Magic, Furniture, and Pianos: Dakota Jackson Donates His Archives to NYSID
Renowned furniture designer and entrepreneur Dakota Jackson has donated his archives to the New York School of Interior Design Library and Archives, which will make them available to the public.
NYSID’s acquisition of the archives was serendipitous. Jackson was consolidating his studio and showroom into one space in the D&D Building, when he called Billy Kwan, director of NYSID’s Library and Archives, to offer his vast collection of art and design books. When Kwan visited the Madison Avenue office to inspect the books, he noticed the repository of papers, catalogs, and sketches going into boxes, and asked Jackson if he might be interested in donating them to the New York School of Interior Design for future generations to access. The idea excited Jackson, who first established a commercial market for his high-end sculptural furnishings with interior designers.
Says Jackson, “I have a lifetime of models, catalogs, and sketches, and the thought of putting all of these different components of the development of the company into storage was concerning to me. When Billy brought up the idea of archiving the materials, the idea that the history of the studio would live on was of great interest.” He adds, “The legacy of NYSID matters to me, as does the location in New York. I have given talks at the school and had interns come to my studio from NYSID, and I appreciate its methodology and approach to design. I knew it wouldn't be an archive that would lay dormant, but rather one that students would seek out.”
The First Glimpse Into the Archives
Kwan says, “In Dakota Jackson, we can see a member of the American Art Furniture Movement pivot to industrial design and production relatively early in his career, and with great commercial success.” Jackson, who began his working life as a magician, was a multi-talented member of the Bohemian downtown New York arts scene of the late 1960’s and early 1970s, and established a reputation as a maker of bespoke furniture for New York’s cultural elite, including a desk with concealed compartments commissioned by Yoko Ono as a 34th birthday present for John Lennon (1974), and the Eclipse Bed for Diane von Furstenberg (1978). By the early 1980’s, Jackson had positioned himself as a self-described “industrialist” and manufacturer for the residential market. Says Kwan, “Jackson’s legacy is important, especially to designers interested in creating product lines.”
Library Chair sketches by Dakota Jackson
NYSID’s Archivist and Librarian Nora Reilly has just begun the archival process, which will include creating a complete inventory, housing the materials in acid free containers, creating finding aids and biographical materials, and ultimately digitizing the most important elements of the archive. Reilly does not yet have a complete sense of the contents or the time span of the archive, but she has already unearthed original sketches of Jackson’s now ubiquitous Library Chair (1991); sketches and plans for pianos he designed for Steinway & Sons; and iterations of an Absolut Vodka advertisement titled “Absolut Jackson” that features a version of his famous Saturn Stool (with the iconic vodka bottle in the center). Kwan says it's likely most of the materials date back to the early 1990’s or late 1980’s. NYSID’s archivists will be following the standards of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) and the Society of American Archivists (SAA).
A Sensitivity to Movement & Expression
Dakota Jackson is a third-generation magician and descendant of Jewish Borscht Belt entertainers who began his working life performing illusions everywhere from nightclubs to county fairs. “Magic is a study of even the most subtle movements, and how they are perceived by the audience,” Jackson says. “I grew up in a house where we were surrounded by mirrors, so that I could learn to be very conscious about movements, gestures, and expressions. In the performance of magic, gestures must be constant and fluid, masking the other things that are going on, and creating the illusion of normalcy.” In 1970, he moved to the Lower East Side of Manhattan and began to apply his sensitivity to movement and illusion to dance, performing with avant-garde dance companies that included Trisha Brown Dance Troupe, the Tokyo Kid Brothers, and Laura Dean Dance Troupe.
Jackson discovered his gift for carpentry while building the interior of a loft he had moved into. “I was astonished to discover that I could build anything anyone asked for. . .The materials taught me. I could look at a table or desk and instantly understand the construction, how the materials combined and how the human body moved in relation to a piece of furniture or in space, as in a dance,” he says. His attunement to movement and orientation toward seducing “the audience” permeated his way of seeing, designing, and building. “In the workshop, I always went back to thinking about the human body as a machine. The body, through an array of fundamental motions, is capable of the same precision produced by sophisticated machinery. An aspect of furniture design comes down to observing combinations of very basic movements, as I learned in magic and dance, where the slightest gesture had so much impact.”
Magic is about the portrayal of power, Jackson explains, adding, “From magic, I developed a fascination with the accoutrements of power. As the magician possessed his magic wand and the powers it exuded, I was drawn to the thinking of how a so-called ‘Captain of Industry’ would be captivated by the sophistication and mystery wielded by the ‘power desk.’” Jackson’s fascination with the illusion of power, and his cynicism, at the time, towards the corporate world, manifested itself in the Furniture as Deadly Weapons series (1976-1979), including the T-Bird Desk, B-1 Desk, and F-111 Table, based on jet fighters with their technically sophisticated engineering. Another area of interest in the late 70’s was his preoccupation with perpetual motion as evidenced in the Saturn Stool, and the Self Winding Coffee Table from the New Wonders of the World Collection.
Creating Objects More Ubiquitous than His Brand
Jackson first developed as a designer and craftsman associated with the American Art Furniture Movement, exhibiting in galleries that included Art et Industrie and Gallery 91 in the 1970s, but he gradually and intentionally moved toward industrial design and manufacturing. Connected to many collectors, he restored priceless antiques, including pieces by Pierre Chareau, in his workshop, to finance his creation of two factories in Queens, one that made furniture and another that made pianos. “I had a fantasy of what becoming an industrialist meant, “ he says. “I wanted ideas to create a world: a studio, a factory, a showroom, a community, and a means of making a living for many.”
