In Eero Saarinen’s Jet-Age Michigan
When Washington Dulles International Airport opened in 1962, the soaring design of its main terminal, a minimalist structure with a suspended catenary roof, was seen as a bold reflection of American aviation. That same year, the Jet Age- inflected Trans World Airlines Flight Center, with its concrete shells and curvy interior, opened at New York’s Idlewild Airport, which later became John F. Kennedy International Airport. In St. Louis, Missouri, the Gateway Arch, a towering welcome to the Midwest, was completed in 1965.
The common denominator of these masterpieces is the architect Eero Saarinen, one of the most prolific designers of the futuristic style in the 20th century.
While Saarinen’s groundbreaking works gave him international prominence, many people don’t realize that his earliest architectural and design laboratory was in Michigan, where he designed the General Motors Technical Center in Warren, the Saarinen House on the grounds of the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, and the University of Michigan School of Music, Theater and Dance in Ann Arbor, among oth- er buildings. Saarinen’s imprint was largely cultivated in the Midwest.
Saarinen was born in 1910 in Finland. His father, Eliel, was also a highly prolific architect. As the runner-up to the 1922 Chicago Tribune Tower design competition, Eliel Saarinen won $20,000 and used the money to come to the United States with his family.
The Saarinens settled in Ann Arbor. After high school, Saarinen studied sculpture at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris before graduating from the Yale School of Architecture.
One of Saarinen’s first large-scale modernist marvels, the General Motors Technical Center, opened in May 1956. Designated as a National Historic Landmark in 2014, it has a rectangular man-made lake, the 20-meter-tall Design Dome, reflecting pools and a stainless steel water tower.
Further in the lobby is the “floating staircase,” which rises above a small pool of water.
A nearby cafeteria has orange vinyl flooring and orange banquettes. The executive dining room has a blue design, with a hexagonal wood ceiling and a lake view.
Many G. M. vehicles were tested, inspected and approved inside the column-free dome, and it remains a venue for events, featuring models as old as the 1957 Chevy Bel Air and 1963 Corvette Sting Ray.
In Ann Arbor, Saarinen designed the Earl V. Moore Building, which opened in 1964 and houses what is now the School of Music, Theater and Dance. Its wooden doors, well-placed brickwork and large clocks are hallmarks of his architectural style.
Saarinen fell ill at 51 with a brain tumor and died in 1961, before the completion of the flight center, Dulles Airport, the Gateway Arch and the John Deere World Headquarters in Moline, Illinois, among his other high-profile projects.
Today, the Saarinen imprint in Michigan continues to be widely revered. Saarinen gave the world visually-stunning works that influenced modern design. His works will continue to be models for future architects and designers.