EERO SAARINEN ON HIS WORK
A Selection of Buildings Dating from 1947 to 1964
with Statements by the Architect
Eero Saarinen, Aline B. Saarinen [Editor]
Eero Saarinen, and Aline B. Saarinen (editor): EERO SAARINEN ON HIS WORK [A SELECTION OF BUILDINGS DATING FROM 1947 TO 1964 WITH STATEMENTS BY THE ARCHITECT ]. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1962. Second printing from 1963. Folio. Black paper covered boards. Burlap backstrip with printed label. Publishers slipcase with tipped on photo illustration. 108 pp. 47 black and white photographs. 26 drawings, sketches and plans. Interior unmarked and very clean. Out-of-print. Slipcase with trivial wear. A fine copy housed in a very good or better Publishers slipcase.
10.25 x 14.25 hardcover book with 108 pages with 47 black and white photographs and 26 drawings, sketches and plans. Honored as one of the 50 Books of the Year by the American Institute of Graphic Arts in 1962. The 300-line screen fidelity of the photographs was an unheard-of technical accomplishment at the time. In Saarinen's own words, this book tells "what he felt was the scope and purpose of architecture, and explains the thinking behind the work which made him one of the twentieth-century's foremost architects."
Unlike the modern masters Wright and Le Corbusier, Saarinen wrote very little during his life; this work published posthumously is an important record of the architect and his work. FREITAG 11187.
EERO SAARINEN ON HIS WORK features some of Saarinen's best designs including the TWA Terminal at JFK International Airport, the GM Technical Building, Ingalls Hockey Rink at Yale and the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial in St. Louis, The "Tulip chair" and more.
Buildings include Gateway Arch, St. Louis, Missouri; General Motors Technical Center, Warren, Michigan; Kresge Auditorium and Chapel, MIT, Cambridge, Massachussetts; The Law School at the University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois; US Embassies in Oslo and London; IBM's Thomas A. Watson Research Center in Yorktown, New York; Bell Labs Holmdel Complex in Holmdel, New Jersey; Milwaukee County War Memorial Center, Milwaukee, Wisconsin; David S. Ingalls Hockey Rink, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut; TWA Terminal at JFK International Airport; Dulles International Airport; Hill College House, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Ezra Stiles and Morse Colleges, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut; John Deere World Headquarters, Moline, Illinois; and North Christian Church, Columbus, Indiana.
"Each age must create its own architecture out of its own technology and one which is expressive of its own Zeitgeist—the spirit of the time". -- Eero Saarinen
Although Eero Saarinen (1910-1961) made his reputation in the United States following World War II, he had his roots in Europe. Until 1923, he lived in Finland with his mother, textile artist Loja Saarinen, and his father, the renowned architect and town planner, Eliel Saarinen. For Eero, architecture was a discipline like the fine arts, and in particular, sculpture. He called himself a "form giver" and everything he designed had a strong sculptural quality.
Saarinen began his career as a student at Yale University and after travels and studies in Europe returned to the U.S. and taught for a brief period at Cranbrook Academy. Cranbrook had been founded in 1927 by publisher George C. Booth and Eliel Saarinen, the latter of whom became Director in 1932. Two of its graduates were Charles Eames and Florence Knoll Bassett (then Schust). Saarinen and Eames collaborated on various projects, culminating in a range of furniture that won first prize at an exhibition held at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1940 entitled, "Organic Design in Home Furnishings." After 1946, Eames went to work for Herman Miller, and Saarinen became associated with Knoll Associates. A number of Saarinen's chairs for Knoll were to become landmarks in the history of 20th century design.
A request from Florence Knoll Bassett to create "a chair she could curl up in," led to Saarinen's 1948 design of the Womb Chair and Ottoman. In the decade that followed, Saarinen created a range of office chairs for Knoll, as well as his classic Pedestal Table and Tulip Chair. Saarinen's stated objective with the Pedestal Collection was to clear up the "slum of legs" in domestic interiors. Like his furniture, Saarinen's architecture is characterized by expressive sculptural forms. Among his masterworks are the TWA Terminal at Kennedy Airport, New York; Dulles International Airport, Washington, D.C.; and the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Missouri.