I recently attended an exhibition on Eero Saarinen, the Finnish American architect. Saarinen designed corporate, governmental, academic and residential buildings in the mid 20th century. His works include the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, the TWA terminal at New York's JFK airport, the IBM manufacturing and training facility in Rochester, Minnesota, the American Embassy in London, and the Ingalls Hockey Rink on the campus of Yale University (see sketch), to name but a few. He is also renowned for his furniture design, including the iconic Knoll "Womb" chair.
Saarinen's mid-century modernism was highly influential, but criticized by some contemporaries for lacking stylistic discipline. Admirers, however, believe that Saarinen "rejected the dogma of an orthodox modernism and instead adopted a varied approach to architectural design, letting the subject and site guide his inventive solutions".
If you are interested in architecture and design, check out Eero Saarinen.
