Oz
Volume 9 Article 17
1-1-1987
On Becoming a Modern Architect: Eero Saarinen's Early Work 1928-1948
Peter C. Papademetriou
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Recommended Citation Papademetriou, Peter C. (1987) "On Becoming a Modern Architect: Eero Saarinen's Early Work 1928-1948," Oz: Vol. 9. https://doi.org/10.4148/2378-5853.1146
This Article is brought to you for free and open access by New Prairie Press. It has been accepted for inclusion in Oz by an authorized administrator of New Prairie Press. For more information, please contact [email protected]. On Becoming a Modern Architect: Eero Saarinen's Early Work 1928-1948
Peter C. Papademetriou
The debate in architectural theory and criticism of the past decade has centered around reintegration of a supposed lack of symbolic content in architectural form through, to a large part, a repudiation of its most recent legacy, the Modernist period and specifically the stylistic im peratives of its most obvious manifesta tion, the International Style. In the period of the late 1970s, while seeking to clarify a definition of this sensibility of Post-Modernism1, its theoreticians have at the same time muddied its osten sive catholicity or "inclusiveness" 2 by generalizing the historic moment of Modernism as having been a single Central Railway Station, Helsinki, Finland, 1909- ; Eliel Saarinen thing. The phenomenon was noted as lies an aesthetic doctrine. " 5 This bias ly replaceable as the historic styles of the architects .. . If modern architecture were early as 1963 by historian William Jordy sought a new image for the new prob late 19th Century. Its critics have already an enshrined academy, it might that " Inevitably so, where every present lems of design, buildings appropriate to equated its failures with its image, and well be that Eero Saarinen would be con realizes itself by repudiating a portion new uses and generally conditioned by advocated its replacement in turn.8 sidered a mannerist and an eclectic .. . of its immediate past ... although the a need for rational functionalism. The However, the recent history of Post it seems to be Saarinen's secret that he, swelling chorus of approval for the refur Modernist theoreticians, moreover, Modernism has likewise indulged in as more than most of his contemporaries, bishment of Beaux-Arts ideals threatens presented their arguments to sustain exclusionary a polemic as characterized recognized that the valid approaches to to demean still further the achievement their aesthetic bias, as for example, its predecessor, bearing witness to a modern architectural problems are vast of early Modernism ... ''. 3 What hap " [Nikolaus] Pevsner was describing revival of 18th and 19th Century ly more varied than any single-minded pened in the recent decade has been as what he thought the building should nostalgia,9 almost as if the 1932 Museum approach would indicate." 10 As Henry gross a reduction of the significant have been like . . . (attaching) the word of Modern Art exhibition "The Interna Russell Hitchcock noted in a 1962 development of architecture from the 'Functional' to an appearance of tional Style: Architecture Since 1922" memorial to Saarinen, ''Certainly it is mid-1930s through the mid-1960s as buildings ... (such that) the essence of was repudiated by the 1975 ' 'The Ar true, however, that the extreme in previously Sigfried Giedion had reduced rationalism is the pursuit of an abstract chitecture of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts.'' sistence on a sort of modernism in ar all the formal diversity which did not ful perfectionism .. . " 6 While the avowed As such, Post-Moderism as an historicist chitecture that should be in its every ly conform to the stylistic elements of goal was '' .. . not to introduce a, so to aesthetic has come under attack, and, aspect as different as possible from the International Style. 