Sculptural structures
"Each age must create its own architecture out of its own technology and one which is expressive of its own Zeitgeist—the spirit of the time".
- Eero Saarinen
Eero Saarinen (1910-1961) was one of the 20th century’s great visionaries, both in the fields of furniture design (he created the ubiquitous Knoll "Tulip" chairs and tables, for example) and in architecture. Among his greatest accomplishments are monuments that shaped architecture in postwar America and became icons in themselves: Washington D.C.'s Dulles International Airport, the very sculptural and fluid TWA terminal at JFK Airport in New York, and the 630-foot high "Gateway to the West," the Arch of St. Louis. Marrying curves and dynamic forms with a Modernist aesthetic, he brought a whole new dimension to architecture.
The author: Pierluigi Serraino is a practicing architect residing in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is the author of many books on architecture, including TASCHEN’s Modernism Rediscovered. His articles and projects have appeared in magazines and journals such as Architectural Design, ArCA, Global Architecture, Hunch, Costruire, Architettura, ACADIA, and Journal of Architectural Education.
