A literature study on architecture by Ar Eero Saarinen with description of some of his works, i.e., the Gateway Arch, the MIT Chapel, the TWA Terminal, and the Miller House.

1. AR EERO SAARINEN

2. Introduction
 Eero Saarinen was a Finnish-American
architect and industrial designer born in the
year 1910.
 His father Eliel Saarinen was a noted and
respected architect.
 And mother was Loja Saarinen, a gifted
sculptor, weaver, photographer, and
architectural model maker.
 He is famous for shaping
his neofuturistic style according to the
demands of the project.
 His designs involved simple, sweeping,
arching structural curves or machine-like
rationalism.
 He died of a brain tumour in 1961 at the age
of 51.

3. Education
 He took courses in sculpture and furniture design at the Cranbrook Academy of
Art.
 1929-1930 Eero studies sculpture at Grande Chaumiere, Paris.
 1930-1934 Eero studies architecture at Yale University.
 1934-1936 Travels in Europe.
Sculpture and
furniture design at
the Cranbrook
Academy of Art
Sculpture at Grande
Chaumiere, Paris.
Architecture at Yale
University.
Travels in Europe

4. Philosophy
 Saarinen adapted his neofuturistic vision to each
individual client and project, which were never
exactly the same.
 He learnt at an early age that each object should
be designed in its "next largest context - a chair
in a room, a room in a house, a house in an
environment, environment in a city plan.“
 His opinion was that, "...all parts of an
architectural composition must be parts of the
same form-world.“
 He was an architect who refused to be restrained
by any preconceived ideas.

5. Work
 After his Europe tour, he returned to
Cranbrook in 1936 to work for his father
and teach at the academy.
 From 1940 to 1944, Saarinen was recruited
to join the military service in the Office of
Strategic Services (OSS) to draw
illustrations for bomb disassembly.
 He also provided designs for
the Situation Room in the White House.
 After his father's death in 1950, Saarinen
founded his own architect's office, "Eero
Saarinen and Associates".
 Following is the list of works.

6. List of Works
Name City State/Country Designed Completed Other Information
Cranbrook School for Boys furnishings Bloomfield Hills Michigan 1925 1931 With Eliel Saarinen
Saarinen House furnishings Bloomfield Hills Michigan 1928 1930
Kingswood School for Girls furnishings Bloomfield Hills Michigan 1929 1931
Hvitträsk Studio and Home Kirkkonummi Finland 1929 1937 Remodel
Swedish Theatre Helsinki Finland 1935 1936 Remodel. With Eliel Saarinen
Fenton Community Center Fenton Michigan 1937 1938 With Eliel Saarinen
J. F. Spencer House Huntington Woods Michigan 1937 1938 First building designed independently
Charles and Ingrid Koebel House Grosse Pointe Farms Michigan 1937 1940 With Eliel Saarinen and J. Robert F. Swanson
Kleinhans Music Hall Buffalo New York 1938 1940 With Eliel Saarinen. Designated a National Historic Landmark in 1989
Crow Island School Winnetka Illinois 1938 1942 With Eliel Saarinen and Perkins & Will. Designated a National Historic
Landmark in 1990
Berskhire Music Centre buildings Lenox Massachusetts 1938 1959 Tanglewood Shed in 1938 (with Eliel Saarinen and Joseph Franz), Chamber
Music Shed in 1947 (with Eliel Saarinen), Edmund Haws Talbot Orchestra
Canopy in 1959
Centre Line Defence Housing Centre Line Michigan 1941 1942 With Eliel Saarinen and J. Robert F. Swanson. 477 housing units

7. Name City State/Country Designed Completed Other Information
Albert and Muriel Wermuth
House
Fort Wayne Indiana 1941 1942
Willow Lodge Willow Run Michigan 1942 1943 Demolished
Grasshopper Chair n/a n/a 1943 1946 Chair design for Knoll Associates
Lincoln Heights Housing Washington District of
Columbia
1944 1946 With Eliel Saarinen and J. Robert F. Swanson.
Hugh Taylor Birch Hall at
Antioch College
Yellow
Springs
Ohio 1944 1947 With Eliel Saarinen and J. Robert F. Swanson.
Des Moines Art Centre Des Moines Iowa 1944 1948 With Eliel Saarinen and J. Robert F. Swanson. Listed on the National
Register of Historic Places in 2004
Case Study House #9 Los Angeles California 1945 1949 With Charles Eames. Saarinen also provided an original plan for House #8,
but Eames completely redesigned it. Listed on the National Register of
Historic Places in 2013
Models 71 and 73 n/a n/a 1945 1950 Chair design for Knoll Associates
Birmingham High School Birmingham Michigan 1945 1952 With Eliel Saarinen and J. Robert F. Swanson
Drake University plan and
buildings
Des Moines Iowa 1945 1957 Harvey Ingham Hall of Science, Fitch Hall of Pharmacy, Women's Dormitory
& Dining Hall (all in 1945 with Eliel Saarinen and J. Robert F. Swanson),
Bible School & Prayer Chapel in 1952, Women's Dormitory #4 in 1957,
Jewett Union addition in 1957
Womb Chair & Ottoman n/a n/a 1946 1948 Chair design for Knoll Associates
Christ Church Lutheran Minneapolis Minnesota 1947 1949 With Eliel Saarinen; solo addition in 1962. Designated a National Historic
Landmark in 2009.

