Davis Allen

Davis Allen (July 13, 1916 – May 13, 1999) was an American interior designer and furniture designer. He was noted as a pioneer in the design of interior corporate environments and had a forty-year tenure at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill.

Life and career
Allen was born in Ames, Iowa and then lived in Illinois. He was educated at Brown University, the National Swedish Institute for Building Research, in Stockholm, and then the Yale School of Architecture. He served in the US Army during World War II.

After first working with the architectural firm of Harrison & Abramovitz, he moved to Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) in 1950. He became a partner in 1965, and remained at SOM until his retirement in 1990.

In 1983 he designed the "Andover" chair for Stendig International. After Stendig went out of business, his design was reintroduced in 1993 as the "Exeter" chair by the Knoll furniture company. He also designed furniture for Steelcase, GF, Stow Davis, Bernhardt, and Hickory Business Furniture.

David Rowland, the designer of the 40/4 chair, gives credit to Allen, who "liked the design and immediately" and "put me in touch with GF", the chair's eventual manufacturer.

In 1985, Allen was inducted into the Interior Design Magazine Hall Of Fame.