Florence Knoll

FLORENCE KNOLL (born May 24,1917) is an American architect and furniture designer who studied under the likes of Miles van der Rohe and Eliel Saarinen. She was born in Saginaw, Michigan as “Florence Schust”. She graduated from Kingswod School at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan in 1934. In 1943 she joined with her husband Hans Knoll in redirecting Hans’ Furniture company more toward a modernist, Scandinavian style. With her architectural background and design flair, she succeeded. After Han’s death, Florence took over as head of Knoll.
As a pioneer of the Knoll Planning Unit, Florence Knoll created what she modestly called the “fill-in pieces that no one else wants to do”. Florence Knoll herself designed chairs, sofas, tables and casegoods during the 1950’s that remain in the Knoll line to this day.