After earning an architecture degree from Cornell, Platner worked for several of the premier architects and designers of the day, including Eero Saarinen, Raymond Loewy and I.M. Pey. The sophistication of his training left him well-positioned to open his own studio, Platner Associates, in North Haven, CT in 1967. It quickly became an important architecture and design practice, turning out an impressive array of buildings, furniture, textiles, lighting and interiors.

But even by the late 1950's--well before opening a firm of his own--Platner had begun to make a noise in the design world: Backed by a Graham Foundation grant, he worked to develop his own unique line of furniture; it included tables, chairs and ottomans. Platner's pieces sat atop cylindrical bases, which were composed of hundreds (in some cases, thousands) of thin steel wires, carefully positioned to create a moiré effect. Known as the Platner Collection, it was released in 1966 by Knoll. Acclaimed for its lightness of scale and playful, adept juxtaposition of positive and negative space, it remains his most recognizable contribution to furniture design. Page 2 >