Minneapolis-based designer and author Bill Stumpf, founder of the design firm William Stumpf + Associates, envisions a world that combines both civility and design. In a Writer's Reading program cosponsored by the Walker Art Center and AIGA/Minnesota, he reads from his new book The Ice Palace That Melted Away: Restoring Civility and Other Lost Virtues to Everyday Life at 7 pm Tuesday, October 27, in the Walker Auditorium. The book is an anecdotal yet serious-minded look at how advances in technology have affected public life and how that same technology can be used for a more positive effect. A book-signing follows the reading.

In The Ice Palace That Melted Away , Stumpf examines the role of design in such diverse areas as transportation, urban planning, daily life and even law enforcement in a collection of short and sophisticated observations that provoke and invite one to return to a more civilized time or place. Civility, according to Stumpf, "is the something extra -- comfort, hidden goodness, personal worth, helping others, play -- the joy we take in our achievements and the compassion we show toward our all-too-human faults." Among his solutions for enhancing our lives is his redesign of a Boeing 747 that includes replacing stale cabin air and adding "a windowed perch on top of the tail" for stargazers. Reflecting on the importance of play in an adult world, he recalls one of the St. Paul Winter Carnival's magnificent ice palaces, which evoked childlike joy for visitors and a sense of community for those who labored to build it.

Stumpf received a B.F.A. from the University of Illinois and an M.S. in Environmental Design from the University of Wisconsin. He taught design at the University of Wisconsin, the Institute of Design Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, and has been a visiting professor at the Cranbrook Academy and at the University of Cincinnati. A specialist in ergonomics and seating design, he has served as a design research associate and vice president of the Zeeland, Michigan-based Herman Miller, Inc.'s Herman Miller Research Corporation. He founded William Stumpf + Associates Inc. in 1972.


Stump's designs for Herman Miller include the Ergon chair (1976); Ergon 2 chair (1988); Equa chair (1984), with Don Chadwick; Ethospace office interiors (1984), with Jack Kelley; and Aeron chair (1994), with Don Chadwick, included in The Museum of Modern Art's permanent collection. Stumpf's numerous awards and honors include the ASID Award for Ergon seating (1976), ID magazine's Designer of the 70s award (1979), IBD Gold Awards for the Equa chair (1984) and for Ethospace interiors (1985), and Time magazine's Best of the Decade/Design for the Equa chair (1990).

Tickets for Stumpf's Writer's Reading are $6 ($3 Walker and AIGA members) and are available at the Walker box office or by calling (612) 375-7622 (voice); (612) 375-7585 (Telecommunications Device for the Deaf). Patrons with special needs are asked to call two weeks in advance.