Eliel Saarinen
Gottlieb Eliel Saarinen (August 20, 1873 – July 1, 1950) was a Finnish and American architect, designer, and urban planner. Saarinen worked in a diverse range of styles in his native Finland and, after emigrating in 1923, the United States. He was the father of architect Eero Saarinen and designer Pipsan Saarinen Swanson.
Eliel Saarinen

Saarinen, Eliel · https: finna.fi/Record/mfa.8db6d355-bd14-4341-98b6-8f8f5aecf69e?sid=3082465320 · CC BY 4.0
- Name
- Eliel Saarinen
- Birth Name
- Gottlieb Eliel Saarinen
- Born
- August 20, 1873
- Birthplace
- Rantasalmi, Grand Duchy of Finland
- Died
- 1 July 1950
- Place of death
- Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, U.S.
- Spouse
- Loja Saarinen
- Awards
- AIA Gold Medal
- Full name
- Gottlieb Eliel Saarinen.
- Nationality
- Finland · United States · Grand Duchy of Finland
- Occupation
- architect · urban planner
- Fields
- architecture
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Gottlieb Eliel Saarinen (August 20, 1873 – July 1, 1950) was a Finnish and American architect, designer, and urban planner. Saarinen worked in a diverse range of styles in his native Finland and, after emigrating in 1923, the United States. He was the father of architect Eero Saarinen and designer Pipsan Saarinen Swanson.
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Authority files
gnd · 5091447-9 · wikidata · Q312028 · wikipedia · Eliel Saarinen
In this article
Biography
Biography
Through his rejected 1922 design of the Chicago Tribune building he indirectly played a significant role in the influence and development of Art Deco architecture.
Eliel Saarinen studied at Helsinki University of Technology and Former Real Lyceum. Florence Knoll and Eero Saarinen are recorded as having studied under Eliel Saarinen. The recorded working language is English and Finnish. The field of work recorded is architecture. Places of work recorded in the authority are Helsinki, Vyborg and Sortavala. Employment is recorded with University of Michigan and Cranbrook Educational Community. Works named in the authority record are Helsinki Central Railway Station. Work by Eliel Saarinen is recorded in the collections of Nationalmuseum, Art Institute of Chicago, Smithsonian American Art Museum and Swedish Centre for Architecture and Design. Distinctions recorded are AIA Gold Medal, Royal Gold Medal, honorary doctorate of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and honorary doctor of Harvard University.

Kalevalatalo, Munkkiniemi, Helsinki, ulkoperspektiivipiirustus.
Eliel Saarinen · https: finna.fi/Record/mfa.fc294569-e923-4582-b883-f43c19b4cd55?sid=3082465320
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Eliel Saarinen • Birth Name — Gottlieb Eliel Saarinen • Born — August 20, 1873 • Birthplace — Rantasalmi, Grand Duchy of Finland • Died — 1 July 1950 • Place of death — Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, U.S. • Significant Buildings — * Helsinki Central railway station • National Museum of Finland • Vyborg railway station • Hvitträsk • Kleinhans Music Hall • Significant Projects — * Finnish pavilion at the 1900 Exposition Universelle • Cranbrook Academy of Art • Significant Design — * Eliel Saarinen's Tribune Tower design (1922) • Finnish markka banknotes (1922) • Spouse — Loja Saarinen • Children — * Eero Saarinen • Pipsan Saarinen Swanson • Relatives — Herman Gesellius (brother-in-law) • Awards — AIA Gold Medal
Early life and work in Finland
Early life and work in Finland
• Illustration — Armas Lindgren, Eliel Saarinen, Albertina Östman, and Herman Gesellius in the late 1890s Saarinen was born in Rantasalmi on 20 August 1873 to Lutheran clergyman Juho Saarinen and his wife, Selma, Broms. Saarinen was educated in Helsinki at the Helsinki University of Technology. From 1896 to 1905 he worked as a partner with Herman Gesellius and Armas Lindgren at the firm Gesellius, Lindgren, Saarinen. His first major work with the firm, the Finnish pavilion at the Paris 1900 World Fair, exhibited an extraordinary convergence of stylistic influences: Finnish wooden architecture, the British Gothic Revival, and the Jugendstil. Saarinen's early manner was later christened the Finnish National Romanticism and culminated in the Helsinki Central railway station (designed 1904, constructed 1910–14). From 1910 to 1915 he worked on the extensive city-planning project of Munksnäs-Haga and later published a book on the subject. In January 1911 he became a consultant in city planning for Tallinn, Governorate of Estonia and was invited to Budapest to advise in city development. In 1912, a brochure written by Saarinen about the planning problems of Budapest was published. He was runner up behind Walter Burley Griffin in an international competition to design the new Australian capital city of Canberra in 1912, but the following year he received the first place award in an international competition for his plan of the city of Reval, now known as Tallinn. From 1917 to 1918 Saarinen worked on the city-plan for greater Helsinki. He also designed a series of postage stamps issued 1917 and the Finnish markka banknotes introduced in 1922. After the divorce from his first wife, Mathilde (who then married Herman Gesellius), on March 6, 1904, Saarinen married his second wife, Louise (Loja) Gesellius, a sculptor in Helsinki, and the younger sister of Herman Gesellius. They had a daughter Eva-Lisa (Pipsan) on March 31, 1905, and a son Eero on August 20, 1910.
