Saarinen, Eero
(1910–61) architect; born in Kirkknonummi, Finland. Brought to the U.S.A. in 1923 by his father, the Finnish architect/designer Eliel Saarinen, he studied sculpture in Paris and received a graduate degree in architecture from Yale (1934). In partnership with his father (1936–50) he helped define modernist architecture in a series of public, institutional, and commercial buildings known for their innovative technology and use of materials (the stainless steel Gateway Arch, St. Louis (1948–64)); General Motors Technical Center, Warren, Mich. (1951–56); John Deere and Company Building, Moline, Ill. (1957–63). His later sculptural designs are known for their formal imagery (Ingalls Hockey Rink, Yale University (1956–59)); TWA Terminal, Kennedy International Airport, New York (1956–62); Washington Dulles International Airport, Chantilly, Va. (1958–62). His last work and only skyscraper was the CBS Headquarters, New York (1960–64). Outstanding among the second generation of modern American architects, Saarinen viewed "the way [a] building is used" as determinative of its style; his work ranged stylistically from his early essays in the International style to the extreme plasticity of his later buildings, each project exhibiting a unique design solution. Saarinen was posthumously awarded the Gold Medal of the American Institute of Architects in 1962.Saarinen, Eero
(1910–1961)
Saarinen, Eero
Born Aug. 20, 1910, in Kirkkonummi, Finland; died Sept. 1, 1961, in Ann Arbor, Mich., USA. American architect. Son of Eliel Saarinen.
Saarinen, who emigrated to the USA in 1923, graduated in architecture from Yale University in 1934. After his father’s death, he completed their joint design of the General Motors Research Center in Warren, Mich. (1945–55)—a complex reflecting the influence of Mies van der Rohe. Saarinen subsequently passed from rigid rationalism to a search for the symbolic, individualistic, and romantic expressiveness of architectural form. This transition is evident in the Harvard University chapel (1955) and the Yale University hockey rink (1958). Saarinen later turned to sculptural forms, as seen in the TWA terminal at Kennedy Airport in New York (1962). An organic combination of plastically rich architectural form and design distinguishes the Dulles Airport outside Washington (completed in 1962).
In the late 1950’s Saarinen designed a number of buildings in the official style of American neoclassicism (US Embassy in London, 1960). During the same period he designed structures marked by stylized pseudo-Gothic motifs (a dormitory complex at Yale University, 1962). Exaggerated monumentality characterizes the CBS skyscraper in New York (1964). Continually experimenting, Saarinen failed to develop his own consistent style. However, his search for symbolic imagery greatly influenced the development of US architecture after 1960.
REFERENCES
Khan-Magomedov, S. O. “Ot ‘shkoly Misa’ k pozdnemu Le Korbiuz’e (Eero Saarinen).” In the collection Arkhitektura Zapada: Mastera i techeniia [book] 1. Moscow, 1972. Pages 115–34.Temko, A. Eero Saarinen. New York, 1962.
A. V. IKONNIKOV