Mira Nakashima
Greenrock Ottoman | Set of Four, 2025

Material: American Black Walnut

A set of Greenrock Ottomans by Mira Nakashima which include cushions upholstered with vintage Jack Lenor Larson fabric. The Greenrock Ottoman is an iconic George Nakashima design which came to fruition circa 1973.

“This design was part of a commission Nakashima completed for the Japanese-style residence that Governor and Mrs. Nelson Rockefeller built in the early 1970s in Pocantico Hills, New York. Its name was taken from the name of a Rockefeller family foundation.

The ottoman’s interlocking cradle base relates closely to bases used by Nakashima on case pieces produced during this era. The more pronounced use of interchangeable architectonic devices for support elements in case pieces, tables, and chairs reveals a growing simplicity, an almost reductivist vocabulary, in much of Nakashima’s design work of the 1970s. The reduced differentiation between his designs coincides with an increasing interest in the free edge in tables, case pieces, and chairs. He began to abdicate his role in the design process, in the face of his respect for organic naturalism.

The design of this stool has been catalogued as the last seating piece designed by Nakashima. Increasingly, since the 1970s, his attention has been directed toward working more closely with individual pieces of timber selected for specific designs and less with the creation of new designs. Satisfied with his repertoire of designs generated since the Second World War, Nakashima has moved away from a statement of his own individuality and toward an appreciation for the individuality of the wood” (‘George Nakashima Full Circle’, Derek E. Ostergard, 1989, p.162)