Now that the weather gods are finally smiling on Chicago, downtown office workers are plopping their hindquarters on comfortable, but not entirely faithful, knockoffs of a chair once meant to receive the backsides of the king and queen of Spain.
The Barcelona chair is one of the great works of the German-American architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, revered for the way it transforms industrial materials into high art.
The knockoff, which its Italian maker calls “Barceloneta,” materialized in late April on the sliver of riverfront open space outside AMA Plaza, the 50-story Mies high-rise at 330 N. Wabash Ave. There are about 40 of the outdoor sofas, which are black and arrayed in rows. Like all knockoffs, they are inferior in both materials and proportions to the original they imitate. But I like them all the same. They make up in welcoming small-scale design what they lack in authenticity.
Outdoor plazas are like living rooms. They need seating to attract people. The Barcelonetas provide that seating, not just generically, but with a knowing nod to the famous chair from which they take their name. In the process, they lure people to a plaza that’s notorious for being a windswept desert. Back in the 1990s, the building’s owners erected rails of ropes so people could traverse the space without getting blown over.
The current owners, Beacon Capital Partners, a Boston-based real estate investment firm, installed the chairs not only to bring life to the previously moribund plaza but also, it appears, to project a distinctive brand identity for their high-rise, which is home to both offices and a Langham hotel. The building’s office lobby, a characteristically serene Miesian space of high ceilings and pale stone walls, is adorned with Barcelona chairs and other furniture by the late architect.
But a Barcelona chair can’t stand up to the rain. And it would be a prime target for thieves. The furniture-maker Knoll sells Barcelona chairs for $5,991 apiece. When the Barcelonetas, which list for $1,145 each, were put on the plaza, the first comment the building’s managers heard was: “Aren’t you worried about people stealing them?”
To prevent that, the chairs are arranged in pairs and fastened together so furniture crooks can’t easily make off with them, said Susan Hammer, who runs AMA Plaza for the Chicago office of real estate management firm JLL.
“We do have a camera on them,” added assistant manager Tyler Kethcart.