Eero Saarinen, FAIA

Year Awarded: 1962
Born: August 20, 1910; Kirkkonummi, Finland
Died: 1961; Ann Arbor,Michigan

Quote
Always design a thing by considering its next larger context—a chair in a room, a room in a house, a house in an environment, an environment in a city plan.


Projects
• 1966: Gateway Arch, St. Louis, Mo.
• 1964: North Christian Church, Columbus, Ind.
• 1963: John Deere World Headquarters, Moline, Ill.
• 1962: Washington Dulles International Airport Terminal, Sterling, Va.
• 1962: TWA Terminal, JFK International Airport, New York
• 1960: American Embassy, London
• 1958: David S. Ingalls Hockey Rink, Yale University, New Haven, Conn.
• 1957: General Motors Technical Center, Warren, Mich.
• 1955: Kresge Auditorium and MIT Chapel, Cambridge, Mass.
• 1950: Bell Labs, Holmdel, N.J.
• 1939: Smithsonian Art Gallery, Washington, D.C.


Biography
Eero Saarinen, the son of a well-known architect, Eliel Saarinen, and an artist, Loja Saarinen, worked as a sculptor, photographer, and architectural model maker. This artistic environment profoundly influenced him, and he became one of the leading arcithects of the 20th century in his own right and famous for his sweeping, arching structural curves.

In 1923 Eero moved to the United States and settled near Detroit, Mich. He studied first with his father at the Cranbrook Institute of Architecture and Design, where Eliel was the administrator. In 1929-1930, he studied sculpture in Paris and then went to Yale University in Connecticut to study architecture. He graduated with a BArch in 1934, and following that he traveled for two years through Europe on a scholarship.

In 1936 Eero returned to Cranbrook to teach design and to join his father’s architecture firm, where he worked until Eliel’s death in 1950.

From 1937 to 1940, Eero collaborated with Charles Eames on a series of furniture designs that were highlighted at the Museum of Modern Art’s 1940 Organic Design in Home Furnishings competition. He is probably best known for the1962 TWA terminal at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York, which reflects his highly recognizable curving, sculptural style.