Florence Knoll Bassett, the brilliant and influential architect, designer, and businesswoman who built the design and furniture studio Knoll into an icon of midcentury design and whom the New York Times in 1964 called “today the single most powerful figure in the field of modern design,” passed away at the age of 101 on Friday. Though she worked over a half century ago, many of the issues of Knoll’s time–from gender parity to the design of the modern workplace–are still under discussion in 2019. She was an architect in a field dominated by men. She defied the idea that interior design was a lesser form of design. She was a believer in research, emerging technology, and mock-ups, and convinced some of the most powerful companies in America to invest in ideas that had their roots in the Bauhaus principles of humanism and rationality. Click here to read the full story from Fast Company.