Johnston Marklee

Background

Johnston Marklee is the Los Angeles-based architecture firm of Sharon Johnston and Mark Lee, founded in 1998 according to Knoll. Knoll says they are as fascinated by the history of furniture as by that of architecture.

Signature Style

Knoll sums up their formal language as sculpted form, with space gathering into volumes, voids and curvatures that light and shadow bring to life. Johnston says design is about scale, orientation and proportion.

Notable Works

Knoll names the Menil Drawing Institute in Houston, the UCLA Graduate Art Studios campus in Culver City, Vault House in Oxnard, Pavilion of Six Views in Shanghai and the Dropbox Global Headquarters in San Francisco. For Knoll they designed the Biboni Sofa.

Legacy

Knoll says the firm has received more than 40 awards, including the Richard Neutra Award for Professional Excellence in 2024, and that its work has entered museum collections including New York's Museum of Modern Art.