Eliel Saarinen

(b Rantasalmi, 20 Aug 1873; d Cranbrook, MI, 1 June 1950). He enrolled in painting and architecture simultaneously at the University and Polytechnic Institute in Helsinki in 1893. In 1896 he formed a partnership with two classmates, Herman Gesellius and Armas Lindgren, and graduated the following year. Through the partnership of GESELLIUS, LINDGREN, SAARINEN, he developed the basis of his comprehensive vision of design, which embraced all environmental factors, from interior decoration to urban planning. This approach is clearly seen in such works of the period as the Saarinen wing of Hvittr?sk, Kirkkonummi (1902-4; partly changed), the large studio and living complex that the partnership built for itself. Its vaulted spaces and log surfaces make reference to the vernacular building tradition; at the same time the arrangement of the house's rooms emphasizes their integration into the total plan. Other significant buildings of this period include the Finnish Pavilion at the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1900 and the Finnish National Museum in Helsinki (1902-10).

Part of the Saarinen family

See the Abbreviations for further details.

A highly influential Finnish architect and designer who had a significant impact on many modern American architects and designers through his influence at the Cranbrook Academy of Art. He had studied fine art and architecture at the University of Helsinki and came to attention with his designs for the National Romantic-style Finnish Pavilion at the Paris Exposition Universelle of 1900, the Finnish National Museum in Helsinki, and Helsinki Railway Station (1906). His early furniture showed some influence of the late Arts and Crafts Movement in Britain and he absorbed other ideas from meeting leading international designers such as Peter Behrens and participation in the Deutscher Werkbund exhibition in Cologne in 1914. He won second prize in the Chicago Tribune Tower Competition in 1922 (the winner was Frank Lloyd Wright) and emigrated to the United States in 1923 with his wife Loja, a weaver, and son Eero. After a brief spell teaching architecture at the University of Michigan he was involved with the wealthy newspaper proprietor George C. Booth in the foundation of the craft-oriented Cranbrook Academy of Art in 1925. Both Eliel and Loja Saarinen were heavily involved with designing buildings, furniture, and furnishing textiles for the new institution. Eliel also showed his work in major exhibitions such as those devoted to Architecture and Industrial Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, where he showed a dining room in 1929 and, with his wife Loja, A Room for a Lady in 1934. In 1932 he became president of the Cranbrook Academy and was influential in bringing a new generation of designers to teach there. They included his son Eero, Charles Eames, and Harry Bertoia.

Finnish-born American architect. He practised with Herman Gesellius and Armas Lindgren from 1896 to 1905, and with Gesellius only until 1907, when he worked on his own, emigrating to the USA in 1923. He established his first American office at Evanston, IL (1923–4), later (1924) moving to Ann Arbor, MI, where he also taught at the School of Architecture, University of Michigan. The firm was joined by his son, Eero Saarinen, in 1937, and then by J. Robert Swanson (1900–81), who was a partner from 1941 to 1947. His early work in Finland was in the National Romantic style to express Finnish identity (when Neo-Classicism was perceived as the architectural language of Tsarist Russia), and was influenced by late Gothic Revival, English Arts-and-Crafts architecture, and contemporary work in the USA, notably the round-arched buildings of H. H. Richardson. Saarinen, Gesellius, and Lindgren designed the Finnish Pavilion for the Exposition Universelle, Paris, of 1900, adding touches of vaguely oriental exoticism. Influences from the Vienna Sezession were apparent in the Hvitträsk Studio House, Kirkkonummi, near Helsinki (begun 1902), designed for the firm as an idealistic variation on English Arts-and-Crafts themes, with a strong input of American vernacular, Shingle style, Jugendstil, and national Finnish elements.

In 1904 Saarinen himself won the competition to design the Helsinki Central Railway Station (erected 1910–14), one of the finest termini of the period, comparable with Leipzig (1905) and Stuttgart (1911—which was influenced by the Helsinki exemplar), having massive masonry walls and a noble composition strongly influenced by the school of Otto Wagner and the work of the Wiener Werkstätte, notably Hoffmann. He came second in the competition to design the Chicago Tribune Building (1922), which made his name in the USA and led to the commission to design the Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, MI. Saarinen designed the Cranbrook School for Boys (1926–30) and the Kingswood School for Girls (1929–30) there, followed by the Institute of Science (1931–3), and Museum and Library (1940–3). This beautiful series of Picturesque buildings was evolved in collaboration with his second wife, Louise (Loja) Gesellius (1879–1968), and is freely eclectic, incorporating Expressionist, round-arched, and vernacular elements. He was President of the Cranbrook Academy of Art from 1932 to 1942, and was joined by his son, Eero, and by Charles Eames, who both taught there. His published works include The Cranbrook Development (1931), The City: Its Growth, Its Decay, Its Future (1943), Search for Form (1948), and The Search for Form in Art and Architecture (1985).

