{"id":138306,"date":"2026-02-19T02:14:19","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T02:14:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/138306\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T02:14:19","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T02:14:19","slug":"rarify-exhibits-largest-ever-collection-of-som-furniture-in-nyc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/138306\/","title":{"rendered":"Rarify exhibits largest-ever collection of SOM furniture in NYC"},"content":{"rendered":"

Furniture vendor Rarify has exhibited 60 pieces of SOM<\/a> furniture, artifacts and photography across two floors of a New York shop, for the first-ever exhibition devoted to the furniture work of the iconic architecture studio.<\/p>\n

Furniture by SOM: Design 1950\u20131991 displays SOM pieces on plinths throughout the LuisaViaRoma<\/a> shop in SoHo, New York City, coinciding with the city’s fashion week<\/a> to mark “a shared commitment to design innovation, craftsmanship, and quality across architecture, furniture, and fashion”.<\/p>\n

\"RarifyRarify has exhibited the first-ever collection devoted to SOM’s interior design work<\/p>\n

The exhibit spans four decades of SOM interior work by designers such as Gordon Bunshaft<\/a> and interior designer Davis Allen<\/a>, and is accompanied by original architectural photography by Ezra Stoller<\/a> that lines in-store shelving.<\/p>\n

The pieces on display include a rare metal-mesh lounge chair by Allen, upholstered with original Jack Lenor Larsen<\/a> fabric and the striped Italic Desk designed by Bunshaft and SOM, which are showcased on a central plinth.<\/p>\n

Many of the pieces were created custom for the large-scale architectural projects the studio carried out in the 20th century, such as a long stainless steel and leather bench for a 1960s Chase Manhattan Bank project and bespoke side tables for ABC that line one wall.<\/p>\n

\"RarifyA red upholstered chair by Davis Allen sits on a central plinth<\/p>\n

The extensive exhibit comes from Rarify’s own archive of vintage furniture, and according to co-CEO David Rosenwasser, is only a portion of the SOM pieces the vintage furniture collectors have amassed over the years from online sales and auctions.<\/p>\n

“The interest in collecting and researching these works began by encountering furniture by Nicos Zographos nearly a decade ago, when we started acquiring large truckloads full of pieces from office liquidations,” he told Dezeen.<\/p>\n

“The metalwork was done with incredible craftsmanship, which I knew was massively labor-intensive, difficult, and expensive to do well. From that point onward, we started growing the foremost collection of Zographos furniture in the world.”<\/p>\n

\"RarifyOriginal photography by Ezra Stoller accompanied the exhibition<\/p>\n

Rosenwasser told Dezeen he spent over 1,000 hours working with SOM head of product development Satya Cacioppe to examine archival drawings, photography and period magazines to further identify the collection and, as research grew more intensive, eventually began matching pieces to their exact production year and corresponding project.<\/p>\n

For the exhibition, Rosenwasser and co-CEO Jeremy Bilotti selected furniture they felt “most effectively communicated the breadth of SOM’s work”, dividing the collection between more standardised designs and “unusual works” that came from the 1970s and ’80s.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Light\"<\/p>\n

Rarify collaborates with Gantri on “infinitely expandable” 3D-printed light\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

“Roughly half of the collection showcases works that neatly fit into the strictly modernist vocabulary that SOM was developing through a set of standardised rules and details, whereas the other half showcases more unusual works that reflect a more experimental series of ideas and a wider range of designers,” said Rosenwasser.<\/p>\n

Without the archiving effort, he also said most of the pieces, although meticulously constructed, would end up in landfills, as many are unlabelled and unmarked.<\/p>\n

\"RarifyAdditional pieces were displayed on a lower level<\/p>\n

“Sadly, the fate of many of these pieces over decades was likely a landfill,” he said.<\/p>\n

“With this archiving effort, however, the works are well documented enough that it allows for a thorough means of authenticating, aside from the fact that the pieces are constructed like heirloom works.”<\/p>\n

Rarify collects, restores, sells and educates the public on modern furniture. It has a gallery space in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n

It previously collaborated with lighting brand Gantri and Studio Guapo on a 3D-printed light made with USM frames<\/a>.<\/p>\n

SOM continues to make strides in the architecture world, and is working on a skyscraper on the infamous Spire site in Chicago<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The photography is by Matthew Gordon<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Furniture by SOM: Design 1950\u20131991 is on show through April at LuisaViaRoma. For more showcases, talks, and installations in architecture and design visit Dezeen Events Guide<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Furniture vendor Rarify has exhibited 60 pieces of SOM furniture, artifacts and photography across two floors of a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":138307,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[13613,9,24,6231,56,63,65,64,822,25918,49289,820],"class_list":["post-138306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-furniture","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-fashion-week","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-sectionall","tag-sectiondesign","tag-skidmore-owings-merrill","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138306"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138306\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}