Paul Theodore Frankl was one of the most important furniture designers to have worked in the American Art déco style. Born in Vienna in 1886, Paul Theodore Frankl studied architecture before emigrating to the US in 1914. In New York Frankl worked as a stage set designer for the Theater Guild and designed interiors for Helena Rubinstein. Arond 1925 Paul Theodore Frankl began to design furnishings, constructing his desks, chests of drawers, cupboards, and bookcases of geometric forms recalling the New York skyscrapers of the day. Paul Theodore Frankl did in fact call these pieces skyscraper furniture. To make his luxury furniture, Paul Theodore Frankl used top-quality materials: hardwoods and lacquer finishes. Arond 1930 Paul Theodore Frankl opened a gallery in New York, where he sold furniture he had designed as well as that of other designers. Paul Theodore Frankl worte several books on the contemporary decorative and applied arts, including, in 1928, "New Dimensions: The Decorative Arts of Today"; in 1930, "Form and Re-Form"; and, in 1938, "Space for Living: Creative Interior Decoration and Design". In addition, Paul Theodore Frankl gave lectures on "The Skyscraper in Decoration". In 1928 Paul Theodore Frankl co-founded the American Designers' Gallery and in 1930 the American Union of Decorative Artists and Craftsmen (AUDAC).