Kalamazoo, MI - Landscape Forms, North America’s largest designer and manufacturer of site furniture, announces a creative collaboration with Robert A.M. Stern Architects, LLP, the New York- based architecture and design practice internationally acclaimed for its residential, commercial and institutional work. The partnership brings together acknowledged leaders in their respective fields who share a commitment to design excellence and quality execution in products and projects for the built environment. In the process it establishes a creative dialogue between an architectural practice known for contemporary interpretation of traditional forms with a manufacturer whose identity is rooted in contemporary design.
Landscape Forms president, Bill Main, explains the value of this partnership: “Robert Stern has an iconic reputation for a kind of design that is different from what we typically do. That has great appeal for me. It challenges us to reach beyond our comfort zone. The firm's work makes reference to historical form and interprets traditional design vocabularies in new ways. That opens opportunities for us within an area of the market where we have not worked before. We believe that clients who value Stern's work have a real appreciation for quality, which is a natural fit with what we do.”
With this collaboration, Landscape Forms joins a select group of licensing partners within the Robert A.M. Stern Collection of interior and exterior furnishings and architectural finishes. Others include architectural glass for Bendheim, carpet for Bentley Prince Street, tile for Crossville, furniture for David Edward, garden ornaments for Haddonstone, lighting for Lightolier, and hardware for S. A. Baxter. Concord, the site furniture under development with Landscape Forms, represents Stern’s first collection of furniture for outdoor use.
Alexander P. Lamis, the managing partner for Robert A.M. Stern Interiors and Robert A.M. Stern Designs, believes the collaboration is a good fit for his firm. He states, “We invest a good deal of time and research in choosing our partners. Each one is a market-leader with a reputation for outstanding design, superb performance, and unparalleled customer service; each shares our commitment to environmental responsibility. Landscape Forms satisfies all these criteria. We have established a very sympathetic working relationship that I'm confident will provide the market with an outstanding collection of site furniture.”
The collaborative process started with design concepts from the Stern office that have been developed and refined with Landscape Forms Director of Design, Arno Yurk, and the Landscape Forms engineering team. “The Concord collection comes out of an approach to design developed over many years, which is informed by and learns from the past, but is contemporary in spirit,” Lamis says. “We have taken something familiar and given it a new twist to satisfy current needs.”
Mr. Stern was involved in all phases of design, from initial concepts to the full size paper models that were built in his studio prior to prototyping. The Stern team reflects the firm’s multidisciplinary structure: in addition to Stern it includes Partner Alexander P. Lamis, industrial designer Nathaniel Pearson, and Michael Weber, Director of the Landscape Design Department. Lamis explains, “There is an underlying philosophy that informs all of our design work. We see the built environment as a totality. We design buildings, landscapes, and interiors, as well as the individual products and objects that furnish them.”
Concord, as the new collection will be named, is a family of six products ranging from benches and litter receptacles to a bike rack and lighting. It will be introduced in January 2011. “The collection has come together beautifully,” says Bill Main. “Stern Architects are experts. We believe this partnership will be important to us in opening a new market as well as producing great design. It will be very good for our growth.”
About Landscape Forms
Since its founding in 1969 Landscape Forms has earned a reputation for excellent design, high quality products and exceptional service. The Landscape Forms U.S. headquarters and manufacturing facility is located in Kalamazoo, Michigan with sales offices throughout North America, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, Japan and Southern Europe. Landscape Forms collaborates with renowned industrial designers and consultancies, landscape architects, and architects to design and develop integrated collections of products that address emerging needs. The company has an installed based of products around the world. Clients include municipalities, transit centers, corporate, college and health care campuses; and familiar brand leaders such as Boeing, Cisco Systems, Disney, Sprint, American Airlines, Herman Miller and Nike. Landscape Forms was recently named by the Wall Street Journal as one of the Top 15 Small Workplaces in the US. www.landscapeforms.com
About Robert A.M. Stern
Distinguished architect Robert A.M. Stern founded his world-renowned architectural practice in 1969. In the tradition of architects from Frank Lloyd Wright to Alvar Aalto, his firm has designed contract and consumer furnishings since the early 1980s. Over our forty-one-year history, we have established an international reputation as a leading design firm with wide experience in residential, commercial, and institutional work. As the practice has diversified, its geographical scope has widened to include current projects in Europe, Asia, South America, and throughout the United States. We maintain an attention to detail and a commitment to design quality which have earned international recognition, numerous awards and citations for design excellence, including National Honor Awards of the American Institute of Architects, and a lengthening list of repeat clients. www.ramsa.com and www.ramscollection.com.
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