Warren Platner

Like many of his colleague-designers of his time, Warren Platner was trained as an architect. After finishing his studies in 1941, he worked for the well-known architects I.M. Pei and Raymond Loewy and from the early 60s with Eero Saarinen. He took part of designing several landmark structures, such as Duller International Airport and parts of Yale University.

It was in 1967 that Platner founded his own company: Platner Associates. From here onward not only would he design buildings, but also furniture, interiors and textiles.

Platner’s style is somewhat different from his period counterparts; his creations are slightly more graceful, maybe more modest in design. He is best known for “the Platner Collection”, a collection of chairs, tables and ottomans consisting of furniture built up from lengths of steel rods welded together through a very labor intensive process, requiring more than a thousand welds for each individual piece.

Warren Platner received several awards such as the Rome Prize in Architecture (1955) and an placement in the Interior Design Magazine’s Hall of fame (1985).