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The mystery of the baseball glove, solved

Posted 3/18/2010

An iconic feature of the Vanderbilt landscape is the chair which gives the Baseball Glove Lounge in Sarratt Student Center its name.

Countless students have studied, napped, and canoodled in the baseball glove chair without ever knowing that it is a design icon as well.

The chair, designed by Paolo Lomazzi, was created in 1966 by the studio of de Pas, d’Urbino, and Lomazzi. The Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art featured it in a 1972 show about Italian domestic design.

Vanderbilt purchased its edition of the chair as part of the original furnishings installation at Sarratt’s opening in August 1974. The ball glove has made its home in the lounge ever since, having such a presence that the room eventually came to be called after it.

And as if the chair wasn’t legendary enough, this will put it over the top: the design is named ‘Joe’ after Joe DiMaggio.

Contact: Laura Miller, (615) 322-3971

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