4 speak, cut and dried 'Modern Style' with the decade of the late 1980s, it earlier architecture has diminished. Ar from Europe, but rather to introduce a would seem that the question of ar chitects today are less afraid of continu Seen in these terms, the elimination of method of approach which allows one chitectural expression still remains. ity and partial identity in theory, in tradition had been a means to introduce to tackle a problem according to its par materials, and in emotional content with a Neue Sachlichkeit (" new objectively") ticular condition" ,7 the net effect was to Of the leading American architects of buildings of the past than in the twen to address what was perceived as the codify particular stylistic standards. the 1950s, perhaps one of the most ties. But it chiefly creates confusion, I new social context of the 20th Century. enigmatic is Eero Saarinen, character believe, to call these tendencies 'post However, as Allan Colquhoun noted, Embodied in the hermetic aesthetic of ized at the height of his career as ''In modern, ' 'anti-modern' or 'neo "Now it's my belief that beneath the ap- the International Style, Modernism many ways the most interesting of the traditional,' however badly some generic 56 parent objectivity of these ideas there proved to be an easy target, one as readi- second generation of modern American name for them has evidently come to be Furniture designs by Eero Saarinen for
"Hvittrask", Boback, Finland; photo by Eero Saarinen Kingswood School for Girls, Cranbrook , Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, 1929- needed." 11 trigues us most, then we should know severely attacked by a younger genera early 1923 , with the family following in something of the reasons. In fact, the tion which saw no future in nostalgia. the late spring. Saarinen holds fascination today first two decades of his personal career Eliel's solo revised design five years later because he seems to straddle between in design were a period of great change, indicated a shift toward the direction of Projects for Chicago, then Detroit and a definite commitment to the extensions which Saarinen experienced and in European Moderism, but also had a a teaching appointment at the Univer of the experiments of Modernism with response attempted to find his own distinct sensitivity to the existing con sity of Michigan eventually brought Eliel a conscious recognition of the past and definitions. The period 1928-48 may be text, the essence of which was a conser in contact with George G. Booth, the associative allusions of form. As the seen as his education, where he sought vative sensibility. The critical aspect of publisher of the Detroit News, and critic Peter Carter observed, "Saarinen a reconciliation of the past with his the conservatism was, as Alvar Aalto resulted in the creation of a collection was aware of today's technology in its vision of the future. noted in 1946, that "Thanks to his of educational institutions named widest sense and he used its potential honest, logical approach, the usual strife Cranbrook in Bloomfield Hills, as a means of achieving a many-faceted Eero Saarinen shared his birthdate and between old and new architecture does Michigan. By 1928, Eero, who was then architectural expression within the tradi career with a famous father, Eliel not exist in Finland." 13 about to enter his last year of high tion of the modern masters. To advance Saarinen. The aesthetic evolution school, began to work in the Cranbrook the symbolic and environmental content represented by his period of education Eero was born at the family home Architectural Office, completing a small of that tradition he explored special ar was also paralleled by his coming to " Hvittrask" in 1910, and grew up in an addition and extension to " Hvittrask, " chitectural vernaculars for each project grips with his own identity in the atmosphere surrounded by the arts. which had been partially damaged by ... it precluded the possibility of a per shadow of his father's fame. Eliel was With Finnish independence from Russia fire. With graduation from high school sonal style, a fact which set him apart a transitional figure in Finnish architec in 1919 following World War I, the and the onset of the Great Depression from any of his contemporaries." 12 ture, whose own career initially found economy cratered and his father had no in 1929, Eero went to Paris to study expression in a backward look at na opportunities to build. In 1922, Eliel sculpture at the Academie de Ia Grande However, unlike Athena being born tional traditions mingled with a forward, achieved international fame with his Chaumiere until mid-1930, continuing directly from the head of Zeus, Eero progressive allegiance to the newest art Second Prize entry for the Chicago upon his return at Cranbrook with Saarinen did not suddenly emerge as a movements. In 1904, the winning entry Tribune Competition. On the strength sculptor Carl Milles. fully developed architect at age 40. If his for the Helsinki Central Railway Station of the prize money and possibilities for talent for formal invention is what in- by Gesell ius, Lindgren and Saarinen was work, he came to the United States in In 1929, Eliel began work on the 57 "An American Academy in Florence"
