Florence Knoll Basset Fresh Again in Philadelphia

If it were up to her, Florence Knoll Basset might choose to be left out of the limelight but, at least through mid-March,  the private design icon will be the subject of an new exhibit at the Philadelphia Museum of Art entitled "Florence Knoll Bassett: Defining Modern." The exhibit explores her enduring touch on the modern world and especially the modern worker through her innovative designs of the CBS, Seagrams and Look Magazine headquarters in NYC and the Pittsburgh, PA HeinzCo. headquarters. Knoll turned the corner for designers by designing with people at the forefront of her mind--she interviewed the workers who would be spending their days in her interiors and gave them designs that met their needs. It may seem obvious now, but it wasn't always that way.

Very ahead of her time––just like the entire Knoll company actually. Since the 1950s, unlike most companies then and now, Knoll put the designer's name on their production pieces. Hmmm, building brand and name recognition for over 50 years... Could that be part of why the Knoll name and the names of so many of their designers, Mies van der Rohe, Harry Bertoia, Eero Saarinen, continue to live on so successfully?

For all things contemporary, visit Pure Contemporary.