Vladimir Kagan was born in Germany in 1927, son of a Russian cabinetmaker.  He moved to the United States in 1938 and in the years that followed he mostly worked in painting and sculpture.  He soon found himself drawn to architecture and design and he graduated from The School of Industrial Art in 1946.  He went to Columbia University where he studied architecture.  After college he went to work with his father in his woodworking shop where he gained hands-on knowledge and experience working with a material that would factor greatly into his future designs.