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111!;,, Egypt, 1935; Eero Saarinen !left) Travel photographs, 1935 Competition entry; Helsinki Central Post Office and Telegraph, Helsinki, Finland, 1934 Kingswood School for Girls at The fall of 1931, Eero enrolled in the monumental though primitive in placed Third. Cranbrook, whose simplified massing graduate program in architecture at Yale character and as enduring as the moun and sparing use of ornament pulled it University, a traditional program in its tain itself. " 18 Known by his classmates Saarinen's travel to Europe comprised aesthetically farther than the earlier last days of the Beaux-Arts method.15 An as "Second Medal Saarinen" for the an itinerary of looking at a broad vari Cranbrook Boys School which was more early First Mention of Eero's for "A number of prizes, Eero showed his ety of architecture. Traveling with Carl picturesquely composed. Kingswood Police Station," designed as an asym capacity to work well in a limiting Milles as well as other Americans, he obliquely synthesizes elements of Art metrical plan in a similar style to framework, a foretaste of his ability to went to Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Greece, Deco with the feeling of Frank Lloyd Kingswood, was criticized for its very combine unorthodox design thinking Italy and then north to Berlin, Wright. Eero designed several interior modernity by the jury for "The eleva with a conservative context. For his per Goth en berg and Helsinki. He looked at pieces for Kingswood beginning in ear tion, while diagrammitically good leaves formance at Yale, he was awarded the buildings from the most ancient to the ly 1931- most notably furniture designs something to be desired in its indication Charles Arthur and Margaret Ormrod most current, including the recently which concurrently embraced the most of detail study, " 16 and "An American Matcham Traveling Fellowship, and in completed Italian Fascist architecture. In avant-garde references as well as the Academy in Florence" Second Medal of late 1934 headed for Europe. Helsinki, he worked with Jar! Eklund in most traditional. His auditorium arm 1933 caused an observation that " His ar- renovations and expansion of the chair is a Modernist steel tube frame chitecture lacks finish and Before he left, Saarinen completed a Swedish Theater, a commission which with cantilever seat in the spirit of Mart Character. " 17 Generally, however, competition entry for the Helsinki Cen Eliel had won in 1916 but gave up after Starn, Marcel Breuer and Alvar Aalto. By Saarinen's projects exhibited a degree of tral Post Office and Telegraph, a project settling in the United States. Drawings contrast, the dining hall side chair is a basic parti that made them consistently coincidentally sited directly adjacent to dated 1931 had been sent from traditional wood frame of natural and attractive, and his directness was shown his father's train station. His design had Cranbrook to Eklund, and Eero acted as pink-painted birch with reproduction in a winning entry for the Spiering Prize a principal facade whose setback comer a designer, undertaking a great variety linen upholstery.l4 The comfortable for " A Memorial Tunnel Entrance," is a gesture to a bend in the street at the of facade studies spanning a range from coexistence of such a stylistic dichotomy where " .. . by simply scooping out the edge of the site, asymmetrical massing direct historicist versions to pure Inter has been part of the critical difficulty of rock in a semi-cricle at the tunnel en in response to connection with the train national Style . The return to Finland categorizing a " progression" in his trance for a great height, and cutting station beyond, and a repetitive rhythm also brought him in more direct contact formal development. back huge steps in the face of the moun evoking the regularity of the trebeated with changes in the aesthetic tempera 58 tain at either side produced an approach structural grid of the interior; Saarinen ment of Scandinavian versions of Plans, Cultural Center, Flint, Michigan, 1937; Eero Saarinen Community Center, Fenton, Michigan,
