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PROFILE
Hugh Acton
Still Working after All These Years
By Dan Obermaier

How many iconic furniture designs of the 20th century were built by the designer himself — not simply the prototype, but every example sold? While still a student at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in 1954, Hugh Acton began fabricating his Suspended Beam Bench — still his most famous piece — by hand at home, finally ceasing production in 1968. But in 2006, at the age of 82, he started making the bench again in his barn in Michigan, where he lives with his wife of 56 years, Dorothy, designing, sculpting and competing in triathlons.

Acton still assembles the benches himself, using components made by local suppliers. The reissued bench, in walnut and brass, is available through Design Within Reach. A version in cherry and chrome, with matching cabinets, drawers and shelves, will be retailed nationally in galleries that already represent his sculpture and jewelry.

“I talked to Rob Forbes [the founder] of DWR after a New York Times article came out three years ago, about his moving to a new house,” recalls Acton. “It had a photo of his furniture, and there was the bench. He was quoted saying it was among his favorite pieces. I called him up and thanked him. He said, ‘Why don’t you put that bench back into production?’ Dorothy liked the idea; she said, ‘It will give us something to do in our old age.’”

Recently, he tossed around six-foot-long walnut and brass bench tops as if they were cardboard, hammering their press-fit legs into place with a few blows. “The bench leg casting doesn’t represent technology today,” he admitted. “I have other, newer designs which do that. But with respect to the classic design, it’s a period worth preserving. It fits in more universally, in a wider latitude of settings.”

He set down a rubber mallet and talked about the genesis of the bench, initially a student design, and its sculptural Y-shaped legs. “As a student at Cranbrook,” Acton explained, “I fancied myself a sculptor.” The bench’s wishbone-shaped legs rise up from the floor, then bend and appear to flow through the wood slats. In fact, hidden steel tubes, that snake through the slats and brass spacers, give the bench its structural strength. Such “deception” might seem to violate modern design’s demand for honesty, but Acton disagrees. “The spacers do have a function,” he pointed out, “to position each slat in space. They’re not an illusion; Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101  |  Page 102  |  Page 103  |  Page 104  |  Page 105  |  Page 106  |  Page 107  |  Page 108  |  Page 109  |  Page 110  |  Page 111  |  Page 112  |  Page 113  |  Page 114  |  Page 115  |  Page 116  |  Page 117
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