PROJECT

Eero Saarinen: Shaping the Future results from the efforts of four institutions: the Finnish Cultural Institute in New York, the Museum of Finnish Architecture, and the National Building Museum, with the support of the Yale University School of Architecture. When the project was first conceived, there had never been a retrospective of the life and work of Eero Saarinen, one of the most prolific and important architects of the 20th century. A meeting held in 2000 in New York City established the project's Finnish-American scope. The project's most important milestone, however, occurred in 2002 when Kevin Roche, Saarinen's colleague, donated the Eero Saarinen and Associates office archives to the Yale University Library. For the first time, dozens of scholars and students, from Finland and the United States were able to inspect these original drawings, letters, and other rare materials. Seminars devoted to Saarinen were held with Yale undergraduate and graduate students and previously unpublished and forgotten projects were discovered. A two-day symposium at the Yale School of Architecture in April 2005 offered the public its first encounter with this new research.

The collaborative nature of the project has fostered ties between the two countries that shaped Saarinen's life and work: Finland, where he was born in 1910 and spent his childhood under the guidance of a creative and artistic family, and the United States, to which he and his family emigrated in 1923 and where he was educated and maintained his professional office.

The launch of the exhibition at the Kunsthalle Helsinki in October 2006 celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Museum of Finnish Architecture. The exhibition travels in Europe and the United States until 2010, the centennial of Saarinen's birth. The exhibition, its accompanying book, the exhibition brochure, the website, and the documentary flm serve to return Saarinen, more than four decades since his untimely death in 1961, to the center of architectural discourse.

Eero Saarinen was one of the most prolific, unorthodox, and controversial masters of 20th-century architecture. Although his career was cut short by death at age 51 in 1961, Eero Saarinen was one of the most celebrated architects of his time, both at home and abroad.

In the postwar decades of what has been called “the American Century,” Saarinen helped create the international image of the United States with his designs for some of the most potent symbolic expressions of American identity such as St. Louis Gateway Arch (1948-64), General Motors Technical Center (1948-56), Detroit and TWA Terminal (1956-62) at New York's John F. Kennedy Airport

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NEWS

January 29, 6:30 PM & January 30, 1:00 PM
Saarinen @ 100: Closing Symposium at the Museum of the City of New York
More info

January 30, 11:00 AM
Gallery Tour at the Museum of the City of New York
More info

November 10, 2009 to January 31, 2010
Eero Saarinen: Shaping the Future exhibition at the Museum of the City of New York

 

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SHAPING THE FUTURE

Eero Saarinen: Shaping the Future is a comprehensive project exploring the work of one of the most prolific, unorthodox, and controversial masters of 20th-century architecture.

The project consists of three key componenets:
» Exhibition
» Publication
» Research Database

IN COLLABORATION WITH

Finnish Cultural Institute in New York
Museum of Finnish Architecture
National Building Museum, Washington, D.C.

WITH THE SUPPORT OF

Yale School of Architecture