8. Name City State/Country Designed Completed Other Information
Eero Saarinen House Bloomfield
Hills
Michigan 1947 1959 Renovation of a Victorian house
Gateway Arch St. Louis Missouri 1947 1965 Designated a National Historic Landmark in 1987
UAW–CIO Cooperative Flint Michigan 1948 1948 Renovation. Demolished.
General Motors Technical
Centre
Warren Michigan 1948 1956 Designated a National Historic Landmark in 2014
Aspen Music Center Aspen Colorado 1949 1949 With Eliel Saarinen. Demolished in 1963.
Brandeis University plan and
buildings
Waltham Massachusetts 1949 1952 With Matthew Nowicki. Ridgewood Quadrangle Dormitories (1950),
Hamilton Quadrangle Dormitory & Student Centre (1952), Sherman Student
Centre (1952)
Loja Saarinen House Bloomfield
Hills
Michigan 1950 1950 House for Saarinen's widowed mother
J. Irwin and Xenia Miller
Cottage
District of
Muskoka
Ontario 1950 1952
Irwin Union Bank and Trust Columbus Indiana 1950 1954 Designated a National Historic Landmark in 2000
Massachusetts Institute of
Technology buildings
Cambridge Massachusetts 1950 1955 MIT Chapel and Kresge Auditorium
University of Michigan
School of Music
Ann Arbor Michigan 1951 1956
Milwaukee County War
Memorial
Milwaukee Wisconsin 1952 1957

9. Name City State/Country Designed Completed Other Information
Eero Saarinen & Associates Building Bloomfield Hills Michigan 1953 1953
Stephens College Chapel Columbia Missouri 1953 1956
Miller House Columbus Indiana 1953 1957 Designated a National Historic Landmark in 2000
Concordia Senior College Fort Wayne Indiana 1953 1958
Pedestal Series n/a n/a 1954 1957 Furniture design for Knoll Associates. Includes the tulip
chair
Emma Hartman Noyes House at Vassar
College
Poughkeepsie New York 1954 1958
United States Chancellery Building Oslo Norway 1955 1959
United States Chancellery Building London England 1955 1960
University of Chicago plan and buildings Chicago Illinois 1955 1960 Women's Dormitory & Dining Hall (1958; demolished
2001), Law School (1960)
David S. Ingalls Rink New Haven Connecticut 1956 1958
IBM Manufacturing & Training Facility Rochester Minnesota 1956 1958
TWA Terminal New York City New York 1956 1962 Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2005
Hill College House (Hill Hall) Philadelphia Pennsylvania 1957 1960 undergraduate dormitories at the University of
Pennsylvania

10. Name City State/Country Designed Completed Other Information
IBM Thomas J. Watson Research
Centre
Yorktown
Heights
New York 1957 1961
Bell Telephone Corporate Laboratories Holmdel New Jersey 1957 1962
Deere & Co. Administrative Centre Moline Illinois 1957 1963
Ezra Stiles & Morse College New Haven Connecticut 1958 1962
Dulles International Airport Chantilly Virginia 1958 1963
Vivian Beaumont Repertory Theatre &
Lincoln Centre for the Performing Arts
Library & Museum
New York
City
New York 1958 1965
North Christian Church Columbus Indiana 1959 1964 Designated a National Historic Landmark in 2000
Hamden Office Hamden Connecticut 1960 1961 Became new headquarters
Saarinen House New Haven Connecticut 1960 1961 Renovation of a Tudor Revival house
CBS Building New York
City
New York 1960 1965
Athens Airport Athens Greece 1960 1969

11. Some Discussed Works
• Gateway Arch
• MIT Chapel
• TWA Terminal
• Miller House

12. Gateway arch
• St. Louis, Missouri
• Designated a National Historic Landmark in 1987
• The Gateway Arch marked the beginning of his
career
.

