HANOVER, PA.- Emeco, the Aluminum Chair Company, introduces "20-06", an aluminum chair and stool project by Foster and Partners, the London based architectural design studio. "20-06" recalls Emeco’s classic 10-06 Navy ® Chair – the all-aluminum icon first made for submarines in WWII, while expressing a refined structure and modern inference. Both "20-06" and the classic 10-06 have an estimated 150-year lifespan. "20-06" launches at 100% Design in London, September 18-24, 2006 and has been selected by the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum for its 2006 Triennial.

The sleek new chair features an ultra-slim, all-aluminum frame, tempered for strength and hand made at the historic Hanover Pennsylvania factory using Emeco’s proprietary "77 Step Process". The ergonomically shaped aluminum seat and back are hand welded, resulting in a minimal, seamless appearance. "20-06" is super-strong, yet uses 15% less aluminum than the original Navy ® Chair. Of that metal, 80% is recycled aluminum, qualifying as an environmentally sound product. The lightweight chairs will stack 10 high and retail for US$ 385 –the same as the 10-06 Navy ® Chair. Bar and counter stools will sell for around $ 450. "20-06" passes BIFMA requirements and is guaranteed for life.

Gregg Buchbinder, Emeco’s Chairman, notes, "Norman Foster and his group have fused modernist form with established craft. The Foster Studio combined advanced technology, inventive geometry, attention to detail, and sensitivity to ecological considerations with Emeco’s unique manufacturing process to make a wholly new design. A Foster building and an Emeco chair are both modern in character, yet demonstrate a great respect for the past."

John Small, a partner at the Foster Studio, and lead designer on the "20-06" project said," Working with Gregg and the Emeco team has been fascinating. From our first contact with Emeco, we wanted to create a new chair that would challenge not only Emeco’s materials and processes but also ourselves as designers. The new "20-06" is the result of a genuine collaboration between the Foster Studio and the Emeco Team and will contribute to Emeco's remarkable history.’

Foster and Partners is an international studio for architecture, planning and design led by Lord Foster. Established in 1967, the practice has project offices world wide with its main studio in London. The practice’s work ranges in scale from the largest construction project on the planet, Beijing International airport to its smallest commission, a range of door furniture.

The scope of its work includes master plans for cities, the design of buildings, interior and product design, graphics and exhibitions. These can be found throughout the world, from Britain, Europe and Scandinavia to the United States, Hong Kong, Japan, China, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and Australia.

"Norman Foster is the Mozart of Modernism," wrote Paul Goldberger. Lord Foster became the 21st Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureate in 1999 and was awarded the Praemium Imperiale Award for Architecture in 2002. He has been awarded the American Institute of Architects Gold Medal for Architecture (1994), the Royal Gold Medal for Architecture (1983), and the Gold Medal of the French Academy of Architecture (1991). In 1990, he was granted a Knighthood in the Queen’s Birthday Honours, appointed by the Queen to the Order of Merit in 1997 and in 1999 was honoured with a Life Peerage in the Queen's Birthday Honors List, as Lord Foster of Thames Bank.

Emeco was founded in 1944 to make all-aluminum chairs for the US Navy. Mr. Buchbinder purchased the company in 1998 and began a friendship and association with the renowned French architect, Philippe Starck, creating a series of products that united Emeco's historic manufacturing capabilities with Mr. Starck's classic designs for a new century. In 2000, Mr. Starck's Hudson chair for Emeco won the GOOD DESIGN Award and was inducted into the permanent design collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. In 2004, Emeco collaborated with the American architect Frank Gehry on Superlight, a chair that utilizes aluminum's ability to be both strong and flexible. Mr. Gehry's chair won another GOOD DESIGN award in 2004 and was included in collections at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Pinakothek der Modern in Munich. Most recently, Emeco worked with BMW DesignworksUSA to re-interpret a long-lost Emeco chair from 1951 for the contemporary market. Emeco has made over 1,000,000 Navy chairs since 1944, and now sells its all-aluminum furniture in 50 countries.