Saarinen, Eero

Portrait
Born: Aug 20, 1910 AD
Died: 1961 AD, at 51 years of age.

Nationality: Finnish
Categories: Furniture Designer


1910 -  Born on August 20th in Kirkkonummi, Finland, to Loja, a weaver and photographer, and architect Eliel Saarinen, one of the founders of the Cranbrook Academy of Art, Eero was primed from the start to take a place among the designers and architects developing and strengthening an environment primed to change the domestic and industrial face of the nation.

1923 - Saarinen moved with his parents to the United States.

1929 - He left to study in Paris.

1930-1934 - Returned to enroll in the architecture program at Yale.

1937 - After graduating he worked briefly as a furniture designer with Norman Bel Geddes, but left to join his father's architecture practice in Ann Arbor, renamed Saarinen and Saarinen upon his inclusion.

1940 - He was introduced to Charles Eames and they collaborated on a series of furniture that would dominate the "Organic Design in Home Furnishings" show at the MoMA.

1946 - In the late forties Saarinen designed a number of curvy, sculptural chairs for Knoll. Of the pieces that became well-known, the "Grasshopper" chair was made in bent plywood with an upholstered seat.

1947 - Saarinen won a competition to design the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial in St. Louis and his enormous, simple arch design became the popular "Gateway to the West".

1948 - The "Womb" chair revisited the shape of the "Conversation" chair, updating and improving the cozy design and adding an ottoman and sofa to the series.

1950 - Saarinen designed a series of pedestal furniture for Knoll, hoping to create a clean visual style that eradicated what he called the "slum of legs" that he thought sullied many chairs.

1953-1960 - He designed Kresge Auditorium and Kresge Chapel at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, US Embassy in London and Dulles International Airport.

1961 - Saarinen died very young on Spetember 1st in Ann Arbor; leaving behind children from two marriages and a blossoming career that embraced a new breed of modernism in which there are very few straight lines.

Page last updated: 2:50am, 08th Mar '07

Related Books

Eero Saarinen: Shaping the Future
(Hardcover - Nov 1, 2006)
From the swooping concrete vaults of the TWA Terminal at JFK Airport to the 630-foot-tall Gateway Arch in St. Louis, the iconic designs of Eero Saarinen (1910–1961) captured the aspirations and...

Usually ships in 24 hours
Eero Saarinen: Buildings from the Balthazar Korab Archive (Norton/Library of Congress Visual Sourcebooks in Architecture, Design&Engineering)
(Hardcover - May 26, 2008)
A timely portrait of the work of an architect who expanded the vocabulary of modern architecture.Eero Saarinen and Balthazar Korab constitute a unique team in the history of architecture: Saarinen,...
Usually ships in 24 hours
Eero Saarinen: An Architecture of Multiplicity
by Antonio Roman (Paperback - May 11, 2006)
It has spawned a recent rash of imitators, but many critics believe it to be the best. Now available in paperback, it’s also the most affordable."The text is filled with crisp, beautiful black- and...

In stock soon. Order now to get in line. First come, first served.
The TWA Terminal: The Building Block Series
(Hardcover - Jul 1, 1999)
Eero Saarinen's TWA Terminal is another of his inspired essays in sweepingly curved building forms, this time celebrating flight. Paradoxically, while the terminal's layout and equipment were...

The Fourth Dimension in Architecture: The Impact of Building on Behavior : Eero Saarinen's Administrative Center for Deere&Company, Moline, Illino
by Mildred Reed Hall and Edward T. Hall (Paperback - Sep 7, 1995)
Usually ships in 24 hours
Eero Saarinen: Shaping the Future
by Eero Saarinen (Paperback - Dec 7, 2006)

More Books

Return to full site

This page is copyright © s9.com