Eero Saarinen
Eero Saarinen (Helsinki, 1910 - Ann Arbor, Mich., 1961) was an Finnish - American architect and furniture designer. Between 1931 and 1934 Saarinen studied architecture at Yale University. He died of a brain tumor in 1961 at the age of 51, and never lived to see the completion of some of his most important works: the St. Louis Gateway Arch; Dulles International Airport, near Washington, D.C.; the TWA terminal at Kennedy Airport and the CBS headquarters, in New York City. [1] His most famous furniture design was the chair "Tulip", a first prize competition in 1940.
Saarinen’s own work included a series of dramatically different designs that displayed a richer and more diverse vocabulary. In questioning the presuppositions of early modern architecture, he introduced sculptural forms that were rich in architectural character and visual drama unknown in earlier years. The exciting results were welcomed by many who were bored by the uniformity and austerity of the International Style of modern architecture.[2]
The North Christian Church in Columbus, Indiana was his last building design (completed in 1964).
St. Louis Gateway Arch
Gateway to the West, St. Louis, Missouri (completed in 1965).
Awards
- A collaborative design with his father for the mall in Washington, D.C., won first prize in the Smithsonian Institution Gallery of Art competition (1939).
- Prizewinning Jefferson National Expansion Memorial design for St. Louis, Mo. (1948)
- Fellow of the American Institute of Architects (1952).
- Winner of the AIA Gold Medal (1962) (posthumous).
