LongHouse Reserve

Jack Lenor Larsen founded the firm that bears his name in 1952. Over the past five decades, Larsen the Company has grown steadily to become a dominant resource for signature fabrics.

The "Larsen Look" which began with Mr. Larsen's own award-winning hand-woven fabrics of natural yarns in random repeats has evolved to become synonymous with 20th century design at its pinnacle.

Known as an innovator, Larsen has won many awards and is one of four Americans ever to be honored with an exhibition at the Palais du Louvre.

The merger between Larsen and Cowtan & Tout, the USA subsidiary of Colefax and Fowler Group Plc., took place in 1998. For five years Jack Larsen was a design consultant to the group and played a key role in the development of new designs.

More than a weaver, Mr. Larsen is a scholar, world traveler, and an authority on traditional and contemporary crafts. His home, LongHouse, located on 16 acres in East Hampton, NY, was built as a case study to exemplify a creative approach to contemporary life-style. He believes visitors experiencing art in living spaces have a unique learning experience--more meaningful than the best media.

Inspired by the famous Japanese shrine at Ise, LongHouse contains 13,000 square feet, 18 spaces on four levels. The gardens present the designed landscape as an art form in its own right.

The grounds also offer a diversity of sites for the preservation of multifarious species where they can flourish for generations to come.

Mr. Larsen's most recent book, Jack Lenor Larsen: A Weaver's Memoir, was published by Harry N. Abrams in the fall of 1998 and reprinted in 2002.

Interview with Jack Larsen by Patricia Malarcher of Surface Design Journal

To view some of the magazine articles written about LongHouse Reserve and Jack Larsen please click on the links below. (To view the files you will need a free Adobe Reader)

1927	Born to Norsk-Canadian parents in Seattle, WA

1945	Enrolled at school of architecture, University of Washington
1946/47	Studied furniture design, started to weave. Moved to Los Angeles to concentrate on fabric
1949	Returned to Seattle to study ancient Peruvian fabrics; opened studio
1950/51	Cranbrook Academy of Art (Michigan), Master of Fine Arts degree; Opened New York City studio
1957/60/64	Reported the Trienale di Milano for Interiors Magazine
1958-60	Consultant to the State Department for grass weaving projects in Taiwan and Vietnam; visited Southeast Asia
1960-62	Co-Director, Fabric Design Department, Philadelphia College of Art, Pennsylvania
1962	Designer and director of traveling exhibition, Fabrics International: Visited West Africa, Morocco, and the Transvaal
1964	Design Director and U.S. Commissioner, XIII Trienale di Milano
1965	Completed Round House at East Hampton, New York
1966-67	Vice President, Architectural League of New York
1968-69	Co-curator, "Wall Hangings," The Museum of Modern Art, New York
1974	Designed "Visiona IV" exhibition, Frankfurt, for Bayer Ag
1975	Artist-in-Residence, Royal College of Art, London
1976-81	Chairman, Haystack Mountain School of Crafts; Honorary Chair from 1981.
1977	Curator, "Wall Hangings-The New Classicism," The Museum of Modern Art, NY
1979-80	Retrospective, Musée des Arts Decoratifs, Palais du Louvre
1981	Co-director, "The Art Fabric: Mainstream" traveling exhibition opening at the San Francisco Museum of Art
1981-89	President, American Craft Council, Emeritus, from 1990.
1983-84	Editor, "Design Since 1945," Philadelphia Museum of Art
1986-89	Curator, "Interlacing: The Elemental Fabric" opening at The Textile Museum, Washington, DC
1986-91	Curator, "Splendid Forms" at Bellas Artes Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
1988	Curator, "The Tactile Vessel: New Basket Forms," Erie Art Museum, Erie, PA
1991	Established the LongHouse Foundation, East Hampton, NY
2001-02	Retrospective Exhibit, "Jack Lenor Larsen: The Man and the Cloth", Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, MN. Other venues: American Textile History Museum, Lowell, MA, The Mingei International Museum, San Diego, CA

1951	Opened New York City studio
1952	Commission: draperies for Lever House lobby, America's first major post- war high-rise tower.
1953	Established Jack Lenor Larsen incorporated. Began power weaving "hand-woven" fabrics such as "Granite" using many yarns and random repeat that became a Larsen style and a widespread market influence
1954	Started the Larsen handprint collection and handspun and hand-woven upholsteries in Haiti and Morocco
1958	With Win Anderson, initiated Larsen Design Studio
1958	Designed and produced for Pan Am the first fabrics for jet airliners
1959	First printed velvet upholstery fabrics
1961	Designed and produced first stretch upholstery
1963	Opened Jack Lenor Larsen International in Zurich
1965	Designed Fine Arts Collection of towels, sheets, and blankets for J.P. Stevens
1966	Fabric wall panels for the First Unitarian Church of Rochester. Commissioned by Louis Kahn.
1969	Designed first fabrics for 747 jets for Pan Am and Braniff
1971	Filene Center act curtain, Wolf Trap Farm. Commissioned by MacFayden & Knowles.
1972	Acquired Thaibok Fabrics Ltd.
1973	Established Larsen Carpet and Larsen Leather
1974	Silk hangings, Sears Bank & Trust, commissioned by Bruce Graham Graham of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (Chicago)
1976	Established Larsen Furniture division
1978	Act curtain, St. Charles Cultural Center, commissioned by Powell/ Kleinschmidt
1980	Designed porcelain tableware for Dansk International
1982	Designed upholstery collections for Cassina and Vescom
1985	Designed Terra Nova Collection for Mikasa, Martex, et al.
1992	Carpet, wall and window fabrics, leather upholstery for Trustees Dining Room, Metropolitan Museum of Art
1997	Larsen Inc. merges with Cowtan & Tout, the US Subsidiary of Colefax and Fowler, UK

