| Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Eero Saarinen |
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| Art Encyclopedia: Eero Saarinen |
(b Kirkkonummi/Kyrksl?tt, 20 Aug 1910; d Ann Arbor, MI, 1 Sept 1961). Son of (1) Eliel Saarinen.
He grew up in the Swedish-speaking household at Hvittr?sk, a rambling lakeside home and studio, which had been built by Gesellius, Lindgren, Saarinen and which served as a cultural salon frequented by artists such as Askeli Gallen-Kallela, Carl Milles, Maksim Gorky, Gustav Mahler, art critic Julius Meier-Graefe and the composer Jean Sibelius. It was an atmosphere imbued with arts and crafts, in which the children learnt a range of skills in the creative and plastic arts as well as the nature of professionalism. Eero, who was ambidextrous but favoured using his left hand, drew and sketched with great skill. Around the same time that Eliel Saarinen received international recognition with the second prize for design in the competition for the Chicago Tribune Tower in 1922, Saarinen, aged 12, won first place in a competition for a story involving matchsticks, sponsored by the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter.
Part of the Saarinen family
See the Abbreviations for further details.
| Modern Design Dictionary: Eero Saarinen |
Well known for his influential sculptural furniture designs and innovative use of materials in the 1940s and 1950s, architect-designer Saarinen had emigrated from Finland to the United States in 1923 with his weaver mother Loja and architect-designer father Eliel. His interest in sculpture had been supported by study at the Académie of La Grande Chaumière in Paris in the early 1930s, but he soon changed direction, taking up architecture at Yale University, from where he graduated in 1934. He had been involved with furniture design between 1929 and 1933, when he had worked on wooden furniture for Kingswood School for Girls and also at the Cranbrook Academy of Art. He also collaborated on furniture designs with Norman Bel Geddes in 1934. In the same year he had won a travel scholarship to Europe and spent a period in Finland, returning to teach at Cranbrook from 1939 to 1942 alongside Harry Bertoia and Charles Eames, both early graduates of the Academy. With the latter Saarinen won First Prize for moulded plywood seating in the 1940 Organic Design in Home Furnishings Competition at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Saarinen and Eames also produced modular, or unit, furniture for this competition. Saarinen had become acquainted with Florence Schust (later Knoll) a student at both the Kingswood School and Cranbrook Academy. Through her Knoll Associates commissioned Eero for a number of subsequently celebrated designs, including a bent plywood chair (1946), the organic fibreglass and tubular steel Womb Chair (designed in 1946 and manufactured from 1948) and the fibreglass and plastic coated cast aluminium Tulip Chair (manufactured from 1956). The latter was a truly organic design, the ‘flower-like’ seat ‘growing’ out of a single ‘stem’ in place of the conventional four legs and gave rise to a related range of side chairs and tables. Saarinen had set up in architectural practice with his father in 1937 (a collaboration which lasted until the latter's death in 1950). Saarinen was widely recognized for a number of architectural commissions, most notably the sweeping forms of the TWA Terminal at Kennedy Airport (1956-62) and the auditorium and chapel at the Massachussets Institute of Technology (1953-6).
| Architecture and Landscaping: Eero Saarinen |
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
With the Ezra Stiles and Morse Colleges, Yale University (1958–62), the composition is stepped on
Bibliography
The full bibliography for this book is available to download as a pdf file.
Download the bibliography for A Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (PDF: 1.2MB)
| Columbia Encyclopedia: Eero Saarinen |
Bibliography
See Eero Saarinen On His Work, ed. by A. Saarinen (rev. ed. 1968); E. Stoller, The TWA Terminal (1999); studies by B. Carter (2003), A Román (2003), and J. Merkel (2005).
Dictionary:
Saa·ri·nen (sär'ə-nən, -nĕn')  , Eero
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| Wikipedia: Eero Saarinen |
| Eero Saarinen | |
 Eero Saarinen with Florence Knoll inspecting a prototype of the Tulip chair |
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| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Name | Eero Saarinen |
| Nationality | Finnish American |
| Birth date | August 20, 1910 |
| Birth place | Kirkkonummi, Finland |
| Date of death | September 1, 1961 (aged 51) |
| Place of death | Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA |
| Work | |
| Buildings | See list of works |
| Design | Gateway Arch Tulip chair |
Eero Saarinen (Finnish pronunciation: [ˈeːro ˈsaːrinen]) (August 20, 1910 – September 1, 1961) was a Finnish American architect and product designer of the 20th century famous for varying his style according to the demands of the project[citation needed]: simple, sweeping, arching structural curves or machine-like rationalism.
