Living History

Bernhardt Design’s president was a man on a mission. Jerry

Mark McMenamin -- Interior Design, 5/1/2012 2:00:00 AM

Bernhardt Design's president was a man on a mission. Jerry Helling had become obsessed with locating Charles Pollack-George Nelson and Florence Knoll Bassett's protégé,
whose signature chair for Knoll, still in production 47 years later, remains one of the most popular in contract history. When a year of Web prowling, phone calls, and public-record searches fi nally yielded an excellent prospect living in a New York apartment, Helling handdelivered a letter to suggest a meeting. Weeks later, he and Pollack sat face to face.


No mere meet-and-revere session, the conversation quickly veered to product development-and the C.P. lounge chairs are the result. "Designing with a continuous line
leads you in one direction, toward simplicity," Pollock says of his initial drawing. 828-758-9811; bernhardtdesign.com.