‘Eero Saarinen: A Reputation for Innovation’ Exhibition
Taking place now until June 30 at the Museum of Design Atlanta, the ‘Eero Saarinen: A Reputation for Innovation’ exhibition pays tribute to Saarinen’s brief yet brilliant career, in which he designed numerous corporate, educational, cultural, public, and private buildings, including recognizable icons like the Saint Louis Gateway Arch, the TWA Terminal at New York’s JFK Airport, and Dulles Airport in Washington DC. Also breaking new ground by shedding light on a little known chapter of Saarinen’s secret professional life during World War II, the exhibit highlights the architect’s work and a study of the design principles he followed. For more information, please visit here.
“Eero Saarinen: A Reputation for Innovation” Opens Tomorrow in LA
Born in Finland, Eero Saarinen (1910 – 1961) is recognized today as one of America’s most influential architects of the 20th Century. The exhibition Eero Saarinen: A Reputation for Innovation, opening tomorrow at the A+D Architecture and Design Museum in Los Angeles, will highlight his short but brilliant career bookended with two iconic buildings: the unbuilt Smithsonian Gallery of Art which was to be Washington, DC’s first museum of modern art and Dulles International Airport which was designed as the nation’s first jet airport.
Happy Birthdays, Eliel & Eero Saarinen!
Perhaps the most famous father-son duo in the architectural world, Eliel and Eero Saarinen share more than just a last name. The two designers both left profound influences upon the cities where they did their work, both were awarded AIA Gold Medals, and, rather uncannily, both share the very same date of birth.
But, when it comes to their architectural stylings, that’s where the comparisons end. Eliel Saarinen (1873 – 1950), was known in his native Finland for his art nouveau-inspired works (a style later christened as Finnish National Romanticism), culminating in the Helsinki Central railway station.
Eero Saarinen (1910–1961), however, gained fame as one of the leaders of the International Style, designing curvy landmarks that transformed the American landscape. We at ArchDaily have featured many of his projects as AD Classics: the David S. Ingalls Skating Rink, Miller House, the MIT Chapel, and, even more famously, the TWA Terminal, Dulles International Airport (named by PBS as one of the 10 buildings that changed America), and St. Louis’ Gateway Arch.
Read on after the break to learn more about this father-son architectural duo…
Kevin Roche: Architecture as Environment
Kevin Roche: Architecture as Environment will be opening June 16th, 2012 at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C. The exhibit, organized by Yale Institute, will celebrate Kevin Roche’s expansive portfolio, from his early days as Eero Saarinen’s “right-hand man” through the founding of his practice in the 1960s with John Dinkeloo (KRJDA). The exhibit will include images, drawings, interviews, models, as well as original slide presentations to clients. More on the exhibit after the break.
PBS lists Top Ten Buildings that Changed America
PBS has released their selections of the top ten buildings that have changed the way Americans live, work and play. From Thomas Jefferson’s 224-year-0ld Virginia State Capitol to Robert Ventui’s postmodern masterpiece the Vanna Venturi House, each building on the list will be featured in a new TV and web production coming to PBS in 2013. Continue after the break to view the top ten influential buildings and let us know your thoughts!
On Oikonomia: Saarinen’s Ezra Stiles College Open After $55M Renovation
NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT–Yale’s Ezra Stiles College, designed by Eero Saarinen and completed in 1961, reopened to students last month after a one-year, $55 million dollar renovation. The project was the last in a complete overhaul of all the residential colleges at Yale, which started in 1998 and has cost over $500 million (adjusted for inflation).
Students are happy with the work, praising the new brick pizza oven in the dining hall, shift from single to suite-style rooms, and improved furniture and lighting. Jon Rubin ’12 told the Yale Daily News (YDN) the renovated Stiles is “definitely a step up” from the college he lived in two years ago.
AD Classics: David S. Ingalls Skating Rink / Eero Saarinen
Built in 1958, the David S Ingalls Skating Rink is characterized by a sweeping domed roof, was designed by Yale graduate Eero Saarinen and is lovingly known as the Yale whale. This hockey rink contains a span 200 feet long by 85 feet wide and does so with a natural sense of flow and polish.
