Architectural Digest recently ranked the top 15 best designs for university dining halls in the world. Eustis Chair is thrilled (but not surprised) to see many of our clients and chairs featured in their countdown. Architectural Digest is an international authority on design. According to their website, “Architectural Digest is a vibrant monthly celebration of international design talents, innovative homes and products, inspiring decorating ideas, culture, and travel. Launched in 1920 as a California trade quarterly, the magazine evolved over the years, increasing in frequency and broadening in scope until it became the byword for living well.” In all, five Eustis Chair clients made Architectural Digest’s list. Let’s take a look at each of them.
Harvard Annenberg Dining Hall
One of Eustis Chair’s very first independent projects was to manufacture dining hall chairs for Harvard. We made 650 Edison dining hall chairs for Harvard’s Annenberg Dining Hall. The Edison chair is based on a chair design used in Thomas Edison’s lab in 1878. Located in Memorial Hall, this dining hall is full of students utilizing our durable chairs from sun up to sun down. Take a look for yourself in the timelapse video below.
Cornell University: Risley Dining Room
Photo: Jason Koski (UREL). Courtesy of Cornell University.
This dining hall, built in 1913, was first known as the Risley Great Hall. The design inspiration came from the Great Hall at Christ Church in Oxford, England. The Great Hall was used as a set and as inspiration for Hogwarts in the Harry Potter films. It’s no surprise that both the Risley Dining Room and the Christ Church will make you feel like you are stepping directly into a Harry Potter film in real life! Eustis Chair crafted 177 Risley chairs in quarter-sawn white oak for the Risley Dining Room at Cornell. The Risley chair is a traditional chair that looks great in a number of different spaces.
University of Chicago Dining Halls
Photo Courtesy of Bruner/ Cott & Associates
First, Eustis Chair manufactured chairs for the Bartlett Dining Commons at the University of Chicago. The building that now houses the Bartlett Dining Commons was built in 1901 to house university athletics. The school set out to restore the neo-Gothic space, and that’s when Eustis Chair was contacted. In fact, Eustis Chair along with Bruner/ Cott & Associates, the project’s designers, created a brand new chair for this project. We decided to call the chair the Bartlett Hall chair. We manufactured 560 stackable Bartlett Hall chairs in American Ash.
The University of Chicago was so impressed with the Eustis Chair products we manufactured for Bartlett Dining Commons, that they contacted us again. The elegant look and durable nature of Eustis Chair products won them over. In fact, our chairs were able to look great and maintain their quality while being used by thousands of students each week. For our second project, the university needed 325 stacking chairs for the renovation of the dining hall at Burton Judson Courts. We completed those chairs in 209. Truly impressed, the university placed another order for an additional 218 Burton Judson chairs four years later.
Yale University & Cranbrook Academy of Art
Eustis Chair has manufactured a number of dining hall chairs for Yale over the years. In fact, in 2020 alone we manufactured almost 800 chairs for Yale University.
Cranbrook Academy of Art is another Eustis Chair client. However, we did not manufacture the dining hall chairs for the campus.