Knoll (company)
Encyclopedia
Knoll is a design firm that produces office systems, seating, files and storage, tables and desks, textiles (KnollTextiles), and accessories for office and for the home. The company also manufactures furniture for the home by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe was a German architect. He is commonly referred to and addressed as Mies, his surname....

, Harry Bertoia
Harry Bertoia
Harry Bertoia , was an Italian-born artist, sculptor, and modern furniture designer....

, Florence Knoll
Florence Knoll
Florence Knoll Bassett is an American architect and furniture designer who studied under Mies van der Rohe and Eliel Saarinen. She was born in Saginaw, Michigan as Florence Schust and is known in familiar circles simply as "Shu"...

 (Florence Schust), Frank Gehry
Frank Gehry
Frank Owen Gehry, is a Canadian American Pritzker Prize-winning architect based in Los Angeles, California.His buildings, including his private residence, have become tourist attractions...

, Maya Lin
Maya Lin
Maya Ying Lin is an American artist who is known for her work in sculpture and landscape art. She is the designer of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.-Personal life:...

 and Eero Saarinen
Eero Saarinen
Eero Saarinen was a Finnish American architect and industrial designer of the 20th century famous for varying his style according to the demands of the project: simple, sweeping, arching structural curves or machine-like rationalism.-Biography:Eero Saarinen shared the same birthday as his father,...

 under the company's KnollStudio division. Over 40 Knoll designs can be found in the permanent design collection of The Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

History

The company was founded in New York City in 1938 by Hans Knoll
Hans Knoll
Hans G. Knoll was a German American who, together with his wife, Florence Knoll, founded Knoll, the well known design company and furniture manufacturer.-Biography:...

. Production facilities were moved to Pennsylvania in 1950. After the death of Hans in 1955, his wife Florence Knoll
Florence Knoll
Florence Knoll Bassett is an American architect and furniture designer who studied under Mies van der Rohe and Eliel Saarinen. She was born in Saginaw, Michigan as Florence Schust and is known in familiar circles simply as "Shu"...

 took over as head of the company. The company is headquartered in East Greenville, Pennsylvania
East Greenville, Pennsylvania
East Greenville is a borough in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 2,951 at the 2010 census.It is part of the Upper Perkiomen School District....

 and has three other major manufacturing sites: Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...

, Grand Rapids
Grand Rapids, Michigan
Grand Rapids is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. The city is located on the Grand River about 40 miles east of Lake Michigan. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 188,040. In 2010, the Grand Rapids metropolitan area had a population of 774,160 and a combined statistical area, Grand...

, and Muskegon
Muskegon, Michigan
Muskegon is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 38,401. The city is the county seat of Muskegon County...

. In addition, the company is listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and trades under the symbol:KNL

Notable products

Many of the company's product are included in museum collections.
  • In 1956 the company commissioned Eero Saarinen to design the Tulip chair
    Tulip chair
    The Tulip chair was designed by Eero Saarinen in 1955 and 1956 for the Knoll company of New York City. It was designed primarily as a chair to match the complementary dining table. The chair has the smooth lines of modernism and was experimental with materials for its time...

     for production.
  • In 1953 the company was accorded exclusive manufacturing and sales rights to Ludwig Mies van der Rohe furniture, including the Barcelona chair
    Barcelona chair
    The Barcelona chair was exclusively designed for the German Pavilion, that country's entry for the International Exposition of 1929, which was hosted by Barcelona, Spain...

     designed for the 1929 Barcelona Pavilion
    Barcelona Pavilion
    The Barcelona Pavilion , designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, was the German Pavilion for the 1929 International Exposition in Barcelona, Spain. This building was used for the official opening of the German section of the exhibition. It was an important building in the history of modern...

    . http://www.knoll.com/products/product.jsp?prod_id=577
  • The company holds production rights to the Wassily Chair
    Wassily Chair
    The Wassily Chair, also known as the Model B3 chair, was designed by Marcel Breuer in 1925-1926 while he was the head of the cabinet-making workshop at the Bauhaus, in Dessau, Germany. Despite popular belief, the chair was not designed for the non-objective painter Wassily Kandinsky, who was...

     by Marcel Breuer
    Marcel Breuer
    Marcel Lajos Breuer , was a Hungarian-born modernist, architect and furniture designer of Jewish descent. One of the masters of Modernism, Breuer displayed interest in modular construction and simple forms.- Life and work :Known to his friends and associates as Lajkó, Breuer studied and taught at...

    .
  • In 1947 Knoll acquired exclusive U.S. production rights of the Hardoy chair ("Buttefly chair") by Jorge Ferrari-Hardoy. Cheaper imitations flooded the market. Knoll took legal action in 1950, in the end losing theír claim of copyright infringement
    Copyright infringement
    Copyright infringement is the unauthorized or prohibited use of works under copyright, infringing the copyright holder's exclusive rights, such as the right to reproduce or perform the copyrighted work, or to make derivative works.- "Piracy" :...

    ; the model was dropped in 1951.

Knoll and the design community

Knoll sponsors exhibitions, scholarships, and other activities related to modern architecture and design.

In 2006, Knoll and the World Monuments Fund
World Monuments Fund
World Monuments Fund is a private, international, non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of historic architecture and cultural heritage sites around the world through fieldwork, advocacy, grantmaking, education, and training....

, a New York-based non-profit organization, launched Modernism at Risk, an advocacy and conservation program. Modernism at Risk encourages innovative design solutions for imperiled Modern buildings, provides funding for conservation projects, and raises awareness of the threats to Modern architecture through exhibitions and lectures. The World Monuments Fund/Knoll Modernism Prize is awarded biennially to a designer or design firm in recognition of projects that preserve Modern landmarks.

In 2008, the first award was given to Winfried Brenne and Franz Jaschke of the firm Brenne Gesellschaft von Architekten. The colleagues received the Knoll Modernism Prize for their restoration of a school in Germany built in 1930. They were presented with the Prize at a dinner with over 70 attendees at the Knoll showroom in New York.

In 2011, Knoll received the prestigious National Design Award for Corporate and Institutional Achievement from the Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum. The award honors excellence in design and the public impact of the Knoll body of work. Past winners include the U.S. Green Building Council, Google, Nike, Aveda, and Apple, with Knoll being the first furniture manufacturer bestowed with this honor.
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