KNOLL Chicago Showroom
In the past decade, the Fulton-Randolph Market District has evolved into one of Chicago’s most thriving neighborhoods. The buzz caught the attention of executives at Knoll, who, earlier this year, decided to move the furniture company’s local showroom from its longtime home in the Merchandise Mart to an expansive 24,000-square-foot space in Fulton Market. “It has a vitality and youthfulness,” Knoll executive vice president of design Benjamin Pardo says of the area. “We wanted to be in the thick of things.”
“The idea was that the showroom reflects Chicago, its grit and its grace,” Gensler principal and co-managing director Todd Heiser begins. And, of course, showcase the company’s staggering catalog of mid- and 21st-century furnishings by the likes of Anni Albers, Harry Bertoia, Florence Knoll, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Eero Saarinen, David Rockwell, Dorothy Cosonas, and Antenna Design.
Soon celebrating its one-year anniversary, the showroom is functioning just as the Knoll and Gensler teams had envisioned, drawing in clients old and new and acting as a communal space for local architects and designers, who often pop in to work or eat their lunch. “I have such love for Bertoia, Mies, and the legacy of Knoll,” Heiser says. “To design the place that all that product fits into, and to have the design community feel as if they’re a part of that place, is humbling and amazing.” Ideally, Pardo notes, those visitors will seek to recreate the same vibe in their own spaces.
Tate Gunnerson—November 2019 issue of Interior Design
Location
Chicago
Architect
Gensler • Chicago, IL 60602
Photographer
Eric Laignel
PK30 Scope of Work — 95 Linear Feet
(6) Swing doors + (26) Fixed Panels