Florence Knoll^™ Model 33 Sofa

Florence Knoll  1954

With her architect’s eye and keen sense of proportion, Florence Knoll knew that furniture could make daily life a well-designed pleasure. She humbly referred to her contributions to the Knoll furniture catalog as its “meat and potatoes,” but she applied smart style to ergonomic principles so deftly that many decades since its inception, her Model 33 speaks in a contemporary voice.

Florence Knoll’s experience leading the Knoll Planning Unit led to a holistic understanding of interiors and special attention to scale and proportion in her furniture designs. She understood the importance of comfort and pursued it with the same exacting perfectionism that gave all her designs their trademark precision and style.

The Florence Knoll Model 31 and Model 33 were reissued in late 2023, nearly seventy years since their original debut.

Born to a baker, and orphaned at age twelve, Florence Schust grew up Saginaw, Michigan. Schust demonstrated an early interest in architecture and was enrolled at the Kingswood School for Girls, adjacent to the Cranbrook Academy of Art.

While at Kingswood, Florence befriended Eilel Saarinen, whom she would later study under at Cranbrook. Warmly embraced by the Saarinen family, Florence seeded in Michigan the foundations of her incredible design education and pioneering career. Florence went on to study under some of the greatest 20th century architects, including Gropius, Breuer, and Mies. In 1941 Florence moved to New York where she met Hans Knoll who was establishing his furniture company. With Florence’s design skills and Hans’ business acumen and salesmanship, the pair, who married in 1946, grew the nascent company into an international arbiter of style and design. In creating the revolutionary Knoll Planning Unit, Florence Knoll defined the standard for the modern corporate interiors of post-war America.

After the tragic death of Hans Knoll in 1955, Florence Knoll led the company as president through uncertain times. In 1960 she resigned the presidency to focus on directing design and development and, in 1965 after pioneering an industry and defining the landscape and aesthetic of the corporate office, Florence Knoll Bassett (she remarried in 1957) retired from the company. Her contributions to Knoll, and to the rise of modernism in America, are immeasurable.