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58 ART+DECORATION F lorence Knoll, the American architect and furniture designer who turned 100 on May 24, revolutionized the modern office during an era when most women were consigned to the typing pool. Petite and formidable in heels and pencil skirts, Knoll designed open-plan layouts and furniture with sleek silhouettes and geometry, all influences from her Bauhaus training. It was the Mad Men era of the late 1950s and '60s — and Knoll was at its stylish epicenter. Founded in 1941 in East Greenville, Pennsylvania, by Florence's husband Hans Knoll, the legendary furniture company recently reintroduced the Florence Knoll Collection in honor of her centennial. These classics include her relaxed lounge seating, dining tables, Mini desk, and Hairpin stacking tables. All conceived in the '50s and '60s, they join an impressive lineup of furniture Florence produced while at Knoll, much of which is still in production. She is credited with conceiving more than 100 furniture designs herself — roughly more than a third of the company's entire collection — and producing the rest via collaborations and licensing agreements with some of the greatest design minds of the 20th century. A s the creative force behind Knoll, Florence — née Florence Schust — was already a skilled designer and architect when she joined Knoll in 1943; she and Hans married three years later. Shu, as she was known by her colleagues, studied architecture at Cranbrook Academy of Art in Detroit under Eliel Saarinen, where her classmates Charles Eames and Eliel's son, Eero Saarinen, would go on to design many modern classics for Knoll, including Saarinen's enduring Pedestal collection. Mies van der Rohe mentored her while she attended Chicago's Illinois Institute of Technology; the two often met for coffee to discuss the philosophy of architecture and design. He was her greatest influence. "The most important message I got from Mies," she once said, "was the clarification of an idea, bringing things down to the bare bones, and working with just the clearest form of design." Early on, she founded the Knoll Planning Unit, a design group within the company that set the standard for interior space-planning practices, creating acclaimed corporate offices for IBM, CBS, the Rockefeller family, Look magazine, Seagram's, and Connecticut General Life Insurance. She introduced a philosophy of "total design," to the industry — one that viewed architecture, interiors, materials, textiles, colors, furnishings, and even graphics as a whole. Her 1961 Executive collection redefined the traditional office by replacing executives' hulking mahogany desks with simple, elegant tables supported by graceful steel legs; filing and storage were moved to sleek credenzas behind the desk. In 1953, Mies van der Rohe granted the rights to reproduce his Barcelona chair and stool, which is now a signature for the Knoll brand and has never been out of production. The practice of issuing pieces by individual designers and paying them licensing fees was a new idea, but one that eventually became industry standard. When Hans died in 1955, many assumed the company would be sold. Instead, Florence took over as president. In 1957, while working on the interiors for the First National Bank of Miami, she met bank chairman Harry Hood Bassett. They married the following year. After more than 20 years at Knoll, she retired in 1965. In 2002, Florence was awarded a National Medal of Arts by the United States Congress and is living a quiet and secluded life in Miami (Harry Bassett died in 1991). While not much is known about her publicly, there is one enduring certainty: Florence Knoll remains, without a doubt, the single most influential figure in the field of modern design — a living legend. A LIVING LEGEND AS FLORENCE KNOLL TURNS 100, REBECCA SHERMAN LOOKS BACK AT THE LIFE BEHIND THE STORIED KNOLL NAME. Florence Knoll, circa 1945-1950 The Knoll showroom in San Francisco, 1954 Connecticut General offices, 1955