Photograph Courtesy Yale University
Who would we be without the Gateway Arch, those 630 feet of stainless steel in the shape of a big wicket, planted where this former fur-trading post meets the grande dame of American rivers? And how is it that the scion of a Finnish design dynasty bestowed upon us the singular emblem of our civic identity? Who was Eero Saarinen, and why has it taken decades since his untimely death in 1961 for people outside Helsinki to get his peculiar genius?
"Eero Saarinen: Shaping the Future" is the first major retrospective exhibition on the Finnish architect's life and work. Organized by New York's Finnish Cultural Institute, Helsinki's Museum of Finnish Architecture, the District of Columbia's National Building Museum and the Yale School of Architecture, the show pulls into Washington University's Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum on January 30.
The exhibition includes drawings, models and films of Saarinen's signature projects — the Arch, the TWA Flight Center at JFK Airport, Dulles International Airport — plus the elegant furniture he designed, such as his "tulip chair."
Washington University architecture professor Peter MacKeith, associate dean of the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, was instrumental in bringing the exhibition to St. Louis. For a long time, MacKeith says, the architecture community had considered Saarinen more of an exotic oddity than a modern master.
"There was a long period subsequent to his death in '61 when his work was less regarded," MacKeith explains. "It was considered a sort of 'one-off,' unrepeatable, difficult to learn from. In the '90s, everything was reevaluated. His tables and chairs began to have great value in design and auction terms. His expressive form presaged the way some architects in the current moment achieve these sorts of things through digital technologies. Then there's the legacy of how he structured his office; the now-famous architects who trained under him; his fascination and skepticism with technology and materials."
Saarinen moved from Finland to the U.S. with his famous father, architect Eliel Saarinen, and the rest of his family in 1923, at age 13. He soon began to co-design buildings with his father and then on his own, as well as in concert with such colleagues as design superstar and St. Louis son Charles Eames. He became known for abstract, curved forms that were arresting in the midst of urban, boxy cityscapes.
In 1947, Saarinen — along with 171 competitors — entered the contest to design the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial on the St. Louis riverfront. His design called for a giant catenary arch, the shape of a hanging chain, but inverted. Cross-sections of the legs were equilateral triangles 56 feet to a side at the base, tapering to 17 feet at the top. Elevators would carry visitors up through the legs to an observation deck at the apex. At 630 feet, it would be the tallest monument in the United States.
The tale of Saarinen's victorious entry, its singular construction and its legacy is the subject of "The Gateway Arch and St. Louis," a sister exhibition to the Eero Saarinen show that will occupy Steinberg Hall, next door to the Kemper Museum.
MacKeith, who organized this exhibit with colleague Eric Mumford, says, "There are lots of beguiling and compelling aspects of the Arch's design — it continually presents itself in changing ways. Depending on your orientation, the season, the light, the weather, the air quality, if you're in a car, walking ... It's much more dynamic to my mind than, say, the Washington Monument. This is what makes significant architecture. It changes your perception of the world the moment you see it."
"Eero Saarinen: Shaping the Future" is on exhibit through April 27. Entrance to the exhibition is free. The Kemper Art Museum is located on the Washington University campus, at the intersection of Skinker and Forsyth. Hours are 11 a.m.–6 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Thursday, 11 a.m.–8 p.m. Friday, and 11 a.m.–6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. For more information, call 314-935-4523 or go to kemperartmuseum.wustl.edu.
