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The designers Charles and Ray Eames were two of the most important designers of the 20th century, and their legacy of innovative furniture, product, and industrial design continues to have an influence today. Now, the foundation that carries the couple’s torch is planning to open a new museum that explores their work and its enduring impact on the design world. The Eames Institute of Infinite Curiosity just announced the purchase of a disused corporate campus in the San Francisco Bay Area that it will be converting into a large-scale art and design museum. With an adaptive reuse design by the architecture firms EHDD and Herzog & de Meuron, known for its work on the Tate Modern art museum in London and the De Young Museum in San Francisco, the new museum will focus on design through the lens of purpose. The Eames Institute expects to open the museum before 2030. John Cary, president and CEO of the Eames Institute, says the museum is a dream project that’s finally taking form. “When we conceived of the Eames Institute seven years ago, we always wanted to create a very large, high-capacity venue for the community and the public to come and experience art and design in ways that they might not be able to otherwise,” he says. [Photo: courtesy Eames Institute] The Eames Institute is still in the early stages of thinking through the curatorial angle for the museum, but Cary says it will be undeniably Eamesian. “We’re especially inclined toward problem-solving design, the kind of design that actually addresses a need. What we’re really interested in is trying to untangle the process from the product. That’s something that the Eameses did so well.” [Photo: Iwan Baan/courtesy Eames Institute] Known best for iconic furniture pieces like their molded wood lounge chair and ottoman, the Eameses were multihyphenate designers who worked on projects ranging from World War II leg splints to lamps, children’s toys, and educational films. Cary says this range of outputand the emphasis on designing things people neededmakes the Eameses’ work continually relevant. He says the new museum will celebrate this legacy of design work and house the official Eames archive, while also championing newer generations of designers and artists, as well as emerging talents. “We’re interested in really teasing out the life stories of these creatives. What were their trajectories? How did they come to be who they are?” Cary says. [Photo: courtesy Eames Institute] Located about 30 miles north of San Francisco in the city of Novato, the museum project is adapting a 1960s-era corporate campus and distribution center originally designed for the publisher McGraw-Hill, and used most recently by the shoemaker Birkenstock. The 88-acre campus was designed by John Savage Bolles, a modernist architect who designed San Francisco’s Candlestick Park stadium and the IBM campus in San Jose. [Photo: Herzog & de Meuron/courtesy Eames Institute] Despite the Novato campus being mostly a utilitarian warehouse, it jumps out from its freeway-adjacent landscape with a boldly layered shark-tooth roofline in bright white. After Birkenstock left in 2019, it sat unused. “I fell in love with that warehouse, mostly by driving by a lot, then managing to sneak my way in. Authorized, but nonetheless, it wasn’t on the market at that point or anything,” Cary says. “I just am pretty relentless about things.” The campus eventually went up for sale, and Cary says the Eames Institute had to beat out some stiff competition to take it over. They bought the property for $36 million and have been working with Herzog & de Meuron for the past few months to come up with conceptual designs for adapting the warehouse, an adjacent office building, and the site’s vast landscape. [Photo: Iwan Baan/courtesy Eames Institute] Herzog & de Meuron have deep experience creating museum spaces, including the Tate Modern in London and the De Young Museum in San Francisco, and in adaptive reuse. According to Simon Demeuse, partner at Herzog & de Meuron, the firm is “deeply committed to working with existing buildings whenever possible.” Turning a former goods distribution facility into a museum offers the potential to rethink how collections are made accessible to the public, he says, via email. “The Eameses explored the world and their designs in a very open manner, leading to new ways of understanding and seeing their surroundings,” says Demeuse. “This building will allow its stewards and visitors to experience the collections and exhibits in an open manner as well, from many different perspectives and vantage points that can evolve over time.” Despite sitting right next to Highway 101, which expands from four to six lanes across the span of the campus, berms around its edges make the property surprisingly quiet. “That kind of acoustical protection was really, really appealing,” Cary says. [Photo: Iwan Baan/courtesy Eames Institute] It’s a bucolic condition that’s led the Eames Institute and the architects to think about the warehouse building as a kind of indoor-outdoor space. Made up of five long bays that once held canyons of pallets full of schoolbooks and, later, sandals, the warehouse’s edges could feasibly open up wide to allow programming to spill outward. Partly subterranean, the warehouse stays naturally cool, which works well for preserving artwork and archival materials, as well as for handling the region’s hot summers. These conditions all play into the problem-solving ethos of the Eames Institute. Adapting the building to a new use instead of simply building from scratch is squarely on brand. But Cary is cautious to note that this is not a museum about the Eameses, or at least not only that. “We’re really interested in creating a multigenerational offering for a truly multigenerational audience,” he says. “While we will always celebrate the Eameses as the seed of all of this, we have the chance to create an even bigger canvas and to bring others into it.”
