Essential Design 
9 January 2025
Essential Design 
211

Warren Platner

Chair, model 1705 and ottoman, model 1709

Knoll International
USA, 1966 / 1972
upholstery, chrome-plated steel chair: 38¾ h × 40 w × 34 d in (98 × 102 × 86 cm) ottoman: 14 h × 25½ dia in (36 × 65 cm)
estimate: $2,500–3,500
result: $3,432
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Decal manufacturer's label to underside of cushion to each example ‘Knoll International 320 Park Avenue. New York, N.Y. 10022’. Upholstery distributor's label to underside of cushion to each example ‘Distributed by Knoll International, Inc. Aug 24 1972’.
literature: Knoll Design, Larrabee and Vignelli, ppg. 160-161 Knoll: A Modernist Universe, Lutz, ppg. 74-75, 166-167

This work will ship from Lambertville, New Jersey.

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A classic design is something that every time you look at it, you accept it as it is and you see no way of improving it.

Warren Platner

Warren Platner 1919–2006

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Warren Platner (1919—2006) was an American architect and interior designer whose seminal furniture collection produced by Knoll International remains an icon of 1960s modernism today. In 1941, Platner graduated with a degree in architecture from Cornell and soon went to work for the renowned Raymond Loewy and I.M. Pei between 1945—1950 later earning the Rome Prize in architecture in 1955.

While working in the office of Eero Saarinen during the mid-1960s, he released a collection of chairs, ottomans, and tables that has been in continuous production by Knoll ever since. The collection is both elegant and understated consisting of steel wire furniture that rests on a sculptural base of nickel-plated steel rods. The following year he opened his firm Warren Platner Associates later designing the highly regarded interiors of the Ford Foundation headquarters in 1967, Georg Jensen Design Center in 1968, and the glamorous Windows on the World restaurant of the World Trade Center, New York in 1976.

Auction Results Warren Platner

Warren Platner

executive desk

estimate: $7,000–9,000

result: $36,250

Warren Platner

Dining set

estimate: $7,000–9,000

result: $31,200

Warren Platner

dining table, model #3716T and six dining chairs, model #1725A

estimate: $7,000–9,000

result: $22,800

Warren Platner

Executive desk

estimate: $10,000–15,000

result: $21,250

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