Knoll

About

Knoll is an American furniture company that produces office systems, seating, tables, storage, textiles and accessories for workplace, residential and education interiors. It is one of the companies most closely associated with modern furniture in the United States, having produced and licensed many designs linked to the Bauhaus and mid-century modernism. Since 2021 it has operated as a brand within MillerKnoll. The company was founded in New York City in 1938 by Hans Knoll, a German-American from a family of furniture makers. In 1941 the business became the Hans Knoll Furniture Company, working early on with the designer Jens Risom, and it established manufacturing in East Greenville, Pennsylvania. The designer Florence Schust — who married Hans Knoll in 1946 and became Florence Knoll — was central to the company's direction, founding the Knoll Planning Unit in 1945 to design modern interiors and a textiles division in 1947. Knoll is particularly associated with producing modern design classics under licence and in collaboration with leading designers. Its catalogue has long included the Barcelona chair by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, the Womb chair and the Tulip (Pedestal) collection by Eero Saarinen, the Diamond chair by Harry Bertoia, and pieces by Marcel Breuer such as the Wassily chair. Through Florence Knoll's interiors work and these designer relationships, the company helped define the look of the modern American office and home. Over the following decades Knoll expanded into office systems and contract furniture while continuing to produce its design classics through KnollStudio, alongside KnollTextiles and other divisions. The company was publicly traded for much of its later history and grew through acquisitions in the workplace-furniture sector. In 2021 Knoll was acquired by Herman Miller in a transaction valued at about 1.8 billion US dollars, and the combined business was renamed MillerKnoll. Knoll continues as a distinct brand within that group, which also includes Herman Miller, HAY, Muuto and Geiger, among others. Its products are sold to contract and residential markets through dealers, KnollStudio and retail channels, and the company remains a central name in the history of modern furniture.