Design 200: Eero Saarinen

Eero Saarinen was an industrial designer throughout the 20th century known for his "simple, sweeping, arching structural curves or machine-like realism, that showed a remarkable range of design which depended on color, form, and materials."

Saarinen immigrated to the US at thirteen, and grew up in Bloomfield, Michigan. His father was a teacher at the Cranbrook Academy of Art, where Eero took classes in sculpture and furniture design. Starting in September 1929, he studied sculpture at the Academie de la Grande Chaumiere in Paris, France. He then moved on to study at the Yale School of Architecture, graduating in 1934. Saarinen eventually joined the military in the Office of Strategic Services. He was assigned to draw illustrations for bomb disassembly manuals and to provide designs for the Situation Room in the White House. After his father's death in 1950, Saarinen founded his own architectural company called Eero Saarinen and Associates.

Saarinen first received recognition, while working for his father, for a chair designed with Charles Eames for the Organic Design in Home Furnishings competition in 1940, in which they got first place. The chair was put into production by the Knoll furniture company, who later produced many of his other works. While with Knoll, he designed pieces like the Grasshopper lounge chair and ottoman, the Womb chair and ottoman, the Womb settee, side and arm chairs, and his most famous Tulip or Pedestal group that included side and arm chairs, dining, coffee and side tables, and a stool.

Within his first few decades of design he produced many designs for places like the General Motors Technical Center, John Deere Headquarters, IBM Headquarters, and CBS Headquarters. The interiors of these buildings usually contained "dramatic sweeping staircases," as well as many different types of furniture designed by Saarinen. Eero's company designed many of it's most important works in the few years before his death in 1961. Some of these include: the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial (Gateway Arch) in St. Louis Missouri, the TWA Flight Center at John F. Kennedy National Airport, and the main terminal of Dulles International Airport near Washington DC.

Eero Saarinen was elected a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects in 1952. He is also a winner of the AIA Gold Medal, given "in recognition of a significant body of work of lasting influence on the theory of practice of architecture."

He was criticized during his own time as "having no identifiable style," yet now he is looked back on as "one of the masters of American 20th Century architecture."

I've always enjoyed the works of Saarinen, since I first saw the St. Louis Arch in 2000. I love the simplicity of the monument, yet how complex the interior and base is. My family went to the top of the Arch, and I was fascinated throughout the whole trip to the top and back down. I later realized that he designed John Deere Headquarters, which my family has also visited. With the headquarters, I really like how he chose to not have the building painted, but left it natural steel so that when it rusted, it gave it that orange-ish, rustic look. The interior of the building is very simple, yet very functional and beautiful. I love the view of the building from the entrance road that shows the side view with a pond and rolling hills in front of it. All the different things he designed seem to have such beauty, yet be very functional at the same time, which not all designers are able to accomplish.

Eero Saarinen - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Jan. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eero_Saarinen

"Eero Saarinen - Great Buildings Online." Architecture Design Architectural Images History Models and More - ArchitectureWeek Great Buildings . N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Jan. 2011. <http://www.greatbuildings.com