Florence Knoll, born in 1917 was a protege of Eero Saarinen, the Finnish American archtiect and industrial designer of the 20^th century, renowned for a design style tempered  to the demands of a project.  After studying architecture at Cranbrook, the Architectural Association in London and the Armour Institute (Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago).  Her career included short assignments working for Walter Gropius, Marcel Breuer and Wallace K. Harrison.

She formed her own business, Knoll Associates, with her husband and design partner, Hans Knoll, in 1946.  Her philosophy and architectural expertise earned her becoming a champion of world-class architects and designers, due to her concept of “total design”, which lives on and is widely used today.  The concept included an embrace of architecture, manufacturing, interior design, textiles, graphics, advertising and presentation along with an application of design principles to solve space problems, which was an entirely different approach during the ‘50s.  The couple built a furniture factory in Pennsylvania, and added dealers of Knoll’s furniture over the next several years.

Knoll oversaw the development of The Planning Unit, intended to blend space and its contents for the modern office space – by creating an inhabitable and responsive environment to every day needs of living and working.  Furniture choices, textured fabrics and a vibrant color palette became what is known as the “Knoll look”:  primary colors used against black, white and beige.  These elements addressed a simple desire for comfort, texture and color.  She and the Planning unit influenced the way the American office environment would begin to look like – departing from traditional heavily carved mahogany furniture with more modern and lighter designs.  Boat-shaped conference tables allowed people to see one another, a more inviting environment for group discussions; in addition, placement of an executive’s desk along straight angles vs. the traditional diagonal fostered a communal, open office space.

The open plan workstations are considered one of her largest contributions to office space design, as the concept offered the advantage of cost and flexibility, vs. individual private offices, a design which continues to be visible today.

Warren Platner, born in 1919 in Baltimore, and graduated from the Cornell University School of Architecture in 1941.  Working for such renowned and bold thinking architects from 1945-1950 such as I.M. Pei and Raymond Loewy formed his modern design bent.  From 1960-1965 he worked in Eero Saarinen’s architecture firm, which involved him working on the designs for the Dulles International Airport in Washington D.C., Lincoln Center’s Repertory Theory and several dormitories at Yale University.  Exposure and experience allowed Platner to open his own firm, Platner  Associates in 1967 in Connecticut.

Platner’s, Knoll “Platner Collection” in the 1960’s still stands as his major furniture contribution to the mid-century landscape.  The series include ottomans, chairs and tables and Platner designed both the structure and the production method.  Some chairs required more than 1,00 welds for the sculptural bases, which were constructed with hundreds of rods.  The upholstered seat was supported by a mesh steel cylinder base, reflecting both interior and exterior space.  Platner wrote, “as a designer, I felt there was room for the kind of decorative, gentle, graceful kind of design that appeared in period style like Louis XV.”  His defined the term “classic” as “something that every time you look at it, you accept it as it is and you see no way of improving it.”  This series of furniture has many times been referred in the same terms.

Among Platner’s major interior and lighting designs are evident in the Georg Jensen Design Center and Water Tower Place in Chicago.  And, another perhaps, even more famous now that it is gone, was the work done for the Windows on the World Restaurant in the World Trade Center, destroyed in the attacks of September 11, 2000.