Eero Saarinen

Eero Saarinen was born in Hvitträsk, Finland, he was the son of Finnish architect Eliel Saarinen, and immigrated to the United States as a teenager. Saarinen grew up in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, studying at the Cranbrook Academy of Art, where his father taught. Saarinen became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1940, a year after marrying the sculptor Lilian Swann, with whom he had two children. After divorcing Swann in 1954, Saarinen married Aline Bernstein Louchheim. In 1961, Saarinen died while undergoing an operation for a brain tumor.

• Name — Eero Saarinen • Born — 20 August 1910 • Birthplace — Kirkkonummi, Finland • Died — 1 September 1961 • Place of death — Ann Arbor, Michigan, U.S. • Education — Académie de la Grande Chaumière Yale University • Awards — AIA Gold Medal (1962) • Practice — Associated architectural firm[s] • Significant Buildings — See list of works • Significant Design — Gateway Arch General Motors Technical Center Dulles International Airport Main Terminal TWA Flight Center Tulip chair

Eero Saarinen was born in Hvitträsk, Finland (then an autonomous state in the Russian Empire), on August 20, 1910, to Finnish architect Eliel Saarinen and his second wife, Louise, on his father's 37th birthday. They migrated to the United States in 1923, when Eero was thirteen. He grew up in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, where his father taught and was dean of the Cranbrook Academy of Art, and he took courses in sculpture and furniture design there. He had a close relationship with fellow students, designers Charles and Ray Eames, and became good friends with architect Florence Knoll (née Schust). Saarinen began studies in sculpture at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris, France, in September 1929. He then went on to study at the Yale School of Architecture, completing his studies in 1934. He subsequently toured Europe and North Africa for two years, as well as working for a time in Helsinki in the office of architect Jarl Eklund, where he supervised the remodeling of the Swedish Theatre (1936). That same year, he returned to the United States to work in his father's architectural practice.

