Overview

For more than half a century people have marveled at the sweeping forms of the Trans World Airlines terminal at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York, lined up to enter the St. Louis Gateway Arch, and admired the mid-century modern lines of Knoll s Womb and Tulip chairs. Yet few outside the architecture profession can name the designer of these wide-ranging projects: the Finnish-American architect Eero Saarinen (1910 1961). Saarinen made the cover of TIME magazine in 1956, heralded as a key practitioner of postwar modernism. He counted among his clients several of the world s most powerful corporations and educational institutions (among them General Motors, IBM, Yale University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology), and pioneered the development of new materials and building technologies. Yet in the decades following his death, interest in his work waned and much of his archive became difficult to access This highly anticipated monograph is the first major publication on Eero Saarinen since the early 1960s and fills a significant gap in Saarinen scholarship. Written in an accessible, journalistic style, it will be of interest to architects and students as well as general readers interested in the significant figures of twentieth-century modernism

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9780714842776

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Reviews

'a fine-looking, well-written, serious book, lavish with photographs and drawings that comprehensively describe each project. The initial chapters about Eliel's work, Finland, and the Saarinen family, are delightful, and the biographical notes about Eero's friends, loves, clients and colleagues make the whole thing warm and human. This new assessment of Saarinen places him in his time, but makes him fresh and relevant to our own.' Building Design, September 2005 'the first comprehensive account of Saarinen's career - beautifully produced. The illustrations include a lot of unfamiliar material, and the thoroughly researched, jargon-free text is a pleasure to read. - Merkel is surely right in saying that in the age of Calatrava, Gehry and computer generated biomorphism, [Saarinen's] work is of renewed interest. - it feels surprisingly contemporary in its love of exuberant form and passion for the particularities of materials and place.' Richard Weston, RIBA (Royal Institute of Architects) Journal, October 2005 'A good book on the work of Eero Saarinen is overdue ... This book helps correct the balance by documenting an extraordinary body of work that was, and still is, inspiring in its exploration of use, form and material. ... handsomely produced ... a welcome addition to a limited record of scholarship on this significant twentieth-century architect.' The Architectural Review, December 2005 '[Saarinen] was one of the generation that rejected the anonymity of International Modernism in favour of something much more personalized. ... he was an early 'signature architect' of the kind we are so familiar with today. ... a much more thorough and interesting monograph than most. ... For a time eclipsed, Saarinen's work now seems very contemporary' Hugh Pearman, World of Interiors, March 2006

'Merkela (TM)s handsome volume presents the first truly comprehensive survey, and seeks to demonstrate how Saarinen could be a mainstream and avante-garde at the same time.' (New Yorker)

'Merkeli'1/2s handsome volume presents the first truly comprehensive survey, and seeks to demonstrate how Saarinen could be i'1/2mainstream and avante-garde at the same time.' (New Yorker)

Author Information

Jayne Merkel is an architectural historian and critic and serves on the editorial board of Architectural Design in London. She was the editor of Oculus, the journal of the New York chapter of the American Institute of Architects, from 1995 to 2002. A prolific writer, she is the author of five books, and over the past 25 years has written for Art in America, Progressive Architecture, and Harvard Design Magazine, amongst many other publications. She was Architecture Critic for The Cincinnati Enquirer from 1977 to 1988, and is a former Director of the Graduate Program in Criticism at the Parsons School of Design in New York.

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