Move to the United States
Move to the United States
Eliel Saarinen moved to the United States in 1923 after his competition entry for the Tribune Tower in Chicago, Illinois, won second place. While it was not built, the streamlined design inspired the architecture of many other skyscrapers. Saarinen first settled in Evanston, Illinois, where he worked on his scheme for the development of the Chicago lake front. In 1924 he became a visiting professor at the University of Michigan. In 1925 George Gough Booth asked him to design the campus of Cranbrook Educational Community, intended to be an American equivalent to the Bauhaus. Saarinen taught there and became president of the Cranbrook Academy of Art in 1932. Among his student-collaborators were Ray Eames (then Ray Kaiser) and Charles Eames; Saarinen influenced their subsequent furniture design. During 1929–34, Saarinen contributed product designs for the Wilcox Silver Plate Co. / International Silver Company in Meriden, Connecticut. His iconic tea urn (c. 1934) was first exhibited in 1934–35 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Over the years, the tea urn has been widely exhibited, including in St. Louis Modern (2015–16) at the St Louis Art Museum, Cranbrook Goes to the Movies: Films and Their Objects, 1925–1975 at the Cranbrook Art Museum (2014–15), and in 2005–07, in the touring exhibition Modernism in American Silver: 20th-Century Design, organized by the Dallas Museum of Art, which also traveled to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC. In 1951–52, the tea urn was featured in the Eliel Saarinen Memorial Exhibition which traveled to multiple venues across the United States. In addition to Cranbrook, the Dallas Museum and the St Louis Museum, The British Museum in London and the Metropolitan Museum of Art also hold tea urn-related Eliel Saarinen designs. His son, Eero Saarinen (1910–1961), became one of the most important American architects of the mid-20th century as one of the leaders of the International and Neo-futurist styles. Saarinen's student Edmund N. Bacon achieved national prominence as Executive Director of the Philadelphia City Planning Commission from 1949 to 1970. Eliel Saarinen received the AIA Gold Medal in 1947.