AD Classics: Gateway Arch / Eero Saarinen
Built to commemorate the westward expansion of the United States, the Gateway Arch designed by Eero Saarinen became a futuristic marker that rose above the cityscape of St. Louis. In its design, this monument drew from previous symbolic constructs of similar aspiration, scale and mathematical precision.
Architecture City Guide: Columbus
This week our Architecture City Guide is headed to Columbus; Indiana that is. We have already made the trip to Columbus, Ohio. This lesser known Columbus only has a population of 44,000 people, but for what it lacks in size it makes up in architecture. Columbus, perhaps, has more notable modern architecture buildings per capita than any city in the United States. In fact, it was much harder narrowing the list down to 12 projects than finding enough for the city guide. With the buildings not on the list, it will be impossible to please everyone. Notably our list doesn’t even include Romaldo Giurgola’s Columbus East High School, Cesar Pelli’s Commons Centre and Mall, and SOM’s Republic Newspaper Building. Take a look at the 12 on our list and add your favorites in the comment section below.
The Architecture City Guide: Columbus list and corresponding map after the break.
AD Classics: Miller House and Garden / Eero Saarinen
Completed in 1957 for industrialist and philanthropist J. Irwin Miller and his family in Columbus, Indiana, the Miller House and Garden embodies midcentury Modernism in it’s fullest. Architect Eero Saarinen‘s steel and glass composition has held together very well, proving the quality and use of materials to be worthy of time.
More on the Miller House and Garden after the break.
Architecture City Guide: Boston
For this week the Architecture City Guide series headed to the city of Boston including neighboring Cambridge just across the Charles River Basin. This area has an overwhelmingly large amount of modern architecture in a small radius, and our list reflects just that. What buildings do you want to see added to our Boston list, share them with us in the comment section below.
The Architecture City Guide: Boston list and corresponding map after the break!
AD Classics: MIT Chapel / Eero Saarinen
Eero Saarinen is one of the most respected architects of the 20th Century, often regarded as a master of his craft. Known for his dynamic and fluid forms, his design for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s chapel takes on a different typology than his previous works. Completed in 1955, the MIT Chapel is a simple cylindrical volume that has a complex and mystical quality within. Saarinen’s simple design is overshadowed by the interior form and light that were meant to awaken spirituality in the visitor.
The non-denominational chapel is intended to be more than just a religious building, rather it’s meant to be a place of solitude and escape that induces a process of reflections. Located at the heart of MITs campus, the chapel’s cylindrical form breaks the rigidity of the campus’s orthogonal grid.
More on the MIT Chapel after the break.
TWA Terminal to transform into a Boutique Hotel
Eero Saarinen’s decommissioned TWA Terminal has been slated for conversion into a boutique hotel. It seems as though the Port Authority’s plan is to use the landmark terminal as the gateway to a separate hotel building that will be squeezed into the crescent of space between Saarinen’s building and JetBlue’s Terminal 5. Along with this proposal, some might think that creating a boutique out of a classic could contradict what Saarinen had in mind. Many design challenges can arise from a simple, yet complex transformation. More on the news after the break.
AD Classics: Dulles International Airport / Eero Saarinen
Known for his innovative, sculptural forms used throughout both architecture and furniture designs, Eero Saarinen includes these same curving and organic forms in the TWA Terminal as well as in the Dulles International Airport on the outskirts of Washington D.C.
More on the Dulles International Airport terminal by Eero Saarinen after the break.
Architecture City Guide: Washington D.C.
Welcome to the Architecture City Guide series. Here at ArchDaily we thought this series could especially be put to use during the upcoming holiday season. Many will be traveling to see family, having family visit, or taking a New Year’s vacation to a new city. Here is a small City Guide list, starting with Washington D.C.
We want to hear from you, share with us your City Guide list for buildings in Washington D.C. More cities to come, so be sure to check back.
Follow the break for our Washington D.C. list and a corresponding map!
AD Classics: TWA Terminal / Eero Saarinen
If you have ever flown in or out of the John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, you may have experienced or noticed Eero Saarinen’s Trans World Flight Center. Even in the hustle and bustle of a busy airport, the building deserves more than just a passing glance. When Saarinen was commissioned in 1956, the client wanted this building to capture the “spirit of flight,” and as visitors rush to make it to their flight there is no choice but to admire the swooping concrete curves that embraced flyers into the jet age.
More photos and information on the TWA Terminal at JFK International Airport after the break.
