In 1980 Lawrence Ryan became president of Knoll International. Author Eric Larrabee interviewed Ryan for Knoll Design who said, “Our greatest strength is taking an idea and creating a discipline which transfers it to manufacture. The decision to bring it in, how that happens is the essential ingredient…We have always been the furniture company that takes risks.”1
To understand this, one must go back to the early 1950s with Knoll’s introduction of Harry Bertoia’s wire mesh furniture. The sculpted seating was a design revelation and a technological challenge to manufacture. The Warren Platner Collection introduced in the mid-1960s was the subject of internal debate at Knoll, but such debates are often present reviewing any piece of furniture design. Both collections have remained in continuous production. There are other such examples in Knoll’s history.
Robert Venturi was a self-proclaimed post-modernist architect and wore the badge of iconoclast proudly. Knowing Knoll’s history well, he felt confident approaching the company in the fall of 1978 with some furniture designs that reflected his view that furniture should not be taken so seriously—that it could be whimsical. This contact led to the Venturi architectural office receiving the commission to design Knoll’s New York showroom in 1980.
This paved the way for Knoll moving forward with Venturi’s furniture designs of molded wood laminations having ornate profiles, intricate cutouts and unconventional color schemes, with names like Chippendale, Queen Anne, and Art Deco. The Venturi Collection of chairs, tables and a grand upholstered sofa, were introduced by Knoll in May19842, and reinforced Knoll’s reputation for risk-taking. Viewing the collection, some were baffled, others incredulous, while others just smiled. Jeff Osborne, Vice President of Design, came to Venturi’s and Knoll’s defense.
“I think it’s important that Knoll shake-up the community,” Osborne wrote, “that looks at us as the classic company upholding the Bauhaus thinking—that was fifty years ago. Venturi and his firm have pioneered some fresh thinking and are at least a reference point to a whole new direction in architecture.”3
The Venturi Collection remained in the Knoll catalog through 19884 but was discontinued by 1990.5
1. Eric Larrabee & Massimo Vignelli. Knoll Design. (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc. Publishers, 1989), 282.
2. “Robert Venturi Collection,” Knoll International Price List, May 1984.
3.”Remembering Jeff Osborne.” https://www.knoll.com/knollnewsdetail/remembering-jeff-osborne.
4. KnollStudio Price List 1988. 58-59, 82-83, 178-179.
5. KnollStudio Price List 1990. The Venturi Collection was not listed.