Florence Knoll, American
architect and furniture designer, birthday 24 May 1917
Lenny Kravitz, American
musician & designer, birthday 26 May 1964
Marcel Breuer was one for the first students from the Bauhaus
and eventually was appointed head of the school’s carpentry department. While there, he designed several tubular
steel pieces of furniture including his most famous the Wassili chair inspired
by the handlebars on his bicycle and later named after his roommate, Wassili
Kandinsky. As Walter Gropius’ protégé he
was also influenced by Le Corbusier and Ludwig Mies van de Rohe. After immigrating to the US he was hired to
design the headquarters for the Departments of HUD & HEW in Washington DC
for which he finally felt like an American.
Other architectural works include the entire ski town of Flaine in the
French Alps, several buildings at St. John’s Abby, the Whitney Museum and IBM’s
La Gaude Laboratory (his personal favorite).
Breuer was the first architect to be given a solo exhibition at the
Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. 
To keep up the Bauhaus connections for a moment longer, Florence
Knoll was a protégé of Eero Saarinen and worked briefly for Gropius &
Breuer before marrying Hans Knoll founder of the Knoll Furniture Company. Together they formed Knoll Associates where
she revolutionized interior space planning, translating the principle of Gesamthkunstwerk
(“total work of art”) from the Vienna Secession into the modern work environment. She not only was an important contributor to
but also an influential champion of modern design. Think the offices of "Mad Men" and you'll know how influential her designs are. 
As a musician Lenny Kravitz may seem like the odd man out
here but what may be unknown to many is that a lifelong passion for design lead
him to form Kravitz Design in 2003. He
assembled a team of interior designers, architects & product designers to work
in both Residential and Commercial arenas around the world. In Miami Beach the firm completed “The
Florida Room” in the Delano Hotel; a soothing lounge that references classic
Florida motifs without kitsch or sacrificing contemporary flavor.
Let this be a lesson that just because you
find success in one career doesn’t mean you have to give up on your other
passions.
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