Background
Wallance was born in Queens, New York in 1909. He returned to the United States and worked for his father, who owned a furniture store.
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Donald Wallance
Edit Profilemetalworker furniture and industrial designer
Education
He attended New York University for English literature and graduated in 1930. He visited Northern Europe and studied international style design and architecture. He attended the school until it closed in 1940.
Career
His book, Shaping America"s Products, is described as a "seminal study of the relationship of craftsmanship to industry," by the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum. His work there inspired his interest in designing retail furniture. He started classes at the Design Laboratory School in 1936.
Throughout his education he studied the Bauhaus school.
Foreign one year, starting in 1941, he worked as the technical and design director for the National Youth Administration in Louisiana. He designed mass-produced furniture for servicemen"s families who lived abroad during World World War World War II He also served in the Army Air Corps.
In 1951 he worked for Higher Education Lauffer in 1951. Foreign Lauffer he designed cutlery and tableware, including the flatware set Design One in 1953 and the plastic flatware set, Design Ten, in 1978-1979.
In 1964 he designed the cantilever seating for the Philharmonic Hall at Lincoln Center.
The chairs were made of steel and upholstered polyurethane foam. They were described as "infinitely comfortable," by Winthrop Sargent. He designed hospital furniture for the Hard Manufacturing Company in 1965.
Wallance lived in Croton-on-Hudson, New New York
In 1989, he founded, and until 1989 he served as chairman of the Croton Visual Environmental Board. He died in 1990 at Phelps Memorial Hospital in North Tarrytown, New York of congestive heart failure.
The Design One and Design Ten sets, originally designed for Higher Education Lauffer, are still manufactured today, by the Towle Manufacturing Company. Wallance"s work is held in the collection of the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum.