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E-Commerce
When theres extra wind or solar power on the grid in the Netherlands, some of it now goes to a new type of battery made from just three components: iron, air, and water. Called an iron-air battery, the technology uses rust from the iron to store energy cheaply. When rust forms, it releases energy. The batteries turn that energy into electrical current. To recharge, they reverse the reaction, using electricity to turn rust back into metal. With cheap, abundant iron as the main component, the batteries have advantages compared to standard lithium-ion. On a megawatt-hour basis, our batteries are 5 to 10 times cheaper than lithium-ion batteries, says Bas Kil, who leads business development at Ore Energy, the Dutch startup that just deployed the new battery in the Netherlands. [Photo: Ore Energy] Because the batteries dont use rare earth minerals, the company also doesn’t have to rely on complex supply chains or worry about tariffs. Another advantage: The new batteries have very low fire risk, unlike lithium-ion batteries. Lithium-ion batteries are being added to the electrical grid at an exponential rate. Still, they work well only for short-term energy storage, covering around four hours (after that they become less efficient and start to degrade). Though their cost has dropped, theyre still relatively expensive. They also degrade more quickly if they have to store power over longer spans. Iron-air batteries, which work more slowly, aren’t a good replacement for short-term storage. But they can easily cover longer periods, up to around 100 hours of storage. “If you look at wind energy, it’s very common for there to be two or three days in a row where there’s a lot of wind production, and then on the other end of the spectrum there might also be two or three days where there’s very little wind production,” says Kil. “To cover these gaps you need longer-duration storage where our battery is very suited.” Other companies are also developing iron-air batteries, including Form Energy in the U.S., which built a large manufacturing plant in a former steel mill and plans to deploy its first pilot project this year. Ore Energy, which spun out of Delft University of Technology in 2023, is moving quickly. The battery that it just deployed, in the city of Delft, is the first of its kind to connect to the grid anywhere in the world, the company says. As Ore Energy studies the battery’s performance, it’s working on plans for its first factory, which will open next year. The team intends to commercialize the product by 2027. It could help the grid continue transitioning to clean powerwithout the need for backup from fossil fuel power plants. The Dutch government aims to have a zero-emission electric grid by 2035. More than half of the country’s electricity already comes from renewables. Right now, the Netherlands has a challenge that’s common in other places with abundant clean power: There’s often so much renewable power available that electricity prices temporarily dip below zero. Some of the power is wasted. Iron-air batteries can store the extra power and then release it later when wind and solar are unavailable. The system also helps avoid the need to overbuild new wind and solar farms, shrinking the overall cost of moving to a clean grid.
