Florence Knoll

Florence Marguerite Schust was born in Saginaw, Michigan, to Frederick Emanuel (1881–1923) and Mina Matilda (Haist) Schust (1884–1931), and was known in familiar circles as "Shu".

Frederick Schust was born about 1882 in either Switzerland or Germany and was a native German speaker.

Mina was born about 1887 in Michigan, and her parents had been born in Canada.

Knoll was orphaned at a young age, her father died when she was 5, her mother died when she was 12.

She was placed under the care of Emile Tessin, who had been designated by Mina Schust as Knoll's legal guardian in the event of her death.

Tessin made arrangements for Knoll to attend boarding school.

After visiting, Knoll recalled feeling that the Cranbrook educational community was the right place for her.

Florence Marguerite Knoll Bassett ( Schust; May 24, 1917 – January 25, 2019) was an American architect, interior designer, furniture designer, and entrepreneur who has been credited with revolutionizing office design and bringing modernist design to office interiors.

Knoll and her husband, Hans Knoll, built Knoll Associates into a leader in the fields of furniture and interior design.

She worked to professionalize the field of interior design, fighting against gendered stereotypes of the decorator.

She is known for her open office designs, populated with modernist furniture and organized rationally for the needs of office workers.

Her modernist aesthetic was known for clean lines and clear geometries that were humanized with textures, organic shapes, and colour.

The 1920 United States Federal Census describes him as the superintendent of a commercial bakery.

Between 1932 and 1934, Knoll attended Kingswood School Cranbrook, a girls' school at the Cranbrook Educational Community in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.

There she was mentored by Rachel de Wolfe Raseman, the art director at Kingswood.

Together they designed a home which integrated interior and exterior, sparking her interest in architecture and bringing her to the attention of Eliel Saarinen, the Cranbrook Academy of Art President.

Eliel and Loja Saarinen practically adopted Knoll; she spent summers with the family in Finland and befriended their son, Eero Saarinen who even gave her impromptu architectural history lessons.

She attended the architecture department at Cranbrook Academy of Art for one year in 1934–35, In 1935, she studied town planning at the School of Architecture at Columbia University.

She returned to Michigan in 1936 to undergo surgery and enrolled in the architecture department at Cranbrook again.

In 1936-37, she explored furniture-making with Eero Saarinen and Charles Eames.

In the summer of 1938 she met Alvar Aalto, who praised Architectural Association in London as a "terrific school," Knoll went on to attend it in 1938-1939.

There she enjoyed the focus on studio work and was influenced by Le Corbusier's International style.

She left as World War II was spreading.

In 1940-1941, Knoll furthered her architectural educations under leading figures of the Bauhaus movement.

In 1940, she moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, and worked briefly as an unpaid apprentice for Walter Gropius and Marcel Breuer.

Though her studies had been repeatedly interrupted by ill health and international events, Knoll was determined to finish her degree.

She enrolled at the Chicago Armour Institute (now the Illinois Institute of Technology) in fall 1940.

She went to specifically study under Mies van der Rohe and received a bachelor's degree in architecture in 1941.

Knoll's design approach was profoundly influenced by Mies, resulting in clarified designs with rigorous geometries.

After graduating, Knoll moved to New York in 1941, taking jobs with several New York architects, including Harrison & Abramovitz.

"Being a woman, I was given interiors," Knoll stated about her time at Harrison & Abramovitz.

While there, she worked with Hans Knoll to design an office for Harry Stimson.

Afterwards she continued the partnership, moonlighting as a designer for the Hans G. Knoll Furniture Company, which included designing their showroom.

In 1943, she joined the Hans Knoll's company and founded their interior design service, the Knoll Planning Unit.

She and Hans Knoll were married in 1946, when she became a full business partner and the company became known Knoll Associates, Inc.

The pairing led to success as Florence Knoll helped Hans Knoll turn what was a small furniture company into an international powerhouse.

Florence Knoll was the design force and Hans Knoll was entrepreneurial and charismatic.

A new furniture factory was established in East Greenville, Pennsylvania, and dealers of Knoll's furniture were carefully added over the next several years.

Knoll Showrooms and retailers expanded internationally, by 1960 the company was doing $15 million dollars of business annually.

The Knoll showrooms embodied their humanized modern designs, showing customers how to use their new furniture.