worldwide

Giorgio Armani, Italy, USA

Hermes, Tokyo

J. Crew, USA

Macy’s, USA

Mercedes Benz Showroom, Tokyo

Nordstrom’s, USA

Nike, Worldwide

Polo Ralph Lauren, USA

Space NK Cosmetics, Worldwide

Taschen, Beverly Hills

Tommy Hilfiger, USA

Public SpacesClippers Stadium, Columbus

Disney, CA and FL

Doha International Airport, Qatar

Eurostar Lounges, Paris, London, Brussels

Las Vegas Airport, NV

Mets Baseball Citi Field, NY

Miller Brewing Café, Hartsfield Atlanta Airport, GA

Newark Airport, Heineken Bar, NJ

Sea World, CA

Universal Studios, CA and FL

Wellington Airport, New Zealand

Movies and TelevisionAmerican IdolAmerican Music AwardsArmageddonAvatarBatman: The Dark KnightCBS Early ShowCSIDawson’s CreekDoctor HouseExtreme Makeover: Home EditionFrasierHellboyLaw and Order: Criminal IntentLe Femme NikitaLie to MeMade in AmericaMatrixMessage in a BottleMillenniumOprah Winfrey: “David & Lisa”Saturday Night LiveSex and the CityStarwars – Episode 1The CloserThe Mirror has Two FacesThe PretenderThe RockWag the DogX-File s

www.emeco.net

805 WEST ELM AVENUE, HANOVER, PENNSYLVANIA 17331, USA

T: +1 717 637 5951, U.S.A. call Toll Free 800 366 5951, F: +1 717 633 6018, E: INFO@EMECO.NET