About Scott Jordan Furniture

History of Scott Jordan Furniture

Scott Jordan started a small cabinet shop in 1980 first located on Clark Street between Henry and Hicks Streets in Brooklyn Heights. The focus of the activity at this early stage was recaning and reveaving chair seats, furniture repair and restoration. In 1981 the enterprise moved to a larger space at 444 Atlantic Avenue occupying the ground floor and later the basement of a brick row house. The workshop was in the back and basement with a small showroom space in the front. In 1982 Scott began offering furniture for sale in the from of the shop. At first the tables and chairs designs were influenced by Shaker designs that Scott had seen in museum exhibits. This was a very fresh look at the Shaker legacy and over the first years these designs became increasingly popular. Early on, perhaps in 1983, bed frames were added. These frames were based originally on tradition 19th Century designs. The construction was true to the best 19th Century techniques using bed bolts to join the posts to the rails. This construction technique has remained a hallmark of our work due to its strength and reliability. Another hallmark was a construction geometry the ignored the 'box spring". We recognized at this early stage that the "box spring" was superfluous. A well constructed inner-spring or latex mattress of 8" (or more) could provide sufficient cushioning. Indeed, by this time most mass market mattress makers had already begun calling the "box spring" a "foundation" as they usually contained no springs at all. The workshop grew and prospered always focusing on solid wood residential furniture. By 1986 we had out grown the Atlantic Avenue workshop and separated the workshop from the showroom. We moved to the workshop to a location on Richardson Street in Williamsburg and open two showrooms on Atlantic Avenue, one at 380 and another at 327. In 1998 we mover the workshop again, this time to the Brooklyn Navy Yard, where we remain to this day. In 1991 we opened a showroom at 137 Varick Street, at the corner of Spring Street, in Soho, and have maintained this as well. A major change to our production paradigm came in 1999 with the purchase of computer controlled machinery. The change to computer and numerically controlled machinery (CNC) transformed our business allowing us to make a much broder range of furniture with shortened lead times. We have continued to refine this manufacturing competence. Shortly after enbarking on our CNC endeavor we were invited to visit a factory in Texas that was developing similar techniques in the upholstery business; thus began our close association with American Leather. Over the more than 35 years that we have been in business we have developed relationships wit other manufacturers that make high quality furniture that is in a similar vein as ours or complement our work. Always we seek partners who are committed to quality production, in a ecologically sound manner.

A word from Scott Jordan

From the beginning we decided to make furniture from solid wood using materials that would be safe to the craftspeople as well as our clients. Our designs have been based on contemporary interpretations of vernacular American furniture. It is possible to see the influences of 19th Century Shaker made furniture and Arts and Crafts period. Increasingly designs influences from the mid-20th Century, the designs that I grew up with, are objects of our design focus. Our process embraces sifting of our past to find kernels relevant to today's environment and incorporating these kernels into our manufacturing paradigm. Our manufacturing paradigm has evolved over these 35 years. At first our production techniques were those of the small workshop; table saw, planer, hand tools, etc. This has changed markedly over the 35 years. In the late 1990s we began to implement computer aided design technology, First we began with computer based drafting which was a blossoming new technology at the time. The next step was purchasing and installing computer controlled machinery.By the early 2000s we were on our way to a full CAD/CAM paradigm(computer aided design/computer aided manufacturing). CAD/CAM was our saving grace. With CAD/CAM systems it is possible to change the production model from batches of items made at one time, pretty much all alike to one-at-a time production with a high degree of customization.

Our Design Consultants

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