Saarinen, Eero (1910–61). Finnish-born American architect, the son of G. E. Saarinen. He studied in Paris, then Yale, and worked with Charles Eames at Kingswood, Cranbrook, MI, G. E. Saarinen's Academy. With Eames he designed moulded plywood chairs in the late 1930s and produced numerous other pieces of furniture until he became more closely involved with architecture after the 1939–45 war. He worked with his father at Ann Arbor, MI, from 1937, and from 1941 was in partnership with him before setting up his own practice as Eero Saarinen & Associates in 1950, having won the competition (1947–8) to design the Jefferson Memorial Park, St Louis, MO, with Kiley: however, it was Saarinen alone who designed the huge parabolic Gateway Arch, and Kiley was not involved in the design of the planting, although Saarinen intended that he should work on the project. At first, his architecture was in the International Modern style of Mies van der Rohe, notably his General Motors Technical Center, Warren, MI (1947–56), designed in collaboration with his father and others, but later, as with many American architects, he became concerned with the enriching of modern architecture that would still leave the buildings valid in terms of Functionalism. For the Kresge Auditorium Building at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (1952–6), he created a roof based on a triangular segment of a sphere: the whole ensemble was criticized for straying from Modernist principles and not going far enough to create a paradigm of architectural freedom of expression. It was too tentative. Certainly the exemplars of Le Corbusier's chapel at Ronchamp (1950–5) had created a desire towards a greater expression of emotion in architecture, and Saarinen was in the vanguard of this tendency in the USA. Although his work was championed by Hitchcock and others, many critics found it in bad taste, exhibiting far too many shapes and too few ideas: it has to be admitted that many of his buildings soon dated.

For MIT he had experimented with massive brick walls at the circular chapel (1952–6), and at Concordia Senior College, Fort Wayne, IN, he also designed the chapel, this time with a pointed roof (1953–8). At the David S. Ingalls Ice Hockey Rink, Yale University, New Haven, CT (1953–9), he spanned the length of the building with a great central arch carrying the curved roof-structure. This was followed by the TWA Terminal Building at Kennedy International Airport, NYC (1956–62), with its huge sail-like vaulted roofs rising from dynamically shaped piers, expressive of wings and flight. The Thomas J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown, NY (1957–61), also exploited curves, to be used again at Dulles International Airport, Chantilly, VA, near Washington, DC (1958–63).

With the Ezra Stiles and Morse Colleges, Yale University (1958–62), the composition is stepped on plan and vertical section, and he used a fragmented, layered geometry for the treatment of the façades of the US Embassy, Grosvenor Square, London (1955–60—built in collaboration with Yorke, Rosenberg, & Mardall). He also collaborated with Kiley on several projects. His practice was continued by Roche and Dinkeloo after his death.

Bibliography

Gaidos (ed.) (1972);
Kuhner (1975);
Román (2002);
A. Saarinen (ed.) (1968);
Spade (1971);
Temko (1962);
Jane Turner (1996)

SAARINEN, EERO 1910-1961

Architect and furniture designer

From a Family of Architects

Born in Kirkkunummi, Finland, in 1910, Eero Saarinen was the youngest child of the famous architect Eliel Saarinen, who explained that his son was "born practically on the drafting board." Saarinen's uncle, aunt, and grandfather were also architects. When he was thirteen the family moved to the United States, and his father became director of the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. Saarinen graduated from high school in 1929 and went to Paris to study sculpture. Upon his return to the United States he worked in his father's office on furniture designs. In 1931 he entered the Yale School of Architecture. From 1939 to 1947 he worked for his father's firm of Saarinen, Swanson, and Saarinen, afterward called Saarinen, Saarinen and Associates. His work was interrupted by three years of wartime service in the Office of Strategic Services in Washington, D.C.

Functional Furniture

In 1941 Saarinen won two prizes in the New York Museum of Modern Art competition for functional furniture design for pieces on which he and Charles Eames had collaborated. The winning designs were molded living-room chairs and sectional living-room furniture. The 15 November 1948 issue of Life included photographs of a fabric-covered plastic-shell chair designed by Saarinen and manufactured by Knoll Associates and commented that designers such as Saarinen "used industrial materials like foam rubber, steel tubing, plywood and plastic to produce strange and unfamiliar shapes which are nonetheless comfortable and which…could lead to a whole new kind of really cheap, modern furniture."

More Innovation

Saarinen continued to design innovative chairs. After winning the functional furniture design contest he began working on "organic" chair designs, resulting in the "womb" chair, which eased the sitter into a fetal position and was considered by many to be the most comfortable chair ever made. In the late 1950s he designed what was called the pedestal group, in which the body of the chair and its base were a unified structure. Both the womb chair and the pedestal group sold well throughout the 1950s.

Architect

Saarinen was an accomplished architect as well. His achievements include his designs for the Smithsonian Art Gallery in Washington, D.C., and the master plan for the University of Michigan campus in Ann Arbor. He also designed the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Kresge Auditorium (1955) and chapel (1955) in Cambridge, Massachusetts; the TWA Terminal at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York (1960); and the famous Gateway Arch in Saint Louis (1965). He died in 1961 at age fifty-one.

Source:

Allan Temko, Eero Saarinen (New York: Braziller, 1962).

SAARINEN, EERO 1910-1961

Designer of the "womb" chair and prolific architect

Early Life

Son of well-known Finnish architect and educator Eliel Saarinen, Eero Saarinen moved to the United States with his family in 1923. It was at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, headed by the elder Saarinen, that Eero blossomed.

Organic Design

After winning first prize with Charles Eames in the 1940-1941 Museum of Modern Art's Organic Design in Home Furnishings competition, Saarinen began working on an "organic" chair design. He believed that a chair was incomplete without a person sitting in it, and he was determined to design a truly organic chair in which all parts blended in a unity of design. The result was the Womb chair, so called because its comfortable construction encouraged the sitter to assume a fetal position. The construction was of a molded plastic shell and fabric-covered latex foam upholstery on a steel frame with nylon swivel guides. There was also an accompanying ottoman. The chair is considered by many to be one of the most comfortable contemporary chairs ever made, and it was wildly popular in the 1950s. It still sells well.

Pedestal Group

In the 1950s Saarinen became dedicated to designing a chair in which body and base were a unified structure. This design led to his successful Pedestal group in 1957 consisting of an armchair, two stools, a side chair, and several tables.

Architect, Too

As an architect Saarinen had many outstanding achievements, including the winning design for the Smithsonian Art Gallery in Washington, D.C. His designs also included the master plan for the University of Michigan's Ann Arbor campus; the TWA Terminal at Kennedy Airport in New York; the Ingalls Ice Hockey Rink at Yale University; the Columbia Broadcasting System headquarters building in New York; Dulles International Airport outside Washington, D.C; the General Motors Technical Center in Warren, Michigan; the United States Embassy in London; and the chapel at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He always described his work as rooted in the "organic approach," that is, one that "grows together with and out of the total concept of a building."

Untimely Death

Saarinen died at the age of fifty-one after surgery for a brain tumor. But he made an unforgettable mark in the fields of architecture and interior design.