"Forum"/Fazer City Palace, Helsinki "Combined Living-Dining Room-Study" Wheaton College Art Center, 1938 Goucher College Campus Plan, 1938
Facade studies, Swedish Theater, Helsinki, Finland, 1935; Eero Saarinen Modernism through the work of Gunnar for Flint, Michigan, in 1937. What is in furniture designed by Alvar Aalto. Here undertook an independent entry to the Asplund in Sweden and Alvar Aalto in teresting about the design is that the was technology in the service of " flex 1938 Wheaton College Art Center Com Finland, which he visited. These works parti was rendered in two versions: one ibility," suggesting a casual aformalism petition, placing Fifth with a design that reflected a critically non-ideological at is more closely akin to the monumen in its composition. contained more conventional architec titude, one which was more broadly talism of Eliel and the other a tural expression with a stretched pin based and which Peter Smithson has " Moderne" version. A small Commun In the spring of 1938, Eero Saarinen wheel parti whose '' ... handsome eleva characterized (in Aalto's case) as being ity Center was also designed by the went to New York City for a brief period. tions were found suitable in scale and " ... un-theoretical, non-revolutionary Saarinens in 1937-38 for Fenton, His reputation at Yale had been noted general character, " 20 with basic program and un-heroic. " 19 Eero also executed Michigan, their first building outside by Worthen Paxton, an alumnus then elements clearly articulated in plan and several other projects, including the Cranbrook. While seeming to exhibit at the office of Norman Bel Geddes, and general massing. With his return to "Forum," a multi-use center in Helsinki the general aesthetic of Eliel, its " func Saarinen was brought in to work on the Cranbrook, Eero entered a second com whose curving forms recall Asplund's tional" response to its site would seem building design concept for the General petition in 1938 with his father for a version of the International Style at the to have been a contribution of Eero, as Motors Pavilion at the 1939 New York Campus Plan and College Library at Stockholm Exhibition of 1930. its asymmetrical disposition is not World's Fair, to house the "Futurama" Goucher College. Several of the new unlike his Helsinki Post Office project. exhibition. It was in this two-month in generation of architects at the Upon his return to the United States in tense design charette that Saarinen came Cranbrook Academy of Art joined the 1936, Eero Saarinen began a formal part At about the same time, Eero published in contact with the techniques of the team, such as Ralph Rapson. While the nership with his father for work outside a project in a 1937 Architectural Forum new breed of industrial designers, and Library facades continue the themes of of Cranbrook, in addition to indepen for a "Combined Living-Dining Room saw the use of styling to render design functional expression given to conser dent and collaborative projects. His first Study," an adaptable interior whose objects with a contemporary modern vative form , the overall plan combines work was done as an architect for the configurations could be changed and look. These principles were a particular subtle symmetries with more Modernist Flint Institute of Research and Planning, furniture easily rearranged, affording dif ly American interpretation, and in implied spatial definition and extended producing a comprehensive city plan ferent environmental scenarios. In troduced technological expressionism spatial continuities. The Saarinens under the direction of recent Cranbrook cluding a few decorative details such as into his experience. achieved national recognition by graduate Edmund N. Bacon, and within a tapestry and fireplace accessories placing Second. that plan a design for a cultural center alluding to Cranbrook, it also specified While at Bel Geddes' office, Saarinen 59 It was after 1938 that the Sarrinens began to be known outside of Cran brook. The previous year, Eliel Saarinen had begun work on a master plan for the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Berkshire Symphonic Festival known as "Tanglewood. " As a result of continuing involvement with Serge Koussevitzky, the BSO maestro, the Saarinen