Significant works
Significant works
Buildings designed by Eliel Saarinen • Illustration — Saarinen designed entire city districts of Helsinki, but they were never built due to cost. This picture shows his plan for the Haaga district. • Illustration — Illustration of the Kalevala House, an unbuilt building designed by Saarinen. • Work — Location — Finished — Picture • Finnish Pavilion at the Exposition Universelle (designed with Herman Gesellius and Armas Lindgren) — Paris — 1900 — • Hvitträsk — Kirkkonummi — 1902 — • National Museum of Finland — Helsinki — 1904 — • Luther Factory Workers' Canteen and People's House (designed with Herman Gesellius and Armas Lindgren) — Tallinn — 1905 — • Helsinki Central railway station — Helsinki — 1909 — • Lahti Town Hall — Lahti — 1911 — • Former Credit Bank Headquarters ("Saarinen House") — Tallinn — 1912 — • Villa Winter — Sortavala — 1912 — • Vyborg railway station — Vyborg — 1913 — • Joensuu Town Hall — Joensuu — 1914 — • Saint Paul's Church — Tartu — 1917 — • Marble Palace — Helsinki — 1918 — • Munkkiniemi Pension house — Helsinki — 1920 — • Cranbrook Educational Community — Bloomfield Hills — 1924–1942 — • Koussevitzky Music Shed — Lenox — 1938 — • Kleinhans Music Hall — Buffalo — 1940 — • Crow Island School — Winnetka — 1940–41 — • First Christian Church — Columbus, IN — 1942 — • Des Moines Art Center — Des Moines — 1948 — • Christ Church Lutheran — Minneapolis — 1949 —
Identity and origins
Identity and origins
His recorded languages were English and Finnish. His recorded confession was Lutheranism. He was the child of Juho Saarinen. He married Loja Saarinen and Mathilda Tony Charlotta Gyldén. 2 children are recorded: Eero Saarinen and Pipsan Saarinen Swanson.
Career and activity
Career and activity
Eliel Saarinen worked in architecture. His work is associated with Art Nouveau, Art Deco and International Style. He was employed by University of Michigan and Cranbrook Educational Community. He worked at Helsinki, Vyborg, Sortavala and Tallinn.
Identity
Identity
Eliel Saarinen is recorded as having received AIA Gold Medal, Royal Gold Medal and honorary doctorate of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology.
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
Explore 1873–1950
The full dated record · 21 entries
1873
Eliel Saarinen born at Rantasalmi.
1902
Suur-Merijoki Manor is dated 1902.
1909
Helsinki Central Railway Station is dated 1909.
1909
Citypasaasin sisäpihan talo is dated 1909.
1909
Vinter House, Sortavala is dated 1909.
1910
Kansallismuseon desinfiointilaitos is dated 1910.
1912
Bostads Ab Holländarvägen 18-20 is dated 1912.
1912
Lahti Town Hall is dated 1912.
1914
Joensuu Town Hall is dated 1914.
1915
Munkkiniemi–Haaga Plan is dated 1915.
1915
Käpylä sports park is dated 1915.
1917
As Oy Linnantie 16 is dated 1917.
1917
Marmoripalatsi is dated 1917.
1919
As Oy Helsingin Hollantilaisentie 12 is dated 1919.
1919
Munkkiniemi education center is dated 1919.
1919
St. Paul’s Church is dated 1919.
1920
As Oy Helsingin Hollantilaisentie 14 is dated 1920.
1920
Keskuskatu 1b is dated 1920.
1922
Eliel Saarinen's Tribune Tower design is dated 1922.
1948
Des Moines Art Center is dated 1948.
1950
Eliel Saarinen died at Bloomfield Hills.
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
Rantasalmi.
Birth place
Bloomfield Hills.
Death place
Recognition and collections
Where the work is held
Recognition and collections
Eliel Saarinen received AIA Gold Medal, Royal Gold Medal, honorary doctorate of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, honorary doctor of Harvard University, honorary doctorate from the University of Cambridge and Fellow of the American Institute of Architects.
Documents and archives
Primary material
Documents and archives
reference work
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q312028: Eliel Saarinen
Reputable secondary · Wikimedia Foundation
- “Eliel Saarinen”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
scholarly publication
- Saarinen, Eliel (1873-1950), architect, American National Biography Online, 2000
Scholarly · Crossref registry · 2000
authority file
- Gemeinsame Normdatei 5091447-9, Exhibition Eliel Saarinen in Finland (1984 : Helsinki).
Unverified · Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
scholarly publication
Verifiedauthority file
Gemeinsame Normdatei 5091447-9, Exhibition Eliel Saarinen in Finland (1984 : Helsinki).Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
Partially resolvedreference work
Wikidata, structured authority record Q312028: Eliel SaarinenWikimedia Foundation
Partially resolvedreference work
Partially resolved
Further particulars
Held on the record
Further particulars
Open the remaining particulars
Eliel Saarinen studied at Helsinki University of Technology and Former Real Lyceum. Each of those relationships is stated by the authority record rather than inferred from style.
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
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