Design Icon: Eero Saarinen
His iconic buildings, from the Gateway Arch to the Miller House, helped symbolize America’s buoyant post-Cold War period, and often looked as streamlined and glamorous as the jets taxiing in front of one of his greatest creations, D.C.’s Dulles International Airport.
"Frank Lloyd Wright, Mies, and Corbu have given us the ABCs…it is up to us to develop a complete language of modern architecture. We have a long and terribly challenging and marvelous job ahead of us."—Eero Saarinen
Saarinen’s work stands taller when his relatively short career is taken into account (he died in 1961 at age 51 without seeing many of his major works completed). He developed a reputation for showmanship while creating a succession of glittering headquarters for industrial giants such as John Deere and IBM, airport terminals and university buildings. While critics at the time criticized his flexibility and lack of a definitive style, recent reappraisals have bolstered his reputation as a 20th-century icon, a tireless worker who would adapt every project to its own specific needs and environment.
General Motors Technical Center (1955)
Warren, Michigan
Dulles International Airport (1962)
Sterling, Virginia
Gateway Arch (1965)
St. Louis, Missouri
John Deere Headquarters (1964)
Moline, Illinois
Ingalls Rink at Yale University (1958)
New Haven, Connecticut
TWA Flight Center (1962)
New York, New York
Milwaukee War Memorial (1959)
Milwaukee Wisconsin
Miller House (1957)
Columbus, Indiana
Kresge Auditorium at MIT (1955)
Cambridge, Massachusetts
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