Eero Saarinen
Eero Saarinen was a Finnish American architect and industrial designer of the 20th century famous for varying his style according to the demands of the project: simple, sweeping, arching structural curves or machine-like rationalism. Wikipedia
Born: August 20, 1910, Kirkkonummi
Education: Yale University (1934), Cranbrook Academy of Art, Académie de la Grande Chaumière, Yale School of Architecture, Cranbrook Educational CommunityMore
ABOUT HIM
INTRODUCTION
- The first major work by Saarinen, in collaboration with his father, was the General Motors Technical Center in Warren, Michigan. It follows the rationalist design Miesian style: incorporating steel and glass, but with the added accent of panels in two shades of blue.
- The GM technical center was constructed in 1956, with Saarinen using models. These models allowed him to share his ideas with others, and gather input from other professionals.
- With the success of the scheme, Saarinen was then invited by other major American corporations to design their new headquarters: these included John Deere, IBM, and CBS.
- Despite their rationality, however, the interiors usually contained more dramatic sweeping staircases, as well as furniture designed by Saarinen, such as the Pedestal Series.
-In the 1950s he began to receive more commissions from American universities for campus designs and individual buildings; these include the Noyes dormitory at Vassar, as well as an ice rink, Ingalls Rink, and Ezra Stiles & Morse Colleges at Yale University.
-He served on the jury for the Sydney Opera House commission and was crucial in the selection of the now internationally known design by Jørn Utzon.
-Eero Saarinen and Associates was Saarinen's architectural firm; he was the principal partner from 1950 until his death in 1961.
-Under Eero Saarinen, the firm carried out many of its most important works, including the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial (Gateway Arch) in St. Louis, Missouri, the Miller House in Columbus, Indiana, the TWA Flight Center at John F. Kennedy International Airport that he worked on with Charles J. Parise, and the main terminal of Dulles International Airport near Washington, D.C..
- Many of these projects use catenary curves in their structural designs.
REPUTATIONEero Saarinen was elected a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects in 1952. He is also a winner of the AIA Gold Medal in 1962.
BUILDINGS WELL KNOWN JEFFERSON NATIONAL EXPANSION MEMORIAL (in short : cantenary arch) 
The Gateway Arch, or Gateway to the West, is an arch that is the centerpiece of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial in St. Louis, Missouri. It was built as a monument to the westward expansion of the United States. At 630 feet (192 m), it is the tallest man-made monument in the United States, Missouri's tallest accessible building, and the largest architectural structure designed as a weighted or flattened catenary arch.
The arch is located at the site of St. Louis' foundation,on the west bank of the Mississippi River where Pierre Laclède, just after noon on February 14, 1764, told his aide, Auguste Chouteau, to build a city.
The Gateway Arch was designed by Finnish-American architect Eero Saarinen and German-American structural engineer Hannskarl Bandel in 1947. Construction began on February 12, 1963, and ended on October 28, 1965, costing US$13 million at the time. (approximately $95,900,000 in 2012)The monument opened to the public on June 10, 1967.
Historic events
- Around late 1933, civic leader Luther Ely Smith, returning to St. Louis from the George Rogers Clark National Historical Park in Vincennes, Indiana, beheld the crumbling St. Louis riverfront area and envisioned that building a memorial there would both revive the riverfront and stimulate the economy.
- The association expected that $30 million would be needed to undertake the construction of such a monument. It called upon the federal government to foot three-fourths of the bill ($22.5 million).
- The Jefferson memorial idea emerged amid the economic disarray of the Great Depression and promised new jobs. The project was expected to create 5,000 jobs for three to four years. Committee members began to raise public awareness by organizing fundraisers and writing pamphlets
-Densely covered with trees that it will be a forest-like park, a green retreat from the tension of the downtown city.
Characteristics
Physical characteristics
- Both the width and height of the arch are 630 feet (192 m). The arch is the tallest memorial in the United States and the tallest stainless steel monument in the world.
The cross-sections of the arch's legs are , narrowing from 54 feet (16 m) per side at the bases to 17 feet (5.2 m) per side at the top.Each wall consists of a stainless steel skin covering a sandwich of two carbon-steel walls with reinforced concrete in the middle from ground level to 300 feet (91 m), with carbon steel to the peak. The arch is hollow to accommodate a unique tram system that takes visitors to an observation deck at the top.In January 1970, amid frigid temperatures, the arch shrank 3 inches (7.6 cm). Jefferson National Expansion Memorial superintendent Harry Pfanz said the contraction was normal in cold weather and that safety was not at risk. -The structural load is supported by a stressed-skin design. - The arch is resistant to earthquakes and is designed to sway up to 9 inches (23 cm) in either direction while withstanding winds up to 150 miles per hour (240 km/h). - This hyperbolic cosine function describes the shape of a catenary. A chain that supports only its own weight forms a catenary; in this configuration, the chain is purely in tension. - Likewise, an inverted catenary arch that supports only its own weight is purely in compression, with no shear. The catenary arch is the stablest of all other arches since "the thrust passes down through the legs and is absorbed in the foundations, whereas in other arches, the pressure tends to force the legs apart.The - Gateway Arch itself is not a common catenary, but a more general curve of the form y=Acosh(Bx) This makes it an inverted weighted catenary—the arch is thicker at its two bases than at its vertex.
