Saarinen, Eliel

Saarinen, Eliel (ĕl`ēĕl sä`rĭnĕn), 1873–1950, Finnish-American architect and city planner, resident of the United States after 1923. In Finland, Saarinen's most celebrated building was the railway station in Helsinki. He took second prize in the Chicago Tribune Tower competition in 1922. At the Cranbrook Foundation in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., he designed several buildings and also headed the Academy of Art. His other major works include the Crow Island Elementary School, Winnetka, Ill. (1939); two churches in Columbus, Ind. (1941–42), and Minneapolis, Minn. (1949), and the music shed for the Berkshire Festival at Tanglewood, Mass. His later designs were made in collaboration with his son, Eero Saarinen.