Steve Chase for George Kasparian Desk Chair w Jack Lenor Larsen Fabric, Signed

Steve Chase lived in and worked out of Palm Springs, California, but he created luxury spaces and furniture for projects that took shape all over the world. A consummate art collector and brilliant interior designer, Chase was involved in every aspect of the rooms he designed and attracted many high-profile clients, including Gerald and Betty Ford, Farrah Fawcett and Gene Hackman.

Chase was born in New Hampshire and attended the Rhode Island School of Design as well as the ArtCenter in Los Angeles. After completing his studies, he joined Arthur Elrod and Associates — a celebrated Palm Springs-based firm that created colorful interiors and furniture for a range of Hollywood stars and more during the height of the mid-century modern era. Chase worked with Elrod for more than a decade before establishing his own business in 1980.

Chase designed his furniture to meet the sensibilities and personalities of his clients, and his work ranged from the traditional to the tastefully unconventional. While he created sculptural brass side tables that boast striking brutalist forms, there were also understated chrome-framed coffee tables with fossil shell tops. For his seating, Chase’s palette ranged from bright pastels to modest earth tones, and his vintage sofas are known for their signature tufted-channel backrests and seats. The plush cushioning was most prevalent in his Monterey seating collection of chairs, sectionals and sofas manufactured by the firm Martin Brattrud Inc., which produced most of Chase's designs during the 1970s and '80s.

Chase supported a number of charitable organizations and strongly advocated for the Desert AIDS Project (DAP), a volunteer-led initiative to combat the HIV epidemic in Coachella Valley. He lent his design talents to improve their office space, and used his influence with celebrities to enlist their help on the project. Chase also joined the Contemporary Art Council Acquisitions Committee at the Palm Springs Art Museum and eventually bequeathed more than 130 works to the institution when he passed away in 1994.

In 1996, the DAP created the annual Steve Chase Humanitarian Awards to honor him. Today he is remembered for his humanitarian giving as often he is for his furniture designs and lively interiors.

On 1stDibs, explore an array of vintage Steve Chase chairs, tables and lighting.

Jack Lenor Larsen was a celebrated American mid-century modern textile designer born in Seattle. He fostered connections throughout the design and architecture industries beginning in 1950, and today, his influential eponymous design company is widely recognized for its muted hand-spun textured textiles. Larsen manufactured fabrics all over the world for more than six decades, using both traditional and modern weaving techniques.

Larsen initially studied in the architecture program at the University of Washington before he quickly realized he was instead interested in furniture design and interiors. He earned his MFA in 1949 from the Cranbrook Academy of Art — the go-to art school for design stars of the mid-20th century. The following year he moved and opened a studio in New York City where he launched his career. 

For one of his first commissions, which was to design curtains for the Lever House — a New York City icon designed by Gordon Bunshaft and Natalie de Blois — Larsen created a linen and gold metal-themed weave to complement the building’s famed glass walls. He designed similarly magnificent textiles for the Phoenix Opera House, the Wolf Trap Theater and more.

Nowhere is Larsen’s profound impact on textile design more evident than at LongHouse Reserve, his house in East Hampton, New York. Modeled after a seventh-century Shinto Shrine, the home and its surrounding sculpture gardens opened to the public in 1992. 

Larsen built LongHouse Reserve in collaboration with Charles Forberg. The property features sliding panels that showcase the revered artisan’s fabrics as well as works by Lucie Rie, Wharton Esherick, and Edward Wormley. The gardens feature sculptures by Willem de Kooning, Sol LeWitt and Yoko Ono.

Larsen had a solo exhibit at the Louvre in 1981. His work is held in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Art Institute of Chicago and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. 

Find vintage Jack Lenor Larsen lounge chairs, sofas, and dining room chairs on 1stDibs.