As a company that produced many of the most famous and iconic furniture designs of the 20th century, Knoll was a major influence in the rise of modern design in the United States. Led by Florence Knoll, the firm worked with stellar design talents such as Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Eero Saarinen. Their work would help change the face of the American home and office.

The Knoll company was formed in 1938 by the German immigrant Hans Knoll. He first worked with his fellow ex-pat, the Danish designer Jens Risom, who created wood furniture with flowing lines. While Risom served in World War II, Knoll met his future wife, Florence Schust, who had studied and worked with eminent leaders of the Bauhaus design movement, including Mies, Walter Gropius and Marcel Breuer. She won Knoll over with Bauhaus notions of industrial arts, and an aesthetic that featured flat and tubular metal frames and angular forms. When Hans died in a car crash in 1955, Florence Knoll was appointed head of the company. It was as much through her holistic approach to design — a core division of the firm was dedicated to planning office systems — as Knoll’s mid-century modern furnishings themselves that brought about the sleek transformation of the American workplace.

Earlier this month, Herman Miller announced their acquisition of Knoll. We are very excited to see what the combined expertise of Knoll and Herman Miller brands will bring to the future of American furniture design.

Today, classic Knoll furnishings remain staples of modern design collections.  A history of modern design is written in pieces such as Mies’ elegant Barcelona chair, Saarinen’s pedestal Tulip chair, Breuer’s tubular steel Wassily lounge chair and the  grid-patterned Diamond chair by Harry Bertoia. These and other Knoll Studio designs have become timeless emblems of the progressive spirit and sleek sophistication of the best of modernism.