Archinect - News 2024-12-23T11:35:22-05:00 https://archinect.com/news/article/150119008/modern-office-pioneer-florence-knoll-basset-passes-away-at-101 Modern office pioneer Florence Knoll Basset passes away at 101 Mackenzie Goldberg 2019-01-28T14:30:00-05:00 >2024-03-15T01:45:58-04:00 <img src="https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/0e/0ebdd5e6d30e90e552bbe17e094931f5.jpg?fit=crop&auto=compress%2Cformat&enlarge=true&w=1200" border="0" /><p>Last Friday, American designer Florence Knoll Bassett passed away at age 101. A pioneer of midcentury design, Bassett was the creative force behind the legendary furniture company Knoll, where she helped to change the landscape of the modern home and office.</p> <p>A pupil of <a href="https://archinect.com/news/tag/55797/eliel-saarinen" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Eliel Saarinen</a>, <a href="https://archinect.com/news/tag/12264/mies-van-der-rohe" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Mies van der Rohe</a>, and Bauhaus founders <a href="https://archinect.com/news/tag/14374/walter-gropius" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Walter Gropius</a> and <a href="https://archinect.com/news/tag/121640/marcel-breuer" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Marcel Breuer</a>, Bassett was an influential advocate of Modernism's clean, functional forms&mdash;both exhibited in her own work as well as the high-end furniture her company brought into production such as the Diamond Chair, Barcelona Chair and Cyclone Table.</p> <figure><p><a href="https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/04/04467425a7fcff2f4b188876239a7470.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=1028" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><img src="https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/04/04467425a7fcff2f4b188876239a7470.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=514"></a></p><figcaption>Florence Knoll, CBS Building interiors, New York City. Photograph by Robert Damora, 1965 &copy; Damora Archive</figcaption></figure><p>Through her interior services at Knoll Planning Unit, Bassett came to design the corporate headquarters for some of America's largest companies, including CBS, Seagram and IBM. There, Knoll's "total design" philosophy revolutionized the postwar office as she introduced open-plan layouts, crea...</p>