Warren Platner

Joseph Warren Platner was born in Baltimore on June 18, 1919, and graduated from Cornell University with a degree in architecture in 1941. He received the Rome Prize in architecture in 1955, and was inducted into Interior Design magazine's hall of fame in 1985.

Warren Platner, an architect and designer who created a furniture collection that has proved to be an enduring icon of 1960's Modernism and designed several prominent interiors in New York, including offices for the Ford Foundation building and the original Windows on the World restaurant.

He worked in the firms of Eero Saarinen and Kevin Roche in the early and mid-1960's, introduced his collection of chairs, ottomans and tables in 1966. Produced by Knoll, each piece rests on a sculptural base of nickel-plated steel rods resembling a shiny sheaf of wheat.

He was also busy on another standout Modern design in the mid-1960's: the headquarters of the Ford Foundation. Designed by Mr. Roche and opened in 1967, that steel, granite and glass building, with its soaring central garden, epitomized the confident, optimistic outlook of the Great Society.

Mr. Platner opened his own firm in Connecticut in 1965 while continuing to work on the Ford Foundation building. One of his first solo projects was the New York showroom for Georg Jensen, the high-end seller of Scandinavian furniture and lighting, called the Georg Jensen Design Center. It opened in 1968.

Mr. Platner, who also created lighting fixtures, floor and window coverings, furniture and architectural ornaments for clients, completed many other notable projects, including the interior design of Water Tower Place, the vertical shopping mall that opened in Chicago in 1976, and the 1986 renovation of the Pan Am Building lobby for its new owner, MetLife.