Visitor center
 The underground visitor center for the arch was designed as part of the National Park Service's Mission 66 program. The 70,000 square feet (6,500 m2) center is located directly below the arch, between its legs. Although construction on the visitor center began at the same time as construction for the arch itself, it did not conclude until 1976 because of insufficient funding; however, the center opened with several exhibits on June 10, 1967. Access to the visitor center is provided through ramps adjacent to each leg of the arch.The center houses offices, mechanical rooms, and waiting areas for the arch trams, as well as its main attractions: the Museum of Westward Expansion and two theaters displaying films about the arch. The older theater opened in May 1972; the newer theater, called the Odyssey Theatre, was constructed in the 1990s and features a four-story-tall screen. Its construction required the expansion of the underground complex, and workers had to excavate solid rock while keeping the disruption to a minimum so the museum could remain open. The museum houses several hundred exhibits about the United States' westward expansion in the 19th century and opened on August 10, 1977.
Observation area
Modes of ascension Each tram is a chain of eight egg-shaped, five-seat compartments with a small window on the doors. As each tram has a capacity of 40 passengers and there are two trams, 80 passengers can be transported at one time, with trams departing from the ground every 10 minutes.The cars swing like Ferris-wheel cars as they ascend and descend the arch.This fashion of movement gave rise to the idea of the tram as "half-Ferris wheel and half-elevator.The trip to the top takes four minutes; and the trip down takes three minutes. At the top, passengers disembark to a 65 feet (20 m)-long observation area. |
INTRODUCTION
- The TWA Flight Center or Trans World Flight Center, opened in 1962 as a standalone terminal at New York City's John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) for Trans World Airlines. It was designed by Eero Saarinen. The construction of the TWA Terminal began in 1956 and took six years to be completed.- The form of the TWA Terminal represents a huge bird in mid-air with its wings spread ready for landing. This was made so that it captures the "spirit of flight".
- Portions of the original complex have been demolished, and the Saarinen terminal (or head house) has been renovated, partially encircled by and serving as a ceremonial entrance to a new adjacent terminal completed in 2008. Together, the old and new buildings comprise JetBlue Airways' JFK operations and are known collectively as Terminal 5 or simply T5.
-The TWA Flight Center or Trans World Flight Center,opened in 1962 as the original terminal designed by Eero Saarinen for Trans World Airlines at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) (which was known as Idlewild Airport at the time). Eero Saarinen and his Detroit-based firm were commissioned in 1956 to design the TWA Flight Center and given the directive by the client to capture the spirit of flight. By doing so the building took form of a huge bird with wings spread in flight. Known as an indefatigable architect, Saarinen indicated to his client he needed more time — taking another year to resolve the design.
-The completed terminal was dedicated May 28, 1962 — a year after the architect's death — with Saarinen also winning the AIA Gold Medal posthumously in 1962.
- In December 2005, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ) began construction of a new terminal facility — for JetBlue Airways, which occupied the adjacent Terminal 6 and was the airport's fastest-growing carrier — behind and partially encircling Saarinen's original gull-winged building (also known as the head house).
- Peripheral portions of the original facility were demolished to make space for a mostly new 625,000-square-foot (58,100 m2) facility designed by Gensler, including 26 gates to accommodate 250 flights per day and 20 million passengers annually.- T5 re-opened on October 22, 2008 with JetBlue using an abstraction of the Saarinen terminal's gull-wing shape as the official logo for the event, an abstraction of the new terminal floor plan for the signage and counting down the re-opening via Twitter.
SAARNIN'S DESIGN
- Saarinen's original futuristic design featured a prominent wing-shaped thin shell roof over the main terminal (head house), unusual tube-shaped departure-arrival corridors originally wrapped in red carpet — and critical to the spirit of the design — expansive windows that highlighted departing and arriving jets. - The concrete shell's evocative shape — which inspired Saarinen to develop special, curved edge ceramic tile to conform to the curvilinear shapes — places the design into the categories of Futurist, Googie, and Fantastic architecture.
-The terminal was also the first with enclosed passenger jetways,closed circuit television, a central public address system, baggage carousels, electronic schedule board and baggage scales, and the satellite clustering of gates away from the main terminal. Food and beverage services included the Constellation Club, Lisbon Lounge, and Paris Café.
 The passage way in the terminal (red carpet)  |
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