Our Story
At Geiger, why we do things and how we do them are inexorably one. We start with the highest quality materials, then shape and finish them with precision and care to create products that elevate the experiences of people wherever they use them: from the private office to the open plan, and from the boardroom to the home office.
Our focus on craft is rooted in commitments to quality, reliability, and integrity first established in 1964 by our founder, master cabinetmaker John Geiger. The company, then known as Interiors International Ltd., was originally based in Toronto, Ontario. With a focus on architecturally designed office furnishings, the team expanded from four to 35 craftspeople in its first few years. We began earning a reputation as a leading provider of modular wood casegoods thanks to innovations such as the Kuypers Series, designed by Jan Kuypers in 1968.
After a decade of steady growth, the company relocated to Atlanta in 1979. We changed our name from Interiors International to Geiger International in 1986, eventually dropping “International” altogether. In the late 1980s, we entered a design partnership with Ward Bennett, a designer whose career spanned five decades and whose oeuvre included interiors, furniture, textiles, and more—all of which fused beauty and utility into the purest possible forms.
Bennett’s 1990 collection of 20 chair and table designs for Geiger received international attention. Then, in 1993, Geiger acquired Brickel Associates, a company for whom Bennett served as the sole designer for nearly 30 years. This gave us access to an even deeper cache of Bennett designs, many of which have since been reissued under the Geiger brand.
In 1999, Geiger joined Herman Miller, a company known for its human-centered designs and pioneering sustainability practices. To help evolve the Geiger brand to better meet our customers' changing needs, Herman Miller brought on BassamFellows as creative directors from 2010 to 2013. Not only did they add their own exquisite designs to the Geiger catalog—including the Clamshell Chair and Tuxedo Sofa—but the introduction of these BassamFellows designs drew more widespread attention to our skilled and precise manufacturing capabilities. Soon, even more world-class design talent began working with Geiger, including EOOS, Naoto Fukasawa, Vincent Van Duysen, and Isay Weinfeld.
In 2021, Herman Miller joined forces with Knoll to create MillerKnoll. Leveraging obvious synergies between Geiger and DatesWeiser —the Buffalo-based designer and manufacturer of contemporary wood conference and meeting room furniture, which had been part of the Knoll family since 2016—the DatesWeiser portfolio was integrated into the Geiger offer. As a result, we are better positioned than ever to serve the A+D community and their most discerning clients.
We’ve come a long way from the Toronto workshop where Geiger was born in 1964—or the Buffalo, NY garage where Jim Dates and Alan Weiser built their first prototypes in 1982. But together, our shared ambition unites us. Today, we’re proud to serve customers across a range of industries, working with their A+D partners to help create statement-making spaces outfitted with furnishings that offer a premium level of polish and sophistication.