• Illustration — Swedish Theatre, Helsinki • Illustration — Gateway Arch in St. Louis • Illustration — Dulles International Airport Main Terminal outside Washington, D.C. • Illustration — Kleinhans Music Hall in the Delaware Park–Front Park System • Illustration — Fluid and open interior space, typical of Saarinen's style, is evident in the TWA Flight Center at John F. Kennedy International Airport. • Illustration — TWA Flight Center at JFK International Airport After his tour of Europe and North Africa, Saarinen returned to Cranbrook to work for his father and teach at the academy. His father's firm, Saarinen, Swanson and Associates, was headed by Eliel Saarinen and Robert Swanson from the late 1930s until Eliel's death in 1950 and headquartered in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, until 1961 when the practice was moved to Hamden, Connecticut. While still working for his father, Saarinen first gained recognition for his design capabilities for a chair he designed together with Charles Eames, which received first place in the Organic Design in Home Furnishings competition in 1940. The Tulip chair, like all other Saarinen chairs, was taken into production by the Knoll furniture company, founded by Hans Knoll, who married Saarinen family friend Florence (Schust) Knoll. Further attention came also while Saarinen was still working for his father when he took first prize in the 1948 competition for the design of the Gateway Arch National Park (then known as the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial) in St. Louis. The memorial was not completed until the 1960s. The competition award was mistakenly addressed to his father because both he and his father had entered the competition separately. During his long association with Knoll, he designed many important pieces of furniture, including the Grasshopper lounge chair and ottoman (1946), the Womb chair and ottoman (1948), the Womb settee (1950), side and arm chairs (1948–1950), and his most famous Tulip or Pedestal group (1956), which featured side and arm chairs, dining, coffee and side tables, as well as a stool. All of these designs were highly successful except for the Grasshopper lounge chair, which, although in production through 1965, was not a big success. One of Saarinen's earliest works to receive international acclaim is the Crow Island School in Winnetka, Illinois (1940). The first major work by Saarinen, in collaboration with his father, was the General Motors Technical Center in Warren, Michigan, which follows the rationalist design Miesian style, incorporating steel and glass but with the addition of accent of panels in two shades of blue. The GM Technical Center was constructed in 1956, with Saarinen using models, which allowed him to share his ideas with others and gather input from other professionals. With the success of this project, Saarinen was then invited by other major American corporations to design their new headquarters or other major corporate buildings, such as John Deere World Headquarters, IBM Watson/IBM Rochester, and CBS Building. Despite the overall rational design philosophy, the interiors usually contained dramatic sweeping staircases as well as furniture designed by Saarinen, such as the Pedestal series. In the 1950s, he began to receive more commissions from American universities for campus designs and individual buildings. These include Birch Hall at Antioch College, the Noyes dormitory at Vassar and Hill College House at the University of Pennsylvania as well as the Ingalls ice rink, Ezra Stiles and Morse Colleges at Yale University, Concordia Senior College in Fort Wayne, Indiana, the MIT Chapel and Kresge Auditorium at MIT, and the University of Chicago Law School building and grounds. Saarinen served on the jury for the Sydney Opera House commission in 1957 and was crucial in the selection of the now internationally known design by Jørn Utzon. A jury which did not include Saarinen had discarded Utzon's design in the first round; Saarinen reviewed the discarded designs, recognized a quality in Utzon's design, and ultimately assured the commission of Utzon. After his father's death in July 1950, Saarinen founded his own architect's office, Eero Saarinen and Associates. He was the principal partner from 1950 until his death. The firm carried out many of its most important works, including the Bell Labs Holmdel Complex in Holmdel Township, New Jersey; the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Missouri; the Miller House in Columbus, Indiana; the TWA Flight Center at John F. Kennedy International Airport, which he worked on with Charles J. Parise; the Dulles International Airport Main Terminal; and the new East Air Terminal of the old Athens airport in Greece, which opened in 1967. Many of these projects use catenary curves in their structural designs. In 1949 and 1950, Saarinen was hired by the then-new Brandeis University to create a master plan for the campus. Saarinen's plan A Foundation for Learning: Planning the Campus of Brandeis University (1949; second edition 1951), developed with Matthew Nowicki, called for a central academic complex surrounded by residential quadrangles along a peripheral road. The plan was never built but was useful in attracting donors. Saarinen did build a few residential structures on the campus, including Ridgewood Quadrangle (1950), Sherman Student Center (1952) and Shapiro Dormitory at Hamilton Quadrangle (1952). These have all been either demolished or extensively remodeled. One of his best known thin-shell concrete structures is the Kresge Auditorium at MIT. Another thin-shell structure is Ingalls Rink at Yale University, which has suspension cables connected to a single concrete backbone and is nicknamed "the whale". His most famous work is the TWA Flight Center at John F. Kennedy International Airport, which represents the culmination of his previous designs and his genius for expressing the ultimate purpose of each building, what he called the "style for the job". In 2019, the terminal was transformed into the TWA Hotel and features furniture designed by Saarinen. In 1960, Saarinen was hired to design the CBS Building in New York City. It was the only skyscraper he would ever design. Saarinen designed the Kleinhans Music Hall in Buffalo, New York and its furnishings, together with his father, Eliel Saarinen. Since its opening in 1940, it has been hailed as one of the most acoustically perfect music halls in the world. He also designed the former Embassy of the United States in London, which opened in 1960, and the former Embassy of the United States in Oslo. Saarinen worked with his father, mother, and sister designing elements of the Cranbrook campus in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, including the Cranbrook School, Kingswood School, the Cranbrook Art Academy, and the Cranbrook Science Institute. Eero Saarinen's leaded-glass designs are a prominent feature of these buildings throughout the campus.

• Illustration — Saarinen's tulip chair and seat cushion designed in 1956, now housed in the Brooklyn Museum • Illustration — Womb Chair Model No. 70 designed 1947–1948, now in the Brooklyn Museum • Illustration — "Grasshopper" Highback Armchair designed c. 1947, now in the Brooklyn Museum Saarinen was recruited by Donal McLaughlin, an architectural school friend from his Yale days, to join the military service in the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). Saarinen was assigned to draw illustrations for bomb disassembly manuals and to provide designs for the Situation Room in the White House. Saarinen worked full-time for the OSS until 1944.

Saarinen became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1940. In 1939, Saarinen married the sculptor Lilian Swann. They had two children, Eric and Susan Saarinen. They divorced in 1954. That year, Saarinen married Aline Bernstein Louchheim, an art critic at The New York Times. Saarinen met Louchheim when she came to Detroit to interview him for his contributions to the recently completed General Motors Technical Center. Saarinen and Louchheim had one son together, whom they named Eames after Saarinen's collaborator Charles Eames. In addition to their respective contributions to architecture, design, and criticism, Eero and Aline Saarinen are remembered for their affectionate and detailed personal papers, held at the Archives of American Art.

Saarinen died on September 1, 1961, at the age of 51 while undergoing an operation in Ann Arbor, Michigan for a brain tumor. He was overseeing the completion of a new music building for the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance.

Eero Saarinen worked in architecture. His work is associated with modernism. He was employed by Office of Strategic Services. He belonged to American Academy of Arts and Letters, American Academy of Arts and Sciences and Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts. He worked at St. Louis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Washington Dulles International Airport and John F. Kennedy International Airport.

Eero Saarinen is recorded as United States, Finland and Grand Duchy of Finland.