name was suggested to a group in Buffalo, New York, engaged in undertaking a new Music Hall. The Kleinhans Music Hall involved a com mission already in hand to a local firm , F.J. and W.A. Kidd, whose Beaux-Arts designs were seen as being behind the times. The apparent ability to produce a progressive architecture that still con t_ained enough traditional references was Kleinhans Music Hall, 1938-40 the reason the Saarinens were called however, also shares a direct similarity upon to lead in the design. Again,. the to Eero Saarinen's design for the younger designers developed to design, Wheaton Competition and suggests a including Charles Eames who was by typological solution for programs of that time teaching Design at Cranbrook, similar components. That is to suggest, as well as Ralph Rapson who was a com " pure functionalism " did not establish •mitted Modernist. The footprint of the the building, and a workable typological building looks vel}' much like a Le solution might accommodate varied pro Corbusier shape, and while the exterior grams whose taxonomy was similar. principally derives from the Saarinen vocabulal}', the stepped firestairs are a Cranbrook had Charles Eames and 1942; drawing by Eliel Saarinen "functional" element, and the interiors Harry Bertoia as teachers, and Rapson, feature pipe handrails and definite Harl}' Weese, Ben Baldwin and others ''Modernistic'' motifs. as graduate students. With Rapson and Frederic James, Eero designed an entl}' At about the same time, the Saarinens to the Festival Theatre and Fine Arts were approached by the young Chicago Building at the College of William and firm of Perkins, Wheeler and Will to Mal}', which won First Prize from a field become involved in the design of a new including Stone & Goodwin, Richard suburban school in Winnetka, Illinois. Neutra, Hugh Stubbins, Walter Gropius The district superintendent, Carleton W. and Marcel Breuer, Harrison and Washburne, was a progressive educator Fouilhoux, and Keck and Keck. A Educational wing, First Christian Church, Columbus, Indiana, 1939-42 in the spirit of John Dewey and wanted precisely articulated design, it was broke the Saarinen's identity exclusively winning design, aside from the technical the Southwest School, known as the praised as " ... consistent, clean, logical with Cranbrook, it was the sensation of excellence of its solutions . . . shows Crow Island School, to be a model of his and straightforward throughout. ' '21 their winning First Prize in a two-phase beyond the possibility of denial that the theories. With careful pedagogical pro Saarinen's modernist leanings are clear national Competition for a Galle!}' of Art monumental tradition of Washington gramming by Lawrence Perkins, the from the centrifugal composition of the for the Smithsonian Institution. Over can be given appropriate expression, design reflected a flexible philosophy, ensemble, again in the mode of a loose 400 entries were narrowed to 10 by a jul}' and new vitality, within the framework articulating individual class units and pinwheel, dramatically engaging the that included representatives of impor of modern architecture" 22 and the "The providing both separate interior and ex lakeside site - in fact, bridging over a tant Capital institutions as well as pro Future of a strong, courageous American terior spaces, as well as a classroom unit portion not unlike the Weimar Bauhaus, Modernists Walter Gropius, George architecture seems to lie in the direction that facilitated combinations of educa one of the canonical buildings of func Howe, John H. Holabird and Joseph of the Smithsonian rather than that of tional arrangements, from the single tional Modernism. Hudnut. For the more progressive [John Russell Pope's Beaux-Arts] Na child to the entire class. The overall con- spirits, the selection of the Saarinen pro tional Galle!}'. " 23 Working with Charles 60 figuration and arrangement of parts, If any moment can be identified that ject was that "The great virtue of the Eames and Ralph Rapson on a team ishings." The development of plastic form shown in the Eames-Saarinen win ning entries stands in contrast to the more typically " rational" European designs from the late 1930s. They not only were to be themes continued in the later work of both designers, but in a sense also related Eero's interest in sculptural form to his more free-form designs of the 1950s.
