Our Architect

Gottlieb Eliel Saarinen, world-renowned Finnish-American architect and artist was born in Rantasalmi, Finland in 1873. Educated in Helsinki, Saarinen studied architecture at the Polytechnic Institute and painting at the Imperial Alexander University. One of the greatest influences on modern architecture, Saarinen helped pioneer the Arts and Crafts movement in Finland and was a leading proponent of the Art Deco and the modernist currents design movement. Famous for his rejection of 19th-century eclecticism, much of Saarinen's work depended on the integration of cultural symbolism with materials and form. Saarinen borrowed ideas for his works from the forms and materials of past, present, regional, and international architecture.

Saarinen first received international attention as the architect for the Finnish pavilion for the Paris Exposition of 1900. This was the first building that Saarinen designed with the help of his classmates and partners, Herman Gesellius and Armas Lindgren. The three men worked together to design villas in northern Europe including Saarinen's own villa, Hvittsask (1901-03). Built on a ridge just above Lake Vittsask, the complex included a home and studio for each partner. Saarinen lived there with his wife Loja, his daughter Pipsan (born 1904) and son Eero (born 1910). Saarinen continued to work and live in Finland and with the help of his partners designed the Finnish National Museum (1902-12). It was the last project the three would work on and is considered the culmination of the National Romantic Movement in Finland. Each museum department was designed separately and given its own architecturally identifiable form, a characteristic that was typical of Romanticism. During the same time, Saarinen began work on his most important solo project in Europe. In designing the Helsinki Central Railway Station and State Railways Administration Building (1904-19), Saarinen utilized local masonry techniques to emphasize bold architectural forms and expressive sculptural decoration. It was built so that a clean-lined vertical tower is surrounded by lower, clearly proportioned horizontal masses.

In 1922, Saarinen won second prize and $20,000 in the Chicago Tribune Building competition. It was the design for the Tribune Tower that brought him attention from American audiences and led him to relocate to the Midwest in 1923. After living and working in Chicago for half a year, Saarinen was convinced by Emil Lorch, director of the Department of Architecture at the University of Michigan, to join the faculty at the University and relocate to Ann Arbor. It was here in Michigan that Saarinen became acquainted with George Gough Booth, successful Detroit publisher and Founder of Cranbrook Educational Community. With his son by his aside as partner and fellow instructor at the Art Academy, Eliel continued to design buildings such as the Crow Island school in Winnetka Illinois (1939), the Tabernacle Church of Christ in Columbus Indiana (1940) the Smithsonian Institute (1939) and the Tanglewood Opera House in Lenox Massachusetts (1944).

Eliel Saarinen died July 1, 1950. Eero went on to design the TWA Terminal New York (1962), Austere CBS Building New York (1965), and the prize winning Jefferson National Expansion Memorial/Gateway Arch (1965), a monumental stainless steel arch 630ft high in the form of a great centenary (elliptical) curve. Eero Saarinen died in Ann Arbor, Michigan September 1, 1961.