A new home for the legacy of Charles and Ray Eames is taking shape in Northern California, and its funding is now part of the conversation. According to a report by SFGATE, the Eames Institute of Infinite Curiosity received more than $25 million in initial support from Joe Gebbia, the Airbnb cofounder who later turned to politics.
A design campus on a former shoe headquarters
The institute plans to take over the former campus of the Birkenstock shoe company in Marin County, north of San Francisco. The building design comes from the Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron, and the landscape from Field Operations, the firm behind New York’s High Line. The aim is a place where the Eameses’ furniture, films, toys and ideas can be studied and experienced, in keeping with the couple’s belief that design is a way of thinking rather than a style.
Few designers are as widely loved. The moulded plywood and fibreglass chairs, the lounge chair and ottoman, the film “Powers of Ten” and the colourful “House of Cards” are all part of everyday visual culture. A dedicated museum on the West Coast, where the couple lived and worked, has long seemed overdue.
Where the money comes from
The institute raised more than $165 million in contributions between 2021 and 2024, with Gebbia’s $25 million as an anchor gift, according to figures first cited by the North Bay Business Journal. Gebbia, who became a billionaire after cofounding Airbnb in 2007 and now sits on Tesla’s board, joined Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency last year. President Donald Trump later named him chief design officer of the United States, tasked with redesigning government websites. Airbnb has since distanced itself from its cofounder.
Asked about the connection, Eames Institute president and CEO John Cary told SFGATE that donors have no outside influence on the institution. “Joe’s views are his own and do not reflect the Eames Institute,” he said.
The bigger picture
The debate is familiar from other museums: big projects depend on big donors, and donors bring their own public profiles. For now the plans themselves are unchanged. Whether visitors will think about the funding once they sit in an Eames chair in Marin is another question, but the report makes sure the question is on the table.