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Eero Saarinen, who was born in Hvitträsk, coincidentally shared the same birthday as his father, Eliel Saarinen [1]. Saarinen emigrated to the United States of America in 1923 when he was thirteen years old [2]. He grew up within the community of the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, where his father taught. Saarinen studied under his father at the Cranbrook Academy of Art and took courses in sculpture and furniture design. He had a close relationship with fellow students Charles and Ray Eames, and became good friends with Florence (Schust) Knoll. Beginning in September 1929, he studied sculpture at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris, France.[3] He then went on to study at the Yale School of Architecture, completing his studies in 1934. After that, he toured Europe and North Africa for a year and spent another year back in Finland, after which he returned to Cranbrook to work for his father and teach at the academy. He became a naturalized citizen of the U.S. in 1940. Saarinen was recruited by his friend, who was also an architect, 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 .[citation needed] Saarinen worked full time for the OSS until 1944.[3] After his father's death in 1950, Saarinen founded his own architect's office, "Eero Saarinen and Associates". He had two children from his first marriage, Eric and Susan.
In 1954, after having divorced his first wife, Saarinen married Aline Bernstein, an art critic at The New York Times. They had a son, Eames, named after his collaborator Charles Eames.
Saarinen first received critical recognition, while still working for his father, for a chair designed together with Charles Eames for the "Organic Design in Home Furnishings" competition in 1940, for which they received first prize. The "Tulip Chair" became the basis of the seating used on the original Star Trek television series. 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 Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, St. Louis, not completed until the 1960s. The competition award was mistakenly sent to his father. He designed furniture with organic architecture.
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 seller. His Womb chair and ottoman, as well as his "Tulip" collection, have remained in production and are considered iconic.
The first major work by Saarinen, started together with his father, was the General Motors Technical Center in Warren, Michigan, designed in the rationalist Miesian style: in steel and glass, but with the added accent of panels in two shades of blue. The GM technical center was constructed in 1956, with Saarinen using models. These models allowed him to share his ideas with others, and gather input from other professionals. With the success of the scheme, Saarinen was then invited by other major American corporations to design their new headquarters: these included John Deere, IBM, and CBS. Despite their rationality, however, the interiors usually contained more 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 the Noyes dormitory at Vassar, as well as an ice rink, Morse College, and Ezra Stiles College at Yale University. Both the Morse and Ezra Stiles Colleges at Yale have received criticism from students for failing to fulfill basic dormitory needs.
He served on the jury for the Sydney Opera House commission and was crucial in the selection of the internationally-known design by Jørn Utzon.
"Eero Saarinen and Associates" was the architectural firm of Eero Saarinen, who was the principal partner from 1950 until his death in 1961. The firm was initially known as "Saarinen, Swansen and Associates", headed by Eliel Saarinen and Robert Swansen from the late 1930s until Eliel's death in 1950. The firm was located in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan until 1961 when the practice was moved to Hamden, Connecticut. Under Eero Saarinen, the firm carried out many of its most important works, including the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial (Gateway Arch) in St. Louis, Missouri, the TWA Flight Center at John F. Kennedy International Airport, and the main terminal of Dulles International Airport near Washington, D.C.. Many of these projects use catenary curves in their structural designs. One of the best-known thin-shell concrete structures in America is the Kresge Auditorium (MIT), which was designed by Saarinen. Another thin-shell structure that he created is the Ingalls Rink (Yale University), which has suspension cables connected to a single concrete backbone and is nicknamed "the whale." Undoubtedly his most famous work is the TWA Flight Center, which represents the culmination of his previous designs and demonstrates his expressionism and the technical marvel in concrete shells.[3]
Saarinen died while undergoing an operation for a brain tumor at the age of 51. His partners, Kevin Roche and John Dinkeloo, completed his ten remaining projects, including the St. Louis arch. Afterwards, the name of the firm was changed to "Kevin Roche, John Dinkeloo, and Associates", or Roche-Dinkeloo.
Eero Saarinen was elected a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects in 1952. He is also a winner of the AIA Gold Medal.
Saarinen is now considered one of the masters of American 20th Century architecture.[3] There has been a veritable surge of interest in Saarinen's work in recent years, including a major exhibition and several books. This is partly due to the Roche and Dinkeloo office having donated their Saarinen archives to Yale University, but also because Saarinen's oeuvre can be said to fit in with present-day concerns about pluralism of styles. He was criticized in his own time — most vociferously by critic Vincent Scully — for having no identifiable style (Miesian rationalism for the several company headquarters; organic or abstract expressionism for several individual structures such as the TWA Flight Center, as well as his furniture designs; but also classicising eclecticism, for instance in the USA embassy in London): one explanation for this is that Saarinen adapted his modernist vision to each individual client and project, which were never exactly the same.
Eero showed his capability to communicate with other professionals during the construction of the GM Technical Center. Since the design of this structure incorporated safety, HVAC, electrical, and mechanical engineering disciplines, Eero was forced to communicate with these professionals.
An exhibition of Saarinen's work, Eero Saarinen: Realizing American Utopia, has been organized by the Finnish Cultural Institute in New York in collaboration with Yale School of Architecture and the Museum of Finnish Architecture. The exhibition will tour in Europe and the USA from 2006 to 2010. The exhibition is accompanied by the book Eero Saarinen. Shaping the Future.
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 | Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Modern Design Dictionary. A Dictionary of Modern Design. Copyright © 2004, 2005 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Architecture and Landscaping. A Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture. Copyright © 1999, 2006 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. Read more |
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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.
- Eero Saarinen
