Knoll Designer Bios

Lucia Mercer

b. New York

After training in landscape architecture at Cornell University and a stint studying in the Soviet Union, Lucia Mercer returned to the U.S. in 1979 to begin an apprenticeship with the Cold Spring Granite Quarry in Ausable Forks, NY. There she developed an intimate understanding of the character and power of granite.

The Lucia Mercer Collection, designed for Knoll in 1982, exhibited the designer’s deep familiarity with the material as well as her sculptural sensitivity. Geometrically pure and formal in design, yet emotionally expressive, the granite pieces exhibited a precise, thoughtfully considered form with exquisite balance and proportion.