: When Florence Knoll Bassett put her hand to American corporate
office design, she turned its world upside down. Gone was the
cluttered and gloomy Dickensian workspace dominated by the
customary massive desks, usually in dark wood, with other equally
heavy pieces lurking in the shadows. In its place she introduced
color, sleek lines and airiness that blended nicely with the
handsome new buildings going up in every city across America.
Long recognized as the prime mover in the development of
corporate modernism, Knoll Bassett has now at 87 won the Collab
Design Excellence Award at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. In
celebration of that honor, the museum has mounted the exhibit
"Florence Knoll Bassett: Defining Modern," which is on view
through April 10.
Knoll Bassett designed the furniture and accessories on view
during the 1940s and 1950s. Then, as now, they were both
revolutionary and classic. She imposed clean lines and wide
planes on furniture using materials not previously seen in
business furniture: chrome, stone, glass, steel and plastic. The
effect was startling and was embraced eagerly by those who
commissioned the new buildings of the post-World War II period.
