The story goes: When designer David Rowland brought his idea for a stacking chair with a slim profile to Knoll in 1964, they didn’t want it. Decades of popularity have proven that Rowland’s idea was genius. Called the 40/4 Chair because you can stack 40 of them in 4 feet, the “durable, comfortable, and functional” chair belongs to OSI Furniture. At the company’s 3rd floor showroom at NeoCon09, Regional Sales Manager Nicholas Fiore insisted that OSI didn’t really “have anything new.”

40/4 Chair. Manufactured by OSI Furniture.

We insisted he was wrong out of idealism—and finally got a look at the new bar height and counter height variants of the iconic 40/4 Chair. The bar and counter height 40/4s do stack, though they won’t add up to 40 on a dolly (actual number is to be determined, since the chairs are in fact new). The all-steel chairs come in various finishes, including painted steel, wood, and upholstery. Our favorite is the Demi Glaze, which looks distressed because it is: the chair’s metal gets run over with a grinder. In Copper and Gold, the 40/4 bar height chairs are ideal for commercial clients. In Raspberry and Candy Red, the 40/4 counter height chairs are great for modern kitchen islands. Also new at OSI is the tablet arm, which transforms the distinguished 40/4 Chair into classroom desks. If only the students looked as good.