Leisure Time

Richard Schultz’s chic outdoor chaise longue has weathered the elements for decades

—HANNAH MARTIN

After moving to Coral Gables in the early 1960s with her new husband, Harry Hood Bassett, Knoll design chief Florence Knoll Bassett noticed that her outdoor furniture fared poorly in South Florida’s salty sea air. Displeased, she mailed a handful of rusted bolts to Knoll talent Richard Schultz with a note: “Why can’t we make a chair that actually works?” Schultz—who had joined the firm in 1951 and assisted Harry Bertoia with his iconic wire collection, the alleged source of some of those rusty bolts—got to work. “Most outdoor furniture in those days was designed to look as if it was designed before the French Revolution, with stamped-out metal, bunches of flowers and leaves,” said Schultz, who deemed such furniture “puddle-collecting, joint-rusting, hot-seat upholstered products.” By 1966 he had an antidote:…

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Architectural Digest (Digital) - 1 Issue, July/August 2021

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