Designer: Florence Knoll
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Florence Knoll
1917–2019

The guiding light behind Knoll Associates, Florence Knoll was instrumental in the success of the company and revolutionized interior design as we know it today. We are proud to have offered many of Knoll’s own designs, as well as works by designers whom she championed throughout her extraordinary career. Her influence on the world of design cannot be overstated.

No compromise, ever.

Florence Knoll

8 Things to Know About Shu

Affectionately known as Shu to her friends and family, Florence Knoll was born Florence Marguerite Schust on May 24th, 1917.

Her enormous shaggy sheepdog named Cartree was the unofficial Knoll mascot.

Her father Frederick Schust ran a family baking company in Saginaw, Michigan.

She vacationed with the Saarinen family in Helsinki during her summer breaks from school.

Her use of fabric swatches during client presentations became an industry standard.

She organized and color-coded her archives which she then gifted to the Archives of American Art in 2000.

Her request for a chair “like a great big basket of pillows” inspired Eero Saarinen’s iconic Womb chair.

In 2003, President George W. Bush awarded her with the National Medal of Arts, the nation’s highest artistic honor.

Each time I go East I see something you have done. It is always good, and I feel grateful to you for doing such work in a world where mediocrity is the norm.

Charles Eames in a letter to Florence Knoll

The Planning Unit

In 1945, Florence founded The Planning Unit, a division of Knoll dedicated to interior design and rooted firmly in her Modernist ideals. Over the years, The Planning Unit set the standard for postwar corporate interiors and built an impressive client list that included Connecticut General Insurance Company, Cowles Publications, IBM and CBS to name a few. Florence’s Planning Unit solidified Knoll as more than just furniture makers, but also as the visionaries behind some of the most revolutionary interior spaces of the time.

“The Planning Unit began when I joined Hans Knoll at 601 Madison. As the projects grew, three or four designers were hired. In spite of the size of some of the projects like Connecticut General, the group never exceeded six to eight designers. We somehow managed to get the job done and on time. I don’t think I could have worked with a larger group. Peter Andes, a PU member, called it 'Shu U' as other young designers were siphoned off by architectural firms who began to start their own interior design divisions.” Florence Knoll

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Florence Knoll during a Planning Unit meeting

Paste Ups

As part of the planning process, Knoll created paste-ups—fully textural and dimensional renderings of finished interiors that incorporated fabric samples, furniture materials and miniature artworks. These vignettes illustrate Knoll’s discerning eye and acute attention to even the tiniest detail. 

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Paste-up for a Planning Unit project

Florence Knoll 1917–2019

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Florence Knoll (née Florence Schust) was born in Michigan in 1917. As a child, she was enrolled in the Kingswood School, a division of the Cranbrook School of Art. Eliel and Loja Saarinen, parents of architect Eero Saarinen, quickly noted her talents, and she became a close friend of the family often joining them on vacations to their summer home in Finland. In 1935, Knoll studied urban planning at Columbia University and continued her degree at the Architectural Association of London from 1938 to 1939. World War II brought Knoll back to the United States where she finished her degree in architecture at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago studying under Mies van der Rohe. After graduating, Knoll moved to Massachusetts to work in the office of Walter Gropius and Marcel Breuer.

If you would like to learn more about a work by Florence Knoll in your collection, contact one of our specialists today!

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