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E-Commerce
Walk into a library and youll feel it right away. Its quiet but alive. People are reading, learning, applying for jobs, finding shelter, escaping for a moment into a story. No ones selling anything. Yet the value being created is enormous. In 2022 (the most recent year for which we have data), there were 671 million visits to public libraries in the United Statesthats more than the attendance at all MLB, NFL, and NBA games, plus National Park and theme park visits combined. Despite changes in media habits, younger generations use libraries more than any other cohort (54% of GenZers and millennials in the U.S. reported visiting a physical library in the past year). And thats not counting the millions more who use the myriad digital services public libraries offer. Libraries are not businesses. But they offer a model that many companies would do well to study. Were living in a time of rapid change. Trust in institutions is slipping, and funding is at risk (many U.S. libraries, for example, rely on federal support from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, which is being dismantled). AI is transforming the nature of work. Economic pressure is rising for employees, founders, and leaders alike. Against that backdrop, its tempting to think only in terms of efficiency, cost-cutting, and optimization. But theres a deeper opportunity. What if long-term success is more about building environments where people feel inspired, curious, and connected? Thats what libraries do. And thats what the best organizations of any kind are learning to do, too. Let people dream Libraries dont ask you to justify your interests. You can check out a book on astrophysics or attend a poetry reading. No ones measuring your productivity. The door is open, and the invitation is simple: Explore. Great companies operate with a similar principle. They give people space to think. To chase ideas that might not have an immediate return. Not because it’s soft or unfocused, but because it leads to better breakthroughs. On the way to becoming a company worth more than $2 trillion, Google famously gave employees “20% time,” encouraging them to pursue passion projects without immediate commercial goals. This freedom led directly to innovations like Gmail, Google Maps, and AdSenseproducts that started as dreams and became essential tools for billions. Give people the freedom to wander, and they just might find the next big thing. Focus on more than transactions A library is not about monetization. Yet its value shows up everywhere: literacy rates, employment readiness, civic health. The best organizations understand this. They offer more than a product. They offer meaning, trust, and alignment with peoples values. Patagonia demonstrates this principle powerfully through its environmental activism, which goes far beyond selling outdoor gear. The company’s bold stancesfrom suing the government over environmental policies to donating profits to climate causesmight seem risky from a traditional business perspective. Yet Patagonia’s sales have quadrupled in the past decade to more than $1 billion annually. Patagonias commitment to meaning over pure profit resonates deeply with its community, strengthening brand loyalty and trust. In uncertain times, thats what people hold on to. Support the whole person Libraries recognize that people are more than readers or borrowers. They offer after-school programs for children, job training for adults, and social services for those in need. They understand visitors have complex lives, and that growth rarely follows a single, predictable path. The best organizations understand this, too. Work is not just work. It’s identity. Its purpose. Its how people spend the majority of their waking hours. When leaders recognize that and respond with flexibility, empathy, and real support, the results speak for themselves. People stay longer. They perform better. They build things theyre proud of. In 2012, Adobe replaced cumbersome and bureaucratic annual performance reviews with check-insopen, ongoing, two-way conversations about performance and career growth. This change acknowledged employees as individuals with diverse needs and ambitions, not just as resources to be optimized. The results: Adobe reduced voluntary attrition by more than 30% while saving 80,000 manpower hours previously spent on reviews. By treating employees as whole people with evolving aspirations rather than quarterly performers, Adobe created a system that serves both human development and business outcomes. Healthy people build healthy organizations. Be a platform, not just a point solution The modern library is more than books. It hosts résumé workshops. Offers tax help. Provides warmth in the winter. It meets people where they are. Thats a powerful concept for any organization. Consider Airbnb. What began as a way to find short-term lodging is steadily evolving into something broader: a platform for travel, connection, and cultural exchange. Now the company is expanding from where you stay to how you explore, offering everything from pasta-making in Rome to wildlife walks in Nairobi. Its a bold attempt to transform a transactional service into a layered, participatory ecosystem that reflects the ways travelers want to feel at home in the world. What if you stopped thinking of your offering as a single product or service? What if you thought of it as a foundation people could build from? Libraries remind us that value isnt always immediate or measurable in quarterly reports. But its real. The impact accumulates over time, quietly compounding. The same can be true for any organization willing to think more expansively. Invest in culture. Make room for imagination. Support your people. Serve your community. Not because it looks good, but because it works. Long live the library. And long live the companies that learn from its example.
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E-Commerce
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