Biography

In 1923, at the age of thirteen, Eero Saarinen left Finland with his family and moved to the United States. There his father Eliel Saarinnen continued his work as an architect. At this time he was already a famous planner who popularized avant-garde architecture in Finland in the New Building style. His main work is the Helsinki train station. From 1929, Eero Saarinen studied sculpture at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris. In 1930 he enrolled at the prestigious Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, to study architecture. He completed his studies in 1934. Saarinen then stayed in Finland and Europe. He then joined his father's office in Ann Arbor in 1936. In 1941 he became his partner with J. Robert Swanson. In 1950, Saarinen founded his own architectural practice under the name "Eero Sarinen and Associates" in Birmingham.

His first significant project was the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial near Saint Louis (1948), for which he won the competition. However, Saarinen's plans were not implemented until 1963, after his death. The project is still characterized by its initial stylistic language of rationalism with its geometric shapes. In this he modeled himself on the famous Bauhaus architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. The building is a 192 meter high parabolic arch made of concrete and stainless steel cladding. The General Motors Technical Center in Warren, Michigan, presents itself in the same expressive style. The building designed by Saarinen features geometric steel and glass architecture and was built between 1949 and 1956. The Kresge Auditorium at the Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts, which was completed between 1953 and 1955, belongs to the same cubic style.

The striking feature of this building is the roof construction, which is made up of concrete shells in the shape of a spherically arched triangle. The institute chapel received a brick cylinder. As an independent architect, Saarinen found his own architectural style. He realized an organic architectural language in which dynamic forms predominate. In doing so, he created a subjective counterpoint to the existing constructivism. His two most famous buildings include the Trans World Airlines Terminal at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York, which was built between 1956 and 1962, and the floating roof of Dulles International Airport in Washington D.C., which was built between 1958 and 1962 became. His other completed projects include the David S. Lngalls Ice Hockey Hall at Yale University in New Haven, which was completed between 1953 and 1959, and the John Deere and Company Administration Center in Moline, Illinois (1957-1963 ).

Eero Saarinen died on September 1, 1961 in Ann Arbor, USA.
- IMDb mini biography by: Christian_Wolfgang_Barth

During World War II he joined the newly-formed Office of Strategic Services (OSS), which would later morph into the Central Intelligence Agency.

Best known for designing the Washington Dulles International Airport outside Washington, D.C., the TWA Flight Center in New York City, and the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Missouri.