Charles Eames (1907–1978) and his wife, Ray Eames (1912–1988) were American designers who made significant contributions to modern architecture and industrial design. These Cranbrook Academy of Art grads turned mid-century-modernist power couple are a case study in excellent design. Charles and Ray’s prolific partnership took shape with the molded plywood chair in the 1940s, but the duo also dabbled in film, exhibition installations, toys, and even a miniature train in Los Angeles’s Griffith Park.

The Eames Office is dedicated to communicating, preserving and extending the work of Charles and Ray Eames. They feel that all three of those dimensions are important to keeping the office useful and vital, and that all of Charles and Ray’s work was the result of a way of looking at the world—a design philosophy and process that is worth sharing in many different dimensions. They do create new works as well, believing that creating wholly new works is as consistent with that philosophy as restoring and distributing classic ones.

ONE 10 STUDIO Architects is an Indianapolis-based, design-centered architectural practice with a reputation for producing award-winning, modern design solutions. ONE 10 concentrates on a true collaborative design process by fostering an open studio culture. We believe thoughtful, highly-crafted architecture can and should occur anywhere, anytime and at any budget.

Charles Rose (b. 1960 New York City) is an American architect whose designs are informed by the landscape and distinct characteristics of a building site—whether in rugged coastal settings or dense urban neighborhoods. Rose earned degrees in architecture at Princeton University and Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, studying under such high-profile practitioners as Michael Graves and Rafael Moneo. After Harvard, Rose worked with landscape architect Michael Van Valkenburgh, an experience that influenced his design philosophy of architecture that “sees the site.” He established his practice in Boston in 1989 and in two decades completed more than 50 buildings.

Herman Miller is named after a West Michigan businessman who helped his son-in-law buy the furniture company he worked at in 1923. By the middle of the 20th century, the name Herman Miller had become synonymous with “modern” furniture. Working with legendary designers George Nelson and Charles and Ray Eames, the company produced pieces that would become classics of industrial design. Herman Miller has continued this tradition of working with top designers, including Alexander Girard, Isamu Noguchi, Robert Propst, Bill Stumpf, Don Chadwick, Ayse Birsel, Yves Béhar, and many talented others.

Denver Post fine arts critic Ray Mark Rinaldi is a veteran journalist covering classical music, visual art, opera, dance and more.

DELIGHT in the process. Live in HARMONY. You want something that doesn’t exist - yet. You don’t know quite what it is. I live in this world - in the future - imagining potential moments big and small. How the afternoon sun warms a corner of your room inviting you to cozy up with a book. How you move about with ease and comfort. What frames your view in everyday activities. These moments, when pored over and cultured with intention, create what I call a luxury of the senses. It isn’t about money, brands, or showing off, it is about you and living amongst beauty.

Local Diez Arquitectura is a design, production and assembly office of Ephemeral Architecture projects, founded in 1995 in Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico. It is integrated by architects, industrial designers, carpenters, blacksmiths, electricians, and ceramic coating installers with activities in Monterrey, Mexico City, and Guadalajara. For all of us, the team of Local Diez Arquitectura, avant-garde design focused on the client and its products, is what is important. Being different and creative defines us and give us the elements to understand the links between architecture, marketing, corporate and product communication. For more than 20 years of activity, our team of architects and designers has developed a wide variety of projects that go from stands, showrooms and sale point displays, to corporate interior design and residential architecture. In 2010, we began experimenting with different materials such as ship containers and untreated wood recovered from other projects. The experiment was successfully completed at the Porcelanite Lamosa booth exhibited in Coverings 2010, being awarded the Overall Best in Show and published in the book Stands 10 (Editorial Links, Barcelona) Design development for the ceramic coating industry has been extensive and important, although other industries are also part of our portfolio. Our capacity of design, manufacture and assembly is approximately of 1500 sq m of stands in the same trade fair and we have successfully developed up to 80 ceramic coating showrooms per year. Our main clients are: Lamosa, Porcelanite, Firenze, Verve Ceramics, Ghent, Daltile, Tec de Monterrey, Torrecid, Deacero, Home Depot Mexico, Lowe's México, Rolcar, among others.

Charles Birnbaum is the coordinator of the Historic Landscape Initiative, a program of the National Park Service Heritage Preservation Services Program. Prior to joining the NPS in 1992, he spent a decade in private practice with a focus on landscape preservation. Representative projects include the Emerald Necklace Parks, Boston, MA; Prospect Park, Brooklyn, NY; Lake Washington Boulevard, Seattle, WA; Albemarle Park, Asheville, NC, and, cultural landscape reports for A.J. Downing's Springside and the Vanderbilt Mansion, both National Historic Landmarks.

Charles Gwathmey (1938–2009) received his Master of Architecture degree in 1962 from Yale University, where he won both The William Wirt Winchester Fellowship as the outstanding graduate and a Fulbright Grant. In the decades since, Mr. Gwathmey has been honored with the Brunner Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1970 and elected to the Academy in 1976. In 1983, he won the Medal of Honor from the New York Chapter of the American Institute of Architects and in 1985, he received the first Yale Alumni Arts Award from the Yale School of Architecture. Three years later, the Guild Hall Academy of Arts awarded Mr. Gwathmey its Lifetime Achievement Medal in Visual Arts, followed in 1990 by a Lifetime Achievement Award from the New York State Society of Architects. Mr. Gwathmey has served as President of the Board of Trustees for The Institute of Architecture and Urban Studies and was elected a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects in 1981. From 1965 through 1991, Mr. Gwathmey taught at Pratt Institute, Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, Princeton University, Columbia University, the University of Texas, and the University of California at Los Angeles. He was Davenport Professor (1983 and 1999) and Bishop Professor (1991) at Yale, and the Eliot Noyes Visiting Professor at Harvard University (1985). Mr. Gwathmey was the spring 2005 William A. Bernoudy Resident in Architecture at the American Academy in Rome.