Florence Knoll
Florence Knoll
USA, 1917
Born Florence Schust in 1917, and orphaned at age 12, Knoll began her architectural studies at the Kingswood School in Michigan and was virtually adopted by the family of Eliel Saarinen. She continued her studies at Cranbook Academy of Art, the Architectural Association in London, and the Illinois Institute of Technology under Mies van der Rohe, where she received her architectural degree. In 1946, she married Hans Knoll, owner of the Hans G. Knoll Furniture Company and the firm became known as Knoll Associates, Inc.
As an architect, interior space planner, and furniture designer, Florence Knoll defined the look and market for modern design in corporate America in the 1950s and made modern American design an international style. Her pioneering interiors profoundly influenced post-World War II design. Her reductive aesthetic of light, open spaces furnished with elegant woven fabrics, furniture grouped for informal conversation and brightly colored wall panels made Knoll one of the most influential design firms of the time.
Her notable planning projects for the firm included the interior design of the CBS, Seagrams, and Look magazine offices in New York City. After her husband’s death, Florence served as president and continued as design director of the company until 1965 when she resigned to pursue a career as a freelance designer.
Florence Knoll
Florence Schust was born in Saginaw, Michigan in 1917 and orphaned at twelve. She studied at the Kingswood School adjacent to the Cranbrook Academy, where she came under the influence of Eliel Saarinen and befriended his son Eero. With recommendations from Eliel Saarinen and Alvar Aalto, she went on to study with Walter Gropius and Marcel Breuer in Cambridge, and then with Ludwig Mies van der Rohe at the Illinois Institute of Technology.
In 1941 she moved to New York and met Hans Knoll, who was building his furniture company. They married in 1946 and together built Knoll into an international design presence. Florence created the Knoll Planning Unit, which brought modern space planning to corporate office interiors, working for clients including IBM, General Motors, and CBS. She coordinated furniture, textiles, and spatial planning as a coherent system rather than treating them separately.
Florence also designed furniture, which she described as the "meat and potatoes" of the catalog. Her lounge chairs, sofas, benches, desks, and credenzas are formally restrained and architecturally proportioned, shaped by the same discipline she applied to interior planning. After Hans Knoll's death in 1955, she led the company as president before retiring from Knoll in 1965. She lived to 101.
GRShop is an authorized Knoll retailer in Canada. Shop Florence Knoll furniture at GRShop, including lounge seating, desks, and credenzas. Delivery across Canada.