13. Introduction
 Location: St. Louis, Missouri, USA
 Site: St. Louis' founding on the west bank of
the Mississippi River
 Height: 630 feett (192 m)
 Depth of Foundation: 60 feet
 Year of design: 1947
 Date of beginning of construction: February 12,
1963
 Date of completion: October 28, 1965
 Total budget: $13 million (equivalent to $190 million
in 2015)
 Date of opening to public: June 10, 1967

14. Saarinen’s Philosophy about the Project
 Saarinen took first prize in the 1948 competition for the design of the Jefferson
National Expansion Memorial, St. Louis.
 For him, "The major concern ...was to create a monument which would have
lasting significance and would be a landmark of our time... Neither an obelisk
nor a rectangular box nor a dome seemed right on this site or for this
purpose. But here, at the edge of the Mississippi River, a great arch did seem
right."
 His opinion was that, "...all parts of an architectural composition must be
parts of the same form-world.“
 The Arch was to rise majestically from a small forest set on the edge of the
great river.
 Saarinen considered it to be perfect in its form and its symbolism.

15. Structure
The structure has two main components:
1. The catenary arch
 The catenary, an ideal form that exists
largely in compression, was the starting
point for Saarinen’s design.
 It is built in the form of an inverted,
weighted catenary arch.
 The mathematical catenary was then
distorted in order to increase aesthetic
impact of the design while still maintaining its
structural performance..
 The gateway arch preserved the tradition of
mathematical rigor and formal simplicity.

16. 2. The triangular sections
 Sweeping a triangular section of
variable size along this curve was the
basis for its form.
 The arch is comprised of steel-clad
concrete triangular sections that vary
from.
 It varies in thickness from 54ft
(bottom), to 17ft (top).
 The steel plates are assembled very
tightly against each other in order to
increase its structural stability.
Source: Gateway-Arch_Final_Report.pdf

18. Elevators
 A complex system of elevator cars
that climb diagonally to the top of
the curved arch carry 12 people at a
time to the top.
 Visitors can view the surrounding
landscape from 630 feet above the
ground.
 These elevator cars were designed
as futuristic pods that were
inspired by the similar aesthetics of
the time.

19. Aesthetics
 It preserves the formal simplicity of American monuments.
 It instils a notion of contemporaneity in the material and programmatic
complexity of the project.
 The tightly assembled steel plates make it look even more slender than it is.
Visitor’s observation area

20. Other Facts about the Monument
 It is the world's tallest arch.
 The tallest man-made monument in the Western Hemisphere.
 It is Missouri's tallest accessible building.
 It was built as a monument to the westward expansion of the United States.
 It is the centrepiece of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial.
 It has become an internationally famous symbol of St. Louis.

21. MIT Chapel
• Cambridge, Massachusetts
• Date of completion: 1955

22. Introduction
 Location: Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
 Height: 30 feet (9.1m)
 Diameter: 50 feet (15 m)
 Year of design: 1950
 Year of completion: 1955

23. Structure
 The MIT Chapel is a simple
cylindrical volume.
 From the outside, the chapel is
a simple, windowless brick
cylinder set inside a very
shallow concrete moat.
 It is topped by an aluminium
spire.
 The brick is supported by a
series of low arches.

25. Exteriors
 From a distance, Saarinen’s chapel
appears as a brick building that
contextually aligns with the dormitories
and the older buildings on campus.
 The MIT Chapel is a simple cylindrical
volume that has a complex and mystical
quality within.
 The chapel’s cylindrical form breaks
the rigidity of the campus’s
orthogonal grid.
 Tucked away in a small forested area
on campus, the windowless chapel sits
as a simple object in the Kresge Oval.

26.  Upon approaching the chapel, one
encounters a shallow concrete moat
that surrounds the chapel that seeps
into the interior around a series of low
arches that provide the structure for
the chapel.
 Saarinen chose bricks that were
rough and imperfect to create a
textured effect.
 The whole is set in two groves of
birch trees, with a long wall to the
east.
 The wall and trees provide a uniform
background for the chapel, and
isolate the site from the noise and
bustle of adjacent buildings.

27. Interiors
 Saarinen’s simple design is
overshadowed by the interior form
and light that were meant to
awaken spirituality in the visitor.
 Due to the windowless façade, the
interior of the chapel is completely
masked by the exterior of the
volume.
 The interior is inundated with a
high level of detail and
atmospheric qualities that are
enhanced by filtered natural light. Glass block that allows light
inside

28.  Once inside, the visitor is transported to a
completely unexpected interior space
that is unknown from the exterior façade.
 Unlike the smooth uninterrupted façade, the
interior brick walls undulate around the
circumference of the chapel, which
creates a new spatial dynamic that is
illuminated by the moat that slips into the
interior from outside.

29. Other Features
 Above the white marble altar, there is a metal
sculpture by Harry Bertoia that hangs from the
circular skylight that shimmers in the sunlight
reflecting and distributing light into the interior
of the chapel.
 The sculpture appears as a cascading waterfall
of light that is constantly adjusting, moving, and
redefining the interior of the chapel.
 Natural light filters upward from shallow slits in
the walls catching rippling reflected light from the
moat.
 This dim ambient light is complemented by
artificial lighting.
 The chapel's curving spire and bell tower was
designed by the sculptor Theodore Roszak and
was added in 1956.
 The chapel has an excellent organ that was
custom-designed for the space by Walter
Holtkamp of the Holtkamp Organ Company.

