Design Icon: Eero Saarinen
Bold curves, colorful accents and technical vision: Finnish-American architect Eero Saarinen’s body of work represents Modernism’s playful side in bloom.
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.
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.