MILAN — Far from the global design circuit calendar, the shores of Lake Michigan and Lake Macatawa have been a heartland for upscale American design, from which the nation’s design legacy has been nurtured and shaped. Now, Zeeland, Mich.-based furniture maker MillerKnoll has pioneered a home for this rich history. On Thursday, the American furniture maker cut the ribbon on a 12,000-square-foot archive space located at its Michigan Design Yard Headquarters in the city of Holland, bringing to the fore a new space that celebrates American midcentury design.
MillerKnoll, which came to be after fellow U.S. heritage brand Herman Miller bought Knoll in 2021, owns the rich history of two key brands to which some of the most visionary midcentury modern and contemporary designers have contributed. MillerKnoll’s portfolio also includes Design Within Reach, Holly Hunt, textile firm Maharam and international brands like Denmark’s Muuto and Hay and U.K.-based NaughtOne.
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Why Michigan?
The influx of Dutch immigrants starting from the 19th century is a major factor establishing the area around Zeeland and Holland, where furniture peer Haworth is also based, as a furniture pulse. The other factor is its proximity to the lake and landscape which is heavily populated by forests, MillerKnoll archives and brand heritage director Amy Auscherman explained in an interview with WWD.
“The furniture industry sort of flourished here. The Dutch had the craft and hand skills, and the immigrants coming to the area, together with the material that was available, helped shape the entrepreneurial spirit of Michigan at that time,” Auscherman said, pointing out that Michigan is also home to the Cranbrook Academy of Art where American designers Ray and Charles Eames, Florence Knoll, Finnish designer Eero Saarinen, and Italian American artist Harry Bertoia all studied and became friends.
The archive celebrates the midcentury modern designs that erupted from this milieu. Outfitted with a reading room, exhibition space and storage area, the space, which was designed by New York-based consultancy Standard Issue, includes 300 pieces of modern furniture that traces the evolution of design from the 1920s to the present.
Rare pieces include a prototype of the Knoll Womb chair gifted by Saarinen to his mother, Loja Saarinen; groundbreaking Gilbert Rohde designs for Herman Miller, which were first showcased at the 1933 World’s Fair; early furniture designs by Florence Knoll; and a lamp and rocking stool created by Japanese-American artist Isamu Noguchi for Knoll, among others. Complementary to the furniture collection, photography by Charles and Ray Eames, advertisements by Swiss-American photographer Herbert Matter and George Nelson, the former design director of Herman Miller, are also on display.
Knoll was first founded in 1938 in New York City in a small space on East 72nd Street by German-born furniture-maker Hans Knoll, who was greatly influenced by the Bauhaus movement. Knoll propelled the company into a post-war era with his wife, American architect Florence Schust, who was exposed to Finnish design early on, having grown up around Finnish designer Eero Saarinen and his family and who later worked for German-born American architect Walter Gropius and Hungarian American architect Marcel Breuer.
Following Hans’ death in 1955, Florence succeeded him as president and sold the company at the end of the ’50s. She worked at the company until 1965 and famously spearheaded the interior design of the CBS headquarters in New York City.
Florence Knoll, a Female Design Pioneer
In total the archive contains 1 million objects, including personal letters and photos from Florence Knoll.
She was a trailblazer of midcentury modern design and was also an assertive businesswoman who was crucial to the success of the company. She is often overlooked as a female pioneer of contemporary design, Auscherman explained. “She didn’t just marry the boss… the success of the brand hinged on Florence’s background as an architect and her relationships and overall vision and taste,” Auscherman continued, noting her exposure to Finnish culture and Finnish design culture having also traveled with the Saarinen family.
On Thursday, the space also opened a new exhibition called “Manufacturing Modern,” which examines the shared histories of Knoll and Herman Miller and features a selection of designs created by the visionaries who shaped both Herman Miller and Knoll.
A Design Powerhouse
On the corporate side, MillerKnoll has been focused on expansion. It recently opened a new Knoll showroom, inside the MillerKnoll showroom and retail space located at 251 Park Avenue South in New York City. In total, MillerKnoll’s space spans 77,000 square feet and 11 floors and occupies a historic Renaissance-revival building from 1910.
In Dallas in 2023, MillerKnoll opened its first showroom combining both the Herman Miller and Knoll brands in one space.
In fiscal year 2024, the company generated net sales of $3.6 billion.