Paul Theodore Frankl was born in Vienna, Austria in 1886 and received his diploma in architectural engineering in 1911. He immigrated to America in 1914. By 1922 he had his own gallery in New York. His first American commission was a beauty parlor for Helena Rubenstein.
Around 1925 he started making bookcases which mimicked the skyscrapers of New York with set backs and cubbyholes in the sides. It became the first truly American Modern style.