NJ businesswoman to donate records - New Jersey interior designer Carol Franklin donates professional records to Cornell University

Real Estate Weekly, Sept 30, 1992

The professional records of a New Jersey businesswoman that chronicle the worldwide changes in corporate design and space planning over the past quarter century will soon become part of the legendary archives at Cornell University.

The voluminous collection, contained in 135 boxes, belongs to noted interior designer Carol Franklin, president of Leonia-based Carol Franklin Associates, She was asked to endow the university with her valuable documentation.

When the archival arrangement and description is completed, the papers will be housed in the Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections at the University's brand new, $25 million library, one of the largest repositories in the country. It holds the manuscripts of such literary giants as George Bernard Shaw and James Joyce.

One of the country's most prestigious space planners and corporate designers, Franklin's clients include such Fortune 500 companies and multi-national hotel chains as Mercedes-Benz of North America, Inc.; Merck & Company Inc.; Hyatt Regency Hotels; Unilever Research U.S., Inc.; Thomas J. Lipton, Inc.; Sandoz Pharmaceutical Corp.; Chubb & Son, Inc.; and the Gotham (Penninsula) Hotel in New York City.

The Franklin collection documents the impact new technologies and innovations have had on corporate design and planning and the role she's played in implementing those changes, particularly the electronic office. Other examples include carpet technology, the development and evolution of computers in the workplace, open plan furniture with movable walls, improved materials and sophisticated color schemes.

The collection includes renderings, floor plans, furniture plans, boards showing fabrics, furniture and color schemes, and complete construction documents and specifications.

Cornell, Franklin's alma mater, began documenting the collection in mid-June. While a catalogued record of the collection is now accessible to universities all over the world, the entire collection is not expected to be available until the end of 1993.