Florence Knoll Bassett (born 1917) is an American architect and furniture designer who studied under Mies van der Rohe and Eliel Saarinen. She was born in Saginaw, Michigan as Florence Schust. She graduated from the Kingswood School before studying at the famous Cranbrook Academy of Art. She briefly worked with leaders of the Bauhaus movement, including Walter Gropius and Marcel Breuer. In 1938, Hans Knoll founded his furniture company by that name in New York. In 1943, Florence Schust convinced Hans she could help bring in business to his company even in America's wartime economy by expanding into interior design by working with architects. With her architectural background and design flair, she succeeded. They married in 1946, she became a full business partner and together they founded Knoll Associates. A new furniture factory was established in Pennsylvania and dealers in Knoll's furniture were added over the next years. When Hans Knoll died in a car accident in 1955, Florence Knoll took over operation of the company. Florence Knoll herself designed chairs, sofas and tables during the 1950s, many of which remain in the Knoll line to this day. In 1958 she married Harry Hood Bassett. As an architect, Knoll's most famous creations are the Connecticut General Life Insurance building in Bloomfield, Connecticut and the interior of the CBS Building in New York City. In the 1950s Florence Knoll's work was often displayed at the Museum of Modern Art's Good Design exhibits. Although Knoll did a great deal of residential work, the International Style she worked in was specially successful in offices and the corporate boom of the 1960s provided the perfect opportunity for her work. Knoll retired as Knoll president in 1960, but remained with the company as the director of design until 1965 when she retired completely. She was awarded the US National Medal of Arts in 2002.