PUBLICATIONS

1967	Elements of Weaving, with Azalea Thorpe, Doubleday & Co., NY
1971	The Dyer's Art: Ikat, Batik, Plangi, with Dr. Alfred Buhler and Bronwen and Garrett Solyom, Van Nostrand Reinhold, NY
1972	Beyond Craft: The Art Fabric, with Mildred Constantine, Van Nostrand Reinhold, NY
1975	Fabric for Interiors, with Jeanne Weeks, Van Nostrand Reinhold, NY
1981	The Art Fabric: Mainstream, with Mildred Constantine, Van Nostrand Reinhold, NY
1986	Interlacing: The Elemental Fabric, with Betty Freudenheim, Kodansha Int'l. USA, NY
1989	Material Wealth: Living with Luxurious Fabrics, Abbeville Press, U.S., Thames and Hudson, UK
1989	The Tactile Vessel: New Basket Forms, Erie Art Museum, PA
1998	A Weaver's Memoir, Harry N. Abrams, NY
2004	Jack Lenor Larsen: Creator & Collector exhibition catalog - By David McFadden, Lotus Stack, Mildred Friedman / Merrell Publishers.

The Museum of Modern Art, New York
Victoria & Albert Museum, London
Stedelikj Museum of Art, Amsterdam
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
The Art Institute of Chicago
Philadelphia Museum of Art
Archives of American Art, Washington, DC
Museum Bellerive, Zurich
Kunstindustrietmuseum, Copenhagen
Cooper-Hewitt Museum, New York
Fashion Institute of Technology, New York
Royal Scottish Museum, Edinburgh
Musée des Arts Decoratifs, Paris/Lausanne/Montreal
The Israel Museum, Jerusalem
Minneapolis Museum of Art, Minneapolis
Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore

Excellence

1964	Gold Medal XIII Trienale di Milano
1968	Gold Medal, American Institute of Architects
1971	Elsie DeWolfe Award, American Institute of Interior Designers
1978	Honorary Fellow ASID; Elliot Noyes Fellow, Aspen International Design Conference; Fellow, American Craft Council
1980	Affiliate Professor, University of Washington
1981	Doctor of Fine Arts - Honorus Causa, Parsons School of Design, New School of Social Research, New York
1982	Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence
1983	Honorary RDI (Royal Designer for Industry), Royal Society of Arts, London
1984	Neiman-Marcus Award for Distinguished Service in the Field of Fashion
1985	National Home Furnishings League "Wise Owl" Award
1988	IFDA "Trailblazer" Award
1989	Design & Art Society, Edith Warton Award for
1990	Interior Product Designers "Fellowship of Excellence" Award
1991	Collab Award for Excellence in Design, Philadelphia Museum of Art
1992	Color Marketing Group, Dimmick Award; Roscoe Award, Interior Design Magazine; Founder's Medal, Cranbrook Academy of Art
1993	Brooklyn Museum Design Award for Lifetime Achievement; Interior Designers for Legislation in New York (IDLNY) "Distinguished Achievement" Award
1994	Interior Design Magazine Roscoe Awards: Product of the Year; Best Residential Woven Fabrics - Fielding'
1995	IIDA APEX Award; Textiles Category - Jacob's Ladder
1996	Good Design Awards; Chicago Athenaeum - Award
1996	ID Magazine; Best Product Award
1996	American Craft Council; Gold Medal Award
1996	Textile Design Institute Medal
1999	World Design Award: Interior Design Magazine Hall of Fame Award
2000	Lifetime Achievement Award, American Crafts Museum
2001	Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts, New York School of Interior Design
2003	Aid To Artisans Award For Innovation in Craft
2003	Royal College of Art Honorary Doctorate
2003	Russell Wright Award
2003	Rhode Island School of Design Career Excellence Award
2004	Cranbrook Academy of Art Founders Award
2005	University of Washington Alumnus Award
2005	The Textile Museum - George Hewitt Meyers Award

Order the Book

World-renowned textile designer and weaver Jack Lenor Larsen reflects on his extraordinary life and career in this beautifully illustrated memoir. A graduate of the Cranbrook Academy of Art, Larsen founded his own textile design company in 1953.

Today, the Larsen name is synonymous with exquisite woven fabrics, epitomizing the point at which modernism, craft, and technology intersect.

The entertaining account is a window into the postwar design scene in America, in which Larsen recalls in wry detail his numerous clients and famous collaborators, among them architects Edward Larabee Barnes, Louis Kahn, and I.M. Pei.

Trained as a weaver, Larsen is not only an innovative textile artist but also an accomplished gardener and garden designer, a tireless traveler, a patron of younger artists, and an avid and astute collector and supporter of traditional and contemporary crafts.

The illustrations feature Larsen's incomparable fabrics; photographs of his commissions, homes and superb collections; and snapshots of friends, clients, and mentors.