With the Pedestal Collection, Eero Saarinen resolved theugly, confusing, unrestful worl underneath tables and chairs. The collection is a defining accomplishment of modern design and a timeless addition to your home—a true classic.

Details
  • Category
    Cafe and Restaurant Tables
  • Range
    MillerKnoll
  • Brand
    Knoll
  • Designer
    Eero Saarinen
Specifications

Frame: Base constructed of vertical steel rods welded to circular horizontal and edge-framing rods. Tabletops: Glass: 3/ thick; tempered glass with bevel on underside. Marble: .7 thick; transparent polyester coating with polished or satin finish; beveled edge. Wood: 1.0 thick; veneered medium density fiberboard with cathedral grain pattern; solid wood beveled edge. Wood tops are weighted for stability.

Finish: Nickel and 18k Gold finishes are plated and polished. Metallic bronze finish is a paint. Tabletops: Glass, Marble and Wood.

Detail: Clear plastic extrusion ring on bottom of the base for a smooth bottom surface

Design Story

With the Pedestal Collection, Eero Saarinen vowed to eliminate theslum of leg found under chairs and tables with four legs. He worked first with hundreds of drawings, which were followed by ¼ scale models. Since the compelling idea was to design chairs that looked good in a room, the model furniture was set up in a scaled model room the size of a doll house.

Drawing on his early training as a sculptor, Saarinen refined his design through full scale models, endlessly modifying the shape with clay. “What interests me is when and where to use these structural plastic shapes. Probing even more deeply into different possibilities one finds many different shapes are equally logical—some ugly, some exciting, some earthbound, some soaring. The choices really become a sculptor’s choice.”

Saarinen was assisted by Don Petitt, of Knoll’s Design Development Group, who introduced several ingenious methods of model making. Together with a Knoll design research team, they worked out the problems arising in production. Full scale models became furniture and, with family and friends acting as “guinea pigs,” the furniture was tested in the dining room and living room of the Saarinen house in Bloomfield Hills.

Unison Workspaces
Auckland
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About the
Seller

Unison is recognised as one of New Zealand market’s leading quality providers of interior commercial furniture and lighting.

Our aim is to provide design led, future proofed, quality, commercial products from world renown suppliers; to help customers create healthy, fun, collaborative, flexible and engaging environments.

We aim to help businesses create a workplace which will:

  • Enhance the wellbeing and health of the workforce
  • Attract and retain top employees
  • Enhance collaboration, innovation and productivity
  • Improve bottom line performance

We view the workplace as an “evolution” and never a one-time event, and recognise the importance of offering flexible quality solutions within a range of products and services, allowing our customer’s investment to evolve along with their business strategy.

With over 25 years of experience in the field and access to the world’s leading products, the team behind Unison bring with them the skills, knowledge and passion to help create spaces that drive productivity and long-term value.  Unison works in partnership with you on every aspect of your project from planning through to specifying, delivery and after sales support.

We’ve worked with businesses of all sizes and their A&D firms to understand, plan, design, develop, and build great workplaces.

And we recognise the importance of providing exceptional customer service so at we are focused on operational excellence and an enhanced customer experience.

“Research confirms what we know from common sense: a happy and healthy workplace leads to contented, productive staff, improved attraction and retention, stronger financial performance, faster growth, and an effective competitive edge”.

In Unison with Suppliers

Unison has exclusive distribution agreements in New Zealand with a range of world-leading international furniture manufacturers, so we can provide businesses with the right furnishing solution that best fits their needs.

The team at Unison have many years of experience working with leading suppliers, both locally and internationally.  From international manufacturers such as Herman Miller, Walter Knoll, Palau, Howe, Segis, Billiani and Muuto, through to local custom manufacturing solutions.

These manufacturers specialise in their respective niches and produce the best options available in the market, this includes:

Herman Miller – workstations, ergonomic seating, meeting room tables, classic designs – Eames, Nelson.

Walter Knoll – extensive soft-seating range German designed but manufactured in Australia.

Muuto - affordable luxury - a complete collection of Scandinavian furniture and lighting

Palau – World leading manufacturer of collaborative solutions and acoustic booths..

Howe – famous 40/4 chair and elegant demountable boardroom room tables

Segis and Billiani   – all offer collections of beautifully designed mixed material products for café and contract spaces.