30. Transformation by Light
 The dynamic interior essentially
transforms into a light box that
absorbs and filters the light from
the small moat and the skylight.
 Light transforms the simple
chapel into a chapel of light that
is consistently undergoing
changing atmospheric and
dematerializing effects.
 Saarinen’s meticulous attention
to detail regarding light
transforms the spiritual space into
a religious architectural
experience.

31. TWA Terminal
• New York City, New York, USA

32. Introduction
 Location: New York City, New York, USA
 Year of design: 1956
 Year of completion: 1962
 Became an official landmark: 1994, voted on by the Landmarks Preservation
Commission
 Shut down in the year: 2001

33. Design Concepts
 The client wanted this building
to capture the "spirit of
flight“.
 In order to capture the concept
of flight, Saarinen used
curves to create spaces that
flowed into one another.
 The exterior's concrete roof
imitates a bird in flight with
two massive "wings.“

34.  The interior consists of a continuous
ribbon of elements, all whisking
themselves in from the exterior, so that
ceilings continuously run into walls
and those walls become floors.
 The swooping concrete curves that
embraced flyers into the jet age.
"All the curves, all the spaces and elements right down to the
shape of the signs, display boards, railings and check-in desks
were to be of a matching nature. We wanted passengers
passing through the building to experience a fully-designed
environment, in which each part arises from another and
everything belongs to the same formal world," stated Eero
Saarinen during construction in 1959.

35. Structure
 The structure consists of a shell of reinforced
concrete with four segments that extend
outward from a central point.
 The concrete "wings" then unfold on either
side of the exterior, preparing for flight.
 Within the concrete, the structure is reinforced
with a web of steel.

37.  The large panels of glass beneath
the concrete are also supported with
steel, and have a contemporary
purple-tint.
 These glass walls are tilted towards
the exterior at an angle as they reach
the ceiling, as if intended for viewers to
imagine looking out from a plane to the
earth below.
 These windows also highlight the
purpose of the structure, providing
views of departing and arriving jets.

38. Other facts
 Seven years after its completion, a new departure-arrival concourse and
lounge were added to the terminal.
 The terminal was shut down in 2001 due to financial deterioration.
 The original structure has not yet undergone the necessary renovations due
to aging of the structure and is still closed to the public.
 Other proposals include an addition of an aviation museum or a restaurant.
 Terminal represents a moment of inventive interaction between engineering
and architecture.

39. Miller House
Columbus, Indiana

40. Introduction
 Location : Columbus,
Indiana
 Building type: Residence
 Area: 6,838 square feet
 Landscape architect: Dan
Kiley

41. Design and Planning
 The Miller house was meant to be a year-
round residence, rather than just a
vacation home.
 Within the interior of the home, four non-
public areas branch off from a central
space, which features a conversation pit.
 These four branches include rooms for
parents, children, guests and servants,
and utilitarian areas (kitchen and
laundry)

42.  A cylindrical fireplace, a 50-foot
long storage wall, and the
sunken conversation pit are key
elements of the modern design of
the central space.
A grid pattern of skylights,
supported by sixteen free-standing
cruciform steel columns, show
concern for the play of light and
shadow.

43. Landscape
 Miller house landscape focuses on the principles
of symmetry and geometry.
 The weeping beeches are present on the west
side of the house to protect living areas from
natural intruders like sun and wind.
 In the southwest corner there is a swimming
pool.

44. An alley of horse chestnut trees lines
the entry drive.
The easternmost edge of the property is
planted with staggered blocks of arborvitae,
creating a hedge that serves as a porous
boundary.

45. Interiors
 50-foot storage wall
made up of cabinets,
bookshelves, and
niches is placed in the
living room.

46. Pedestal chairs in the living rom
Incorporation of steel and glass
The dining area's sculptural white
pedestal chairs become the centre
of focus.
The one-story house comprised of glass
and grey-blue-slate panels is supported
by steel cruciform columns and
illuminated by a grid of skylights.

47. Awards and Achievements
 1940 With Charles Eames wins two first prizes for furniture design, Museum of
Modern Art.
 1960 Elected Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Letters.
 1962 Posthumously awarded Gold Medal, American Institute of Architects.

48. Bibliography
 www.Wikipedia.com
 www.doi.gov
 www.discoverMIT.com
 http://kubuildingtech.org/
 www.archdaily.com
 Gateway-Arch_Final_Report.pdf
 www.nyc-architecture.com
 https://www.nps.gov/jeff/planyourvisit/architect.htm

49. Thank You!!!