Vladimir Kagan could spend the rest of his life reclining on one of his luxurious Serpentine sofas and no one could complain. After all, the master designer is approaching 80 and has earned a well-deserved break after 50 years of creating some of the most outstanding and iconic modern furniture of the 20th century. Kagan, however, has loftier plans: His next design project is a building—a multi-story residential building in Manhattan’s NoHo planned for 2008. The resulting structure, a series of curvy sculptural forms, is unmistakably “Kaganesque.”

Kagan is known for putting a sensuous spin on midcentury furniture that influenced a generation

Tri-Symmetric Side Chair, c. 1960, aluminum with leather upholstery.

of designers. Although eclipsed in recent years, he has reemerged, and his organic and modular pieces are gaining new admirers and renewed recognition. At Christie’s New York in 2005, his 11-foot Serpentine Sofa—belonging to noted 20th-century art and design collector Barbara Jakobson—sold for $192,000, a new world auction record for Kagan, according to Christie’s. The centerpiece of Townsend’s New York townhouse, the exceptionally large sofa was purchased directly from the designer. “That gave it added allure,” says Carina Villinger, specialist in Christie’s 20th-century decorative art and design department.

As young and hip collectors from Wall Street to Hollywood discover Kagan’s vintage pieces at auction, prices are heating up. Earlier this year at Sotheby’s New York, his circa-1960 Tri-Symmetric Side Shair sold for $15,600 and leather “floating back and seat” sofa brought $42,000. There were similar results at wright in Chicago, where a Kagan high-back lounge chair sold in May for $32,400. “Kagan at his best is one of the great midcentury biomorphic designers,” says James Zemaitis, head of Sotheby’s 20th-century design department.

Abby Malowanczyk of Collage 20th-Century Classics in Dallas attributes Kagan’s resurgence to designs that were ahead their time and his use of exotic woods. At present the gallery has a 1970s leather Omnibus Sofa at $8,000 and a vintage Tri-Symmetric olivewood sideboard with lacquer server.