File:Skyscraper bookcase desk - Paul Frankl (39609647932).jpg

Combination desk/bookcase on display as part of the "Jazz Age" exhibit at the Cleveland Museum of Art in Cleveland, Ohio, in the United States.

After Frankl completed his architectural studies at the Berlin Polytechnic, he traveled, spending time in Berlin and Copenhagen before arriving in the United States in April 1914. He settled in New York City and brought with him an outsider’s fresh perspective and an enthusiasm for forging a uniquely American design aesthetic. Frankl began as an architect and later switched to designing and painting fine art and furniture. In the years between the two world wars he, more than any other designer, helped shape the distinctive look of American modernism.

Paul T. Frankl (1886-1958) was born in Austria. He trained as an architect at Berlin Polytechnic, and emigrated to the United States in 1914. After World War I, he quit architecture and began designing furniture and home goods. In the 1920s, he developed a "Skyscraper style" of furniture which mimicked the airy, modern look of the New York City skyline. Frankl Galleries was on the forefront of American modern design. He moved to Los Angeles in 1934, where he adopted a more relaxed and casual style and began to focus on metal furniture. Fred Astaire, Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, Walter Huston, and Alfred Hitchcock all patronized his Rodeo Drive gallery. Frankl wrote several books about Modernism, and in the 1950s designed biomorphic furniture for large mass-market companies like Brown Saltman of California and Johnson Furniture Company of Grand Rapids, Michigan.

This combination desk and bookcase, part of his Skyscraper line, was designed and manufactured in 1928. It is made of California redwood and black lacquer.

1. CMAJazzAge