Eero Saarinen

Born in Finland in 1910, Eero Saarinen emigrated with his family to the U.S. in 1923.  The young architect's career began in earnest in collaboration with his remarkably gifted family. Although his father, Eliel, was the architect of most of the original buildings comprising Cranbrook Educational Community outside of Detroit, the entire Saarinen family worked on it, and it remained an important touchstone through Eero's career, serving as a model of artistic collaboration and the conviction that architecture must encompass the "total environment," from landscapes to buildings to furnishings and decorative objects.  With his father's death in 1950, Eero Saarinen officially launched his career as an independent architect, heading the extraordinarily active office of Eero Saarinen and Associates.

 In 1953, Eero Saarinen was divorced from Lilian Swann Saarinen (1913-1995), a sculptor, and, the following year, married Aline B. Louchheim (1914-1972), an associate art critic for The New York Times. It was Louchheim who helped Saarinen meet his goal of becoming not only an architect "who contributes to culture" but also a "person of culture." Eero Saarinen's career was cut short by his death in 1961; at that time, nine major buildings were uncompleted, yet no clients severed their ties with the firm, and many of his greatest achievements were realized posthumously.