Eero Saarinen at Yale

Eero Saarinen, the unorthodox and controversial Finnish-born architect, is the subject of Shaping the Future, an exhibition that charts Saarinen’s career - from the 1930s through the early 1960s - as one of the most influential and prolific architects of the 20th century (despite his early death at the age of 51).

It’s fitting that this exhibition ends its tour at Yale University where Saarinen studied and worked, and where visitors can directly engage with his designs, that include: Yale’s Ingalls Hockey Rink with its swooping vaults, and the buildings of Morse College and Ezra Stiles College.

The Yale School of Architecture Gallery exhibition focuses on Saarinen’s building projects while the Yale University Art Gallery presents material related to Saarinen’s early life and his furniture.

Although born in Finland, Saarinen lived and worked in America and was instrumental in creating an international image of the United States. Previously unseen letters, large-scale models, drawings and plans exhibited in the Yale School of Architecture Gallery date from Saarinen’s time as an architecture student at Yale, and show how Saarinen adapted his modernist vision to individual projects from airport buildings to the headquarters of IBM.

His designs are seen as some of the most symbolic expressions of American identity and aspiration that emerged in the decades after World War II. Saarinen’s iconic designs include the majestic 630 foot-tall Gateway Arch (1948-64) in Saint Louis, the General Motors Headquarters (1948-56) outside Detroit, and the TWA Terminal (1956-62) at New York’s J.F.K Airport.

The Yale Art Gallery presents Saarinen’s chairs, tables and beds that he designed for the Kingswood School for Girls (1929-31). Examples of the Womb Chair (1948), which pioneered the use of polyester resin, show a more domestic dimension to Saarinen’s work.

On the third floor, the rare pieces of silver designed by Saarinen’s father, the architect Eliel Saarinen, are particularly worth a look.