Florence Knoll
Architect
Furniture designer who created minimalist, modern pieces of furniture and had a passing relationship with the Bauhaus movement. Sometimes known by her nickname, Shu.
She was a student at Kingswood School and the Cranbrook Academy of Art before studying architecture at the Illinois Institute of Technology. She convinced her father, Hans Knoll, to bring interior design into his furniture company in 1943.
She designed the Connecticut General Life Insurance building in Bloomfield, Connecticut, as well as the interior for the CBS Building, locating in New York City.
She took over her father's furniture company after his death in a 1955 car accident. She married Harry Hood Bassett in 1958.
She was a fan of Wassily Kandinsky.