Florence Knoll

Florence Marguerite Schust was born in Saginaw, Michigan, to Frederick Emanuel (1881–1923) and Mina Matilda (Haist) Schust (1884–1931), and was known in familiar circles as "Shu". Frederick Schust was born about 1882 in either Switzerland or Germany and was a native German speaker. The 1920 United States Federal Census describes him as the superintendent of a commercial bakery. Mina was born about 1887 in Michigan, and her parents had been born in Canada. Florence was orphaned at a young age, her father died when she was 5, her mother died when she was 12. She was placed under the care of Emile Tessin, who had been designated by Mina Schust as Florence's legal guardian in the event of her death. Tessin made arrangements for Florence to attend boarding school. After visiting, she recalled feeling that the Cranbrook educational community was the right place for her. Eliel and Loja Saarinen practically adopted Florence; she spent summers with the family in Finland and befriended their son, Eero Saarinen who even gave her impromptu architectural history lessons. She attended the architecture department at Cranbrook Academy of Art for one year in 1934–35, In 1935, she studied town planning at the School of Architecture at Columbia University. She returned to Michigan in 1936 to undergo surgery and enrolled in the architecture department at Cranbrook again. In 1936-37, she explored furniture-making with Eero Saarinen and Charles Eames. In the summer of 1938 she met Alvar Aalto, who praised Architectural Association in London as a "terrific school," Florence Schust went on to attend it in 1938-1939. In 1940-1941, Florence Schust furthered her architectural educations under leading figures of the Bauhaus movement. In 1940, she moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, and worked briefly as an unpaid apprentice for Walter Gropius and Marcel Breuer. Though her studies had been repeatedly interrupted by ill health and international events, Florence was determined to finish her degree. She enrolled at the Chicago Armour Institute (now the Illinois Institute of Technology) in fall 1940. She went to specifically study under Mies van der Rohe and received a bachelor's degree in architecture in 1941. Knoll's design approach was profoundly influenced by Mies, resulting in clarified designs with rigorous geometries. ==Career==

After graduating, Florence Schust moved to New York in 1941, taking jobs with several New York architects, including Harrison & Abramovitz. "Being a woman, I was given interiors," Florence Schust stated about her time at Harrison & Abramovitz. Knoll Showrooms and retailers expanded internationally, by 1960 the company was doing $15 million of business annually., Florence Knoll took over as president of all three Knoll companies (Knoll Associates, Knoll Textiles, and Knoll International). She sold the companies to Art Metal Construction Company in 1959, though she continued on as president of all three companies until 1960. In 1960, she moved to Florida with her second husband, Harry Hood Bassett. However, she stayed in charge of design for all of Knoll until 1965. The Unit's breakthrough came from designing for the CBS president, Frank Stanton, who had been impressed by the Knoll Showrooms. In 1957, Architectural Forum said "the Knoll interior is as much a symbol of modern architecture as Tiffany glass was a symbol of the architecture of Art Nouveau." Nonetheless, almost half of the furniture pieces in the Knoll collection were her designs including tables, desks, chairs, sofas, benches and stools. She designed furniture not only to be functional but also to designate the functions of interior space as well as relate to the architecture of the space and its overall composition. The distinctive features of Knoll's furniture designs were their sleek silhouettes and clear geometries, reflecting her architectural training and interests. Her furniture was designed with the notion of transforming architecture into furniture, which she achieved by translating the structure and language of the modern building into a human-scaled object. == Professionalization of interior design ==

Before Knoll's influence, interior decoration was mostly a non-professional pursuit, typically practiced by hobbyists. It had previously only been applied to the home; spaces like offices were not typically professionally planned or designed. Knoll saw an opportunity to change that:In those days the boss usually had a decorator. They did his office and maybe some of the other senior executives, but the people further down the line had offices designed by the purchasing agent, who ordered furniture out of a catalog. So when I came along with my questionnaire, I wanted to know what they needed. It was kind of a radical ideal, but it was also logical and obvious.With her Knoll Planning Unit, Knoll radically shifted interior design to be a professional endeavor. Knoll fused decoration with architecture and industrial design and applied it to commercial office space, this fusion has continued to be at the core of modern professional interior design. Knoll was aware of the shift she was creating; in an interview with the New York Times in 1964, Knoll stated, "I am not a decorator... the only place I decorate is my own house." She was frustrated at the title of "interior decorator", especially in its gendered connotation and concomitant lack of status and respect, and was one of the first to differentiate the titles "interior decorator" and "interior designer". She felt that expertise in furniture design and architecture exceed the common skill of an interior decorator. == Awards ==

Florence Knoll received many awards and honors in her lifetime, including the Museum of Modern Art's Good Design Award (1950, 1953), the first award from the American Institute of Decorators (1954), and became the first woman to receive the Gold Medal for Industrial Design from the American Institute of Architects (1961). She went on to earn the International Design Award from the American Institute of Interior Designers (1962), the Total Design Award from the American Society of Interior Designers (1977), and the RISD Athena Award for Creativity and Excellence (1983). In 1985 she was inducted into the Interior Design Hall of Fame and in 2002 President George W. Bush presented her with the nation's highest award for artistic excellence, the National Medal of Arts. She also was awarded honorary doctoral degrees from the University of Vermont (2004), the University of Miami (1995), and the University of Minnesota (2008). == Personal life ==

She married Hans Knoll in 1946; he died in a car crash in 1955. In 1958 she married Harry Hood Bassett, the son of Harry H. Bassett. On January 25, 2019, Florence Marguerite Knoll Bassett died at age 101 in Coral Gables, Florida. ==References==