Bibliography

• Christ-Janner (1979)
• Gaidos (ed.) (1972)
• Hausen et al. (1990)
• Lampugnani (ed.) (1988)
• Placzek (ed.) (1982)
• E. Saarinen (1931, 1943, 1948)
• Jane Turner (1996)

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)

Gottlieb Eliel Saarinen
Eliel Saarinen
Personal information
Name	Gottlieb Eliel Saarinen
Nationality	Finnish
Birth date	August 20, 1873
Birth place	Rantasalmi, Finland
Date of death	July 1, 1950 (aged 76)
Place of death	Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, United States
Work
Significant buildings	Helsinki Central railway station National Museum of Finland Vyborg railway station Hvitträsk Kleinhans Music Hall
Significant projects	Finnish pavilion at the World Fair of 1900
Significant design	Finnish markka banknotes introduced in 1922

Gottlieb Eliel Saarinen (August 20, 1873, Rantasalmi, Finland – July 1, 1950, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, United States) was a Finnish architect who became famous for his art nouveau buildings in the early years of the 20th century.

Contents 1 Life and work in Finland 2 Move to the United States 3 Significant Works 4 References and further reading 5 External links

Life and work in Finland

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, and Saarinen. His first major work with the firm, the Finnish pavilion at the World Fair of 1900, 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 1910–15 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 Reval, 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. In April 1913 he received the first place award in an international competition for his plan of Reval. During 1917-18 Saarinen worked on the city-plan for greater Helsinki. He also designed the Finnish markka banknotes introduced in 1922.

On March 6, 1904 Saarinen married 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

Eliel Saarinen moved to the United States in 1923 after his noted competition entry for the Tribune Tower in Chicago, Illinois. Although Saarinen's entry won second place and was not built in Chicago, his design was fully realized in the 1929 Gulf Building in Houston, Texas. 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 as 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.

He became a professor in the University of Michigan's Architecture Department; today a professorship at Michigan's A. Alfred Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning is named for him, and the College holds an annual lecture series in his honor.

His son, Eero (1910–1961), became one of the most important American architects of the mid-20th century, as one of the leaders of the International style. Saarinen's student Edmund N. Bacon achieved national prominence as Executive Director of the Philadelphia City Planning Commission from 1949 to 1970.

Significant Works

Saarinen designed entire city districts of Helsinki, in this picture Haaga district, but they were never finished in reality due to high expenses.

Work	Location	Finished	Picture
Finnish Pavilion at the Exposition Universelle	Paris	1900
Hvitträsk	Kirkkonummi	1902
National Museum of Finland	Helsinki	1904
Helsinki Central railway station	Helsinki	1909
Lahti Town Hall	Lahti	1911
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
Kleinhans Music Hall	Buffalo	1940
First Christian Church	Columbus	1942
Cranbrook Educational Community	Bloomfield Hills	1940's
Christ Church Lutheran	Minneapolis	1949

References and further reading

• A&E with Richard Guy Wilson, Ph.D.,(2000). America's Castles: Newspaper Moguls, Pittock Mansion, Cranbrook House & Gardens, The American Swedish Institute. A&E Television Network.
• Hill, Eric J. and John Gallagher (2002). AIA Detroit: The American Institute of Architects Guide to Detroit Architecture. Wayne State University Press. ISBN 0-8143-3120-3. 
• Merkel, Jayne (2005). Eero Saarinen. London: Phaidon Press. ISBN 071484277X. 
• Pelkonen, Eeva-Liisa (2006). Eero Saarinen. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 0300112823. 
• Roman, Antonio (2003). Eero Saarinen. New York: Princeton Architectural Press. ISBN 1568983409. 
• Saarinen, Aline B. (ed) (1968). Eero Saarinen on His Work. New Haven: Yale University Press. 
• Serraino, Pierluigi (2006). Saarinen, 1910-1961: a Structural Expressionist. KöLn: Taschen. ISBN 3822836451. 

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Eliel Saarinen

• Eliel Saarinen at the archINFORM database

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