This issue of ID Dispatch premiers the Chicago Design History feature, where we'll revisit Chicago's rich design past.

Recent exhibitions and publications about Eva Zeisel and Viktor Schreckengost have shown that some designers create until they reach 100. Chicago-area visionary Henry Glass, even in his 92nd year, couldn't look at or hold an object without thinking about how to improve it. Granted 52 patents during his 70-year career, he designed everything from buildings to birdfeeders. Best known for his multi-functional, space-saving furniture, Henry left a huge body of work that is yet to be fully recognized.

Born in Vienna in 1911, Henry Glass earned his architecture diploma in 1936. Henry's busy practice was halted when he was sent to Nazi concentration camps. Released because of his wife's efforts, the couple fled Europe and arrived in New York in 1939. He soon got a job at Gilbert Rohde's office, where Henry worked on the furniture Rohde was developing for Herman Miller, as well as several pavilions for the New York World's Fair. After Pearl Harbor, design work in New York became scarce, and a job offer at a display company in Chicago brought Henry here in 1942.

Henry soon became a presence in the design community. His work appeared in Architectural Forum, Interiors and many trade publications from the '40s through the '70s. He was President of the Chicago Chapter of the Industrial Designers Institute in 1947, chair of the Chicago Chapter of the American Society of Industrial Design (now IDSA) from 1959 to 1960, and was National Vice-Chair from 1960 to 1962.

In 1946 he opened his own studio and began teaching industrial design at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he served as full professor until the department closed in 1969. He studied at the Armour Institute of Technology under Laszlo Moholy-Nagy and Gyorgy Kepes and with George Fred Keck, who influenced Henry to design his own solar home in Northfield. Built in 1947, this unique structure presented the latest thinking in open floor plan, built-in furnishings and inexpensive materials. He outlined his philosophy of ecologically responsible and innovative design in his 1996 book, The Shape of Manmade Things, illustrated with his distinctive drawings.

Henry's ideas were often ahead of the times. He designed inflatable furniture in the 1930s, innovative production methods for plywood and Masonite furniture during the 1940s war-time materials constraints, a collapsible accordion-folding camper for Alcoa in 1960 and a titanium chair in 2001. In 1941 for Russel Wright's "American Way" program, Henry designed a wrought iron furniture series, the "Hairpin" Group, whose V-shaped legs set a trend for furniture through the Fifties. The colorful 1952 "Swing-line" furniture, (in the permanent collection at the Art Institute of Chicago) featured a wardrobe with doors and swing-out drawers so children could learn how to organize their clothes. The "Cricket" outdoor chair for Brown Jordan in 1978, which folded into a thickness of one inch, won several awards. In the 1990s his work included an elegant piano for Steinway, as well as bathroom accessories and tableware.

He received numerous honors, including decoration by the Republic of Austria, where his work is included in the Museum for Applied Arts. His work has been exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago, has been interpreted in recent publications, and was the subject of a university dissertation in Austria.

Henry managed all the aspects of his business, from client contact to promotion, with flair and precision. He crafted his own scale models to test the mechanisms of his inventive folding furniture. These miniatures have become highly collectible. Architech Gallery represents the estate of Henry Glass, where modernism enthusiasts can acquire drawings and models.

To learn more about the life and work of Henry Glass, visit
www.idsa.org/whatsnew/sections/dh/interviews/glass_henry.html

Vicki Matranga, H/IDSA has been the Design Programs Coordinator for the International Housewares Association for 14 years. She administers the annual student design competition and product Design Awards, and events and displays at the annual Show at McCormick Place such as the Theatre, ColorWatch, Design Defined and DesignALIVE. As a design historian she is involved in research, writing, book editing and museum consultant work. She was a friend to Henry Glass.

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