Catalog page featuring Dakota Jackson’s Library Chair
Jackson launched his first residential collection, “New Classics,” in 1983 and found a primary market for his sleek industrial furnishings with interior designers and architects. “I began to develop a following within the world of interior designers. People like the late designers Michael de Santis and Robert Metzger brought me into this world,” he says. Jackson created and manufactured high-end furnishings that became as recognizable as many celebrities, including the Saturn Stool (1976) and Vik’·ter Chair (1991).
One can find decades of Dakota Jackson catalogs and advertisements in the archives at NYSID. Jackson hopes that what researchers will take away from them is that he allowed the objects to speak for themselves. “In the 1970s and the 80s, with the emergence of Calvin Klein’s name on the back pocket of jeans, there was a change in the way companies positioned themselves, and the marketing became about the brand, specifically the designer’s name, rather than the products,” he says. “I looked at it differently, and my company was, and still is, product-driven. My advice is to develop your craft and discipline, and then your identity will grow.”
The story behind the making of Jackson’s Library Chair (1991-95) encapsulates his obsessive focus on the beauty and functionality of a single object. (Sketches and mechanical drawings of the Library Chair can be found in the archives.) The chair, made of laminated layers of wood veneer, was first specified by the architect James Ingo Freed of Pei Cobb Freed & Partners, for application in their design of the San Francisco Library. “I got it in my head that I would like to make something as ubiquitous and beautiful as the Bank of England Chair,” he says. “I wanted to create a chair that would last 100 years, that would be recognized and used beyond its association with my brand.”
To achieve this, Dakota Jackson’s team turned to Computer Numerical Control (CNC) cutting machinery, and became one of the first independent furniture manufacturers in the United States to acquire the equipment. This technology enabled a complex internal structure featuring compound curves, with hidden tongue-and-groove joints between the seat and back legs that bend in different directions, and arms that are joined to both the back legs and seat back on either side. Jackson had to submit prototypes for institutional testing, from burn tests to crush tests. He says, “Not only did it pass, but it became the standard for institutional chairs.”
The Library Chair is geometric yet sinuous or as Jackson puts it, “a combination of the cerebral and the romantic.” They are specified for university and public libraries across the US and internationally, as well as for residential settings.
Black Diamond piano sketches by by Dakota Jackson
The Collaboration with Steinway & Sons
Among the treasures of the Dakota Jackson archives at NYSID are sketches of some of the rare or one-of-a-kind pianos the designer has created during his long collaboration with Steinway & Sons, including drawings on trace paper of a Black Diamond piano created for Lang Lang.
In the late 1970s, Jackson, who is also a pianist, manufactured pianos and aspired to produce a piano on the level of Steinway & Sons. He hired a veteran foreman from Steinway to help him get his piano factory up and running. So imagine his surprise when, in 1998, he was approached by the marketing department at Steinway to design a piano commemorating the 300th anniversary of the piano, invented by Bartoulomeo Cristofori. The first piano he designed for Steinway was the Tricentennial Piano in 2000, an edition of 300 instruments. In 2014, Jackson went on to design the limited edition Arabesque Piano to commemorate the 160th anniversary of Steinway & Sons. In 2015, Jackson became the Designer in Residence of Steinway, designing one-of-a-kind pianos for private clients. In 2019, he created the Black Diamond Piano, an edition of 96 pianos, as a tribute to the internationally celebrated classical artist Lang Lang.
Applying Magic to His Design of Synagogues
Also included in the archives are materials relating to Jackson’s design of the interiors of three synagogues. In 1994, architect H. Gary Frank commissioned Jackson to design the religious elements for Temple Jeremiah’s new stand-alone building and intimate chapel, adjacent to the existing synagogue. The new building was a gift from Stanley Golder to his wife on their 40th anniversary, as well as to the community of Northfield, Illinois. The focal point of the sanctuary became the arc or Aron Kodesh, a large cabinet that houses the Torahs - the sacred scrolls. Jackson designed an arc seemingly balanced on a single pin in the manner that the musical instrument, the double base, hovers above the ground, giving the illusion of balancing in space. Jackson comments, “It is one’s faith and belief that levitates the arc. I wanted to convey the optimism, joy, and wonder of the Jewish tradition and create an environment a young child would walk into and feel the beauty of growing up within the faith.” The design won an AIA Award for Religious Structures in 1995. Jackson went on to design the sanctuary within the New York headquarters of the Union for Reform Judaism in 2000; and the Aron Kodesh for the new Orthodox-style synagogue called Beth Hadassah for the Persian Jewish community, established in Great Neck, New York, in 2005.
When & How to Access the Dakota Jackson Archives at NYSID
Reilly estimates that portions of the archive will be open for research by fall 2025. To make a request, reach out to Archivist/Librarian Nora Reilly at libraryinfo@nysid.edu or nora.reilly@nysid.edu.
At NYSID, this spectacular collection is complemented by the special collections and archives of a number of important interior designers, artisans, furniture designers, and major design organizations such as CIDQ and IDEC. For more information, explore NYSID’s Archives & Special Collections HERE.