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Richard Schultz with his iconic 1966 Collection (image via Institute of Design)

How Richard Schultz Brought Modern Design Outdoors

By Nico Haven, Thomas Hart, and David Rosenwasser

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For as long as furniture had been used outside, it had met its seemingly assured fate: rust, corrosion, and decomposition.

In the mid-1960s, after retiring from Knoll, Inc., Florence Knoll moved to Florida. Soon afterward, she mailed a package back to Knoll headquarters in East Greenville, PA, with rusted bolts from an outdoor chair that couldn’t endure the salty, humid Florida climate.


The note attached read: “Why can’t we make a chair that actually works?”


Richard Schultz —a designer who had been with the company since 1951 and had worked with Harry Bertoia to design the famous wire collection —took this on as a challenge.

Schultz approached outdoor furniture design as an engineering problem


Regardless of the climate, all outdoor furniture must be able to endure the elements: UV rays, moisture from rain and snow, humidity, salty ocean air, high winds, and hard-wearing, regular use.


Schultz, who studied engineering at Iowa State University before studying Bauhaus design at the Illinois Institute of Technology, recognized that as a fundamentally different design mindset than when designing indoor furniture.


He knew that an elegantly designed outdoor chair or table wouldn’t stand a chance against the elements if it wasn’t made of materials that were specifically selected for their durability and resilience.

Schultz experimented with metal fabrication techniques


Especially in the period immediately following World War II, many furniture designers used steel as their preferred metal in their pieces. However, since steel rusts, most outdoor furniture at the time didn’t stand a chance to endure the elements.


Stainless steel—which adds chromium as a shield against rusting—wasn’t widely used in furniture design until the 1960s; the iconic Barcelona chair didn’t switch to stainless steel until 1964, and Mies van der Rohe admitted that he would have used it had the technology been available when he designed the chair.


Facing the challenge of rusting steel, Schultz instead used aluminum, one of the most durable and corrosion-resistant metals in the world, and also one of the most widely available. The thin aluminum frames would allow Schultz’s outdoor furniture to be easily moved.


He experimented with different variants of aluminum to find the most durable yet mass-producible material: polished, powder-coated, painted finish, natural finish, etc.


While Schultz’s later designs also used stainless steel, his use of aluminum was the solution he came up with to Florence Knoll’s challenge.

Richard Schultz (image via Princeton University School of Architecture)
Richard Schultz (image via Princeton University School of Architecture)

Schultz made outdoor furniture modern and beautiful


Like the old “ Good, Fast, or Cheap ” diagram—where, it’s said, it’s impossible to have all three at the same time—Schultz was able to make outdoor furniture that was functional, durable, and beautiful.


Drawing on his background studying at IIT, one of the famous bastions of American Bauhaus education, Schultz followed the “form follows function” philosophy and similarly stripped down his designs of unnecessary details and frills until he arrived at the core essence of the piece. The sharp, clean lines of his designs echo many Bauhaus designers and iconic pieces.


And, since he knew his pieces would exist out in the natural world rather than inside a building, Schultz employed nature’s vibrant color palette and adapted its organic forms to ensure his pieces could be modern yet not clash and stand out against the backdrop of the outside world.


Schultz was the first to bring mid-century modern design to the outdoors, and his pieces are both physically and aesthetically timeless. 


"I wanted to design a chair that looked like a shrub pruned to look like a chair."

- Richard Schultz

Richard Schultz's Iconic Designs

Petal Table (for Knoll) (1960)


After joining Knoll in 1951 and working to support other designers like Harry Bertoia, Schultz was asked to design pieces of his own for the company. The Petal Dining Table was one of his early forays into outdoor furniture, and it was produced by Knoll, beginning in the early 1960s.


The flower-inspired design isn’t only a beautiful homage to the natural world; it’s also functional, as the petal top was specifically designed to expand and contract with changes in humidity and weather without breaking apart or warping like other wood-top outdoor furniture would.


He also chose redwood for the petals both because it has unique properties that help it remain stable through the moisture transfer process and also because it develops a beautiful patina as it endures the elements that gives the piece a distinctive character throughout its life. 

1966 Collection


The 1966 Collection was Richard Schultz’s response to Florence Knoll’s challenge, and it included dining tables, chaise lounges, loveseats, and chairs like this one.


Among the innovations in the 1966 Collection, Schultz developed a pressure-fitted connection to attach slings made of synthetic mesh and leather-like outdoor belting material for the seat and back. This combination of material and design anticipated the myriad ways that outdoor furniture can deteriorate and ensured the pieces would endure much longer than most other outdoor furniture pieces.


The Bauhaus influence is also clearly visible, as this chair has a profile very similar to Marcel Breuer’s iconic Wassily chair .

Wooden Outdoor Collection dining chair (1985)


Schultz left Knoll in 1972 to freelance, and eventually he worked under Richard Schultz Designs, his own independent brand run with his son Peter.


Without the restrictions of being within a large design firm, he continued to experiment with designs and materials.


This wooden outdoor dining chair is a great example of how Schultz wasn’t afraid to start with a completely blank slate and come up with a new design that was a departure from his previous work.


Here, rather than using metal and mesh, Schultz used woven wood and textile, a more classic outdoor furniture aesthetic. Yet he still brought his Modernist, Bauhaus philosophy to the piece, with its curved profile and sleek lines. 
Richard Schultz
Richard Schultz's Topiary Series dining table and chairs set (1997) (image via D Rose Mod)

Topiary series (1997)


As he continued experimenting, Schultz eventually arrived at the iconic and unusual Topiary Series.


The designs were a further departure from his earlier Bauhaus-influenced pieces, as they included jigsaw puzzle-esque details across the entire piece. This would allow sunlight to shine beautifully through the design, giving it an added element of vibrance and beauty.


These pieces also had less strict and structured lines; instead, the edges of each piece of aluminum are textured in waves. And, rather than having a simple and sleek profile like his other pieces, Schultz extended the back of this bench all the way to the ground, creating a more silhouetted and less defined profile than his earlier work.


The pieces in this series also had a natural aluminum finish, rather than a painted finish like Schultz’s previous experimentations.

2002 Collection


With the 2002 Collection, after years of experimentation, Schultz returned back to his roots.


Simple, sleek lines, a cantilever design, and synthetic mesh—this 2002 Collection chair recalls the Bauhaus principles that defined Schultz’s early work.


He never stopped experimenting, though. Even with this collection, he switched from aluminum to stainless steel frames.

Mateo Collection (2011)


The Mateo Collection expanded upon the design motifs of the 2002 Collection, especially the curved armrests extending to the ground and the two bars beneath the synthetic mesh seat. The profile also again recalls Breuer’s iconic Wassily chair.


This time, though, Schultz used a raw extruded aluminum frame instead of the stainless steel frames of the 2002 Collection.
Richard Schultz (image via The New York Times)
Richard Schultz (image via The New York Times)

Richard Schultz's legacy of experimentation and innovation


Richard Schultz passed away in 2021, leaving behind a legacy as the designer who brought mid-century modern design outdoors.


We’ve been avid collectors of Richard Schultz’s work for years and love the graceful and sculptural quality to so many of his pieces. 


We’re excited to include many of his pieces and prototypes in our curated collection.

Rarify is an evolving collection of iconic, authentic-only furniture by history's most visionary designers. We curate collections of timeless classics and rare, authenticated vintage furniture pieces, as well as the collectible classics of the future. 

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