Florence Knoll

Born to a baker and orphaned at the age of twelve, Florence Schust grew up in Saginaw, Michigan. Schust showed an early interest in architecture and enrolled at the Kingswood School for Girls, adjacent to the Cranbrook Academy of Art. While at Kingswood, Florence befriended Eilel Saarinen, with whom she would later study at Cranbrook. Warmly embraced by the Saarinen family, Florence laid the foundations of her incredible design education and pioneering career in Michigan. Florence continued to study under some of the greatest architects of the 20th century, including Gropius, Breuer and Mies. In 1941 Florence moved to New York where she met Hans Knoll who was establishing his furniture company. With Florence's design skills and Hans' business acumen and salesmanship, the pair, who married in 1946, grew the nascent company into an international arbiter of style and design. In creating the revolutionary Knoll Planning Unit, Florence Knoll set the standard for modern corporate interiors in post-war America. After the tragic death of Hans Knoll in 1955, Florence Knoll led the company as president in uncertain times. In 1960 she resigned as president to focus on directing design and development, and in 1965 after pioneering an industry and defining the landscape and aesthetics of the corporate office, Florence Knoll Bassett (she remarried in 1957) retired from the company. Her contributions to Knoll and to the rise of modernism in America are immeasurable.