Eero Saarinen

He was born in Kirkkonummi, Finland, in 1910.³ According to ULAN Full Record Display (Getty Research), “Eero Saarinen emigrated with his family to the United States in 1923”.³ He worked as an architect and industrial designer during the 1940s and 1950s.² He was part of an American architectural partnership active from 1947 to 1950 and an American architectural firm active from 1950 to 1961.³

Saarinen designed the TWA Terminal at New York's JFK Airport, noted for its swooping concrete vaults.⁴ He also designed the 630-foot-tall Gateway Arch in St. Louis, the CBS Building, and Dulles Airport.^2,4 His work included furniture design in addition to architecture.³

The monograph Eero Saarinen: Shaping the Future states that his designs captured the aspirations and values of mid-20th-century America.⁴ Jayne Merkel, a board member of Architectural Design, describes Saarinen as advancing the design of mass-producible architecture in an era of postwar optimism.⁵ According to PBS American Masters, Saarinen's sudden death ended one of the most influential careers in American architecture.¹ Architecture critic Paul Goldberger, curator Donald Albrecht, author Jayne Merkel, and Cathleen McGuigan of Architectural Record have said that Saarinen's work stands apart and continues to inspire.¹

According to American Masters, Aline Saarinen, a New York Times art critic, was Eero Saarinen's second wife.¹ The PBS documentary Eero Saarinen: The Architect Who Saw the Future explores his life and work.¹ The film includes archival interviews with Eero and Aline, with Peter Franzén voicing Eero and Blythe Danner reading from Aline's memoirs.¹ According to American Masters, the American Masters film is funded in major part by the A. Alfred Taubman Foundation and includes comment from Paul Goldberger, Donald Albrecht, Jayne Merkel, and Cathleen McGuigan.¹

The Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA) received the bulk of its Saarinen collection from David Graham Powrie in 2001, as part of a donation of 800 drawings, photographs, and a film.⁶ Saarinen executed completed architectural projects in the United States, Greece, Norway, and the United Kingdom.⁶ Materials are arranged by project into eight series, with smaller transfers made in 2002 and 2005.⁶ Yale University Library holds a complementary collection of Saarinen's work.⁶