Totally Tubular

Jen DeRose -- Interior Design, 3/1/2007 12:00:00 AM

As Herman Miller's design director, George Nelson insisted on furniture that is easily manufactured and shipped. Legs should be metal, machine-formed, and pre-finished. Swaging—using pressure to taper and curve a metal tube—proved both the perfect solution and the inspiration for two 1958 pieces. The reissued Nelson Swag Leg chair and desk feature adjustable-glide legs in trademark 16-gauge steel, standing up elegantly to the test of time.

Designed in the age of the typewriter, the plastic-laminate desktop now offers a grommet hole, for cables, and brightly painted dividers—two of them wide enough apart to stow a laptop between. The chair retains its pioneering two-part seat, which improves airflow and promotes flexibility. Nelson approached Charles and Ray Eames to obtain permission to use their patented method of molding plastic; then he produced the seat in fiber-reinforced plastic. The reissue updates his design by substituting recyclable polypropylene.

P.O. Box 302, Zeeland, MI 49464; 616-654-3000; hermanmiller.com. circle 364