Dartblog

Anyone who has worked in a commercial setting knows that furniture with fabric upholstery has a tough time dealing with coffee stains. So why does the furniture — or almost all of the furniture — in Jim Kim’s re-conception of the Baker catalog corridor have expensive, wool fabric on it?

I can just see the dynamic now. The glib President suggests living room furniture for that cozy look. The staffers shift uncomfortably; they know the problem, but they don’t want to say anything contrary to the wishes of the top guy. As a result, the College buys expensive, fabric covered furniture. And a year later, it is spotted, stained and unusable.

So we change to leather chairs and couches, which we should have had in the first place. Do those green armchairs above look out of place to you? In another year, all the chairs in Baker will be of green leather, and the scuffed and discolored fabric ones, expensive as they are, will be sitting somewhere in a dead-storage warehouse.

And so it goes.