Eero Saarinen
Early Life and Education
Eero Saarinen was born on August 20, 1910, in Kirkkonummi, Finland, on his father’s 37th birthday. His father was the renowned Finnish architect Eliel Saarinen, and his mother, Loja Gesellius, was a talented textile artist and sculptor. He grew up in a highly creative and collaborative environment at Hvitträsk, the family’s romantic, Arts and Crafts-style home and studio outside Helsinki. From a young age, he was immersed in the world of art and design, surrounded by his parents’ work and their circle of artistic friends.
In 1923, when Eero was 13, the family emigrated to the United States after his father won second prize in the competition for the Chicago Tribune Tower. They settled in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, where Eliel Saarinen was invited to design the campus for the new Cranbrook Academy of Art. Eero grew up on the Cranbrook campus, which became a vibrant and influential center for art, craft, and design in America. He was surrounded by a community of artists and designers, and he studied sculpture and furniture design at the academy.
His early artistic training was in sculpture, and he briefly studied at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris in 1929. This background in sculpture would have a profound influence on his later architectural work, which was characterized by its expressive, sculptural forms.
In 1931, he enrolled in the Yale University School of Architecture, where he studied under the influential architect and theorist Otto Faelton. He was a brilliant student and graduated with honors in 1934. After graduating, he traveled in Europe for two years on a fellowship, where he studied both historical and contemporary architecture.
He returned to the United States in 1936 and began teaching at the Cranbrook Academy of Art. He also joined his father’s architectural practice, Saarinen, Swanson and Associates. He worked in close collaboration with his father for over a decade, and they designed a number of important buildings together, including the Kleinhans Music Hall in Buffalo, New York, and the Crow Island School in Winnetka, Illinois.
During this time, he also began to make a name for himself as a furniture designer. In 1940, he and his friend and Cranbrook colleague, Charles Eames, won first prize in the “Organic Design in Home Furnishings” competition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Their molded plywood chairs were a revolutionary new approach to furniture design. Saarinen would go on to design a series of iconic chairs for the Knoll company, including the “Womb” chair and the “Tulip” chair.
Architectural Philosophy and Career
Eero Saarinen’s architectural philosophy was a search for a new kind of modernism, one that was more expressive, more symbolic, and more diverse than the rigid functionalism of the International Style. He believed that each project should have its own unique identity, and he was a master of creating buildings that were powerful and memorable symbols of their function and their time.
His career as an independent architect was remarkably short but incredibly prolific. After his father’s death in 1950, he took over the family firm, renaming it Eero Saarinen and Associates. Over the next eleven years, until his own untimely death in 1961, he produced a stunning series of masterpieces that would establish him as one of the most important and original architects of the mid-20th century.
Saarinen’s philosophy was one of constant experimentation and a relentless search for the “essential idea” of each project. He was not interested in developing a single, signature style; instead, he believed that the form of a building should be a direct expression of its specific program, its site, and its structural system. He famously said, “The purpose of architecture is to shelter and enhance man’s life on earth and to fulfill his belief in the nobility of his existence.”
He was a master of using new materials and technologies to create bold and sculptural forms. He was a pioneer in the use of thin-shell concrete, which he used to create the soaring, wing-like roofs of the TWA Flight Center and the Dulles International Airport terminal. He was also a master of the glass and steel curtain wall, which he used to create the elegant and refined facades of his corporate headquarters for General Motors, IBM, and John Deere.
Saarinen’s design process was highly collaborative and research-intensive. He was known for his use of large-scale models to study the form and space of his buildings, and he worked closely with his team of talented young architects, as well as with engineers, landscape architects, and artists.
His work was a bridge between the rationalism of the first generation of modernists and the more expressive and pluralistic architecture that would emerge in the later 20th century. He was a modernist who was not afraid of symbolism, and he created some of the most powerful and enduring icons of the American post-war era.
Notable and Famous Works
Eero Saarinen’s portfolio is filled with iconic and highly recognizable buildings that have become landmarks of mid-century modernism.
The Gateway Arch (1965) in St. Louis, Missouri, is his most famous and beloved work. The 630-foot-tall stainless steel arch is a powerful and elegant monument to America’s westward expansion. Saarinen won the competition for the project in 1948, while he was still working with his father, but the arch was not completed until after his death. It is a masterpiece of structural engineering and a timeless symbol of the American spirit.
The TWA Flight Center (1962) at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York is a stunningly beautiful and expressive building that captures the glamour and excitement of the jet age. The building’s soaring, wing-like roof of thin-shell concrete is meant to evoke the feeling of flight, and its flowing, organic interior spaces are a masterpiece of mid-century design.
The Dulles International Airport Terminal (1962) outside Washington, D.C., is another of his great airport designs. The terminal is a massive, elegant structure with a dramatic, suspended roof that is held up by a series of monumental concrete pylons. The building’s use of mobile lounges to transport passengers to their planes was a revolutionary new concept in airport design.
The General Motors Technical Center (1956) in Warren, Michigan, is a landmark of corporate modernism. The 320-acre campus, which Saarinen designed with his father, is a sleek and elegant composition of glass and steel buildings set in a park-like landscape. The project was a powerful expression of the optimism and technological prowess of post-war America.
The Miller House (1957) in Columbus, Indiana, is one of the great post-war houses. It is a luxurious, open-plan house with a grid of sixteen steel columns and a central, sky-lit conversation pit. The house is a masterful integration of architecture, interior design, and landscape architecture.
His furniture designs for Knoll, such as the “Womb” chair (1948) and the “Tulip” chair and pedestal table (1956), are classics of modern design. The Tulip series, with its single, stem-like base, was a revolutionary attempt to “clear up the slum of legs” in the modern interior.
Awards, Honors, and Legacy
Eero Saarinen’s career was cut short by his death from a brain tumor in 1961, at the age of 51. Despite his short career, he received numerous awards and honors, including a posthumous AIA Gold Medal in 1962.
His legacy is that of a visionary who expanded the expressive possibilities of modern architecture. He was a master of creating buildings that were not just functional, but also beautiful, memorable, and deeply symbolic.
His work was a major influence on the development of what would come to be known as “corporate modernism,” and his sleek and elegant designs for companies like GM, IBM, and John Deere set a new standard for the American corporate campus.
He was also a key figure in the development of a more sculptural and expressive form of modernism, and his work paved the way for later architects who would explore the formal possibilities of new materials and technologies.
Saarinen was a restless and inventive architect who was always searching for new forms and new ideas. He was a true artist who brought a sculptor’s eye and a poet’s sensibility to the practice of architecture. His work is a testament to his belief in the power of architecture to capture the spirit of its time and to ennoble the human experience.