lr Eero Saarinen was also responsible for ,}') l a residential commission during this period. The A.C. Wermuth House of ) 1941 -42 , designed for the contractor of both Cranbrook and the Columbus __/ church, was built in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Its irregular plan integrates the A .C . Wermuth House, Fort Wayne, Indiana, 1941-42 Model of Center Line, 1941 building to its site, the basic massing raised on pilotis and features horizontal and change of materials suggest an strip windows, or a project for the Hall Aalto-like articultion of private and Auditorium at Oberlin College of public blocks (with a masonry chimney 1940-43, whose functional massing and evocative of Le Corbusier's later bare expression (with the same features) Marseilles Unite roof terrace), and its were repugnant to the college faculty details suggest work by Gropius and who wanted more conformity to the Breuer contemporary with it. campus' Romanesque Revival of Cass Gilbert. Eliel Saarinen was by this time The use of indigenous materials, such prepared to defend functional planning as clapboard siding and native given articulation in architectural form fieldstone, in conjunction with modern and stated, "Personally I feel that forced methods such as reinforced concrete flat symmetry in the case at hand is of no plate construction, in situ exterior stair esthetic value.' '24 case, and modular windows indicate that Saarinen's architecture was even at By 1940, Eero Saarinen had moved this time not rhetorically " universal," closer to the developments of the new but rather close in spirit to what architecture. In late 1939, he and Kenneth Frampton has more recently Charles Eames created an exhibition of characterized as "critical regionalism." faculty work for the Cranbrook Likewise, Saarinen combined these Academy of Art based on a lightweight, techniques for the Opera-Concert Hall tensile system and featuring the floating at Tanglewood (1940-41 ), which at one "Organic Design" First Prize chair, 1941 Eero Saarinen (right) , 1939 planes and visual superimposition of im level uses the imagery of board and bat which included his brother-in-law J. Modernist affinities, but the aesthetic ages in space such as in Modem paint ten barns as it also exploits a combina Robert F. Swanson, Eero closely ar treatment includes applied decoration, ing. They both demonstrated their faith tion of laminated wood bow-string ranged functional areas, but clearly and a careful balancing_of the volumes, the in the physical strength of the system trusses with tensile rods to clear-span separately articulated them, pursuing a formal element of a reflecting pond and in a famous photograph kneeling on a support a staggered series of roofs defin strategy of resolving relationships rather a degree of monumentalism and panel supported by wooden dowels. ing an acoustical shape. than a predetermined formal image. In dignified restraint. fact, a degree of aformalism was sug In late 1940, Eames and Saarinen began With the outbreak of World War II , the gested by certain components open to The continuing influence of the younger experiments in the use of lightweight office changed its name to Saarinen and future expansion. Motifs such as long, designers may also be seen on projects fabrication of molded plywood and Swanson. From. 1941-42 it undertook horizontal expanses of glass, precise such as the completed First Christian modular construction of furniture for a Defense Housing and emergency plan thin-walled, contained volumes, and Church (also called Tabernacle Church design competition organized by Eliot ning work in the Detroit area. Rather open, flexible spaces organized by a of Christ) in Columbus, Indiana, of Noyes at the Museum of Modern Art, than the systematic regularity of ClAM consistent module suggest clear 1939-42, where the classroom block is " Organic Design in Home Fum- modern housing, the Center Line Com- 61 munity (Kramer Homes) in Michigan tegrated to contours. reflects the principles of decentralization Eliel believed was appropriate in the It was clear by the end of the war that United States, as well as a sensitivity to the question of appropriate architectural place-making, with a perceived center expression still remained for Saarinen. focus and modulation of vehicular ac In 1945, the first designs for the General cess by curved and grid roadways. As Motors Technical Center were an Eero observed, " If the architect stresses nounced, and although Eliel Saarinen the practical at the expense of the was the architect selected by G.M. , there psychological, the result will be barracks is no doubt that the initial scheme was ... The problem is to house not only an Eero's. The idea of a continuous canopy aggregate of people but also to give them connecting all buildings, particularly as home and the realities and beauties of a cantilever, is a Modernist version of community life ... functional barracks ... " P.A.C. System", 1943 Legislative Palace, 1944 ideas that were themes in Eliel's work. will be a social danger and a social illustrated Saarinen's personal inter by a lower plinth in Eliel's scheme; the The only real paradigm available to Eero menace, for they inevitably will turn into pretation of technology's role in Modern Chambers of Deputies and Senators are was from his experience with industrial slums and breeding places of social architecture. ringed by levels of office space to rein designers, particularly the imagery he discontent.' '25 The housing work was an force the compact nature of the base, had encountered with Norman Bel intense and accelerated period and a In mid-1943, Eero and fellow OSS and a pair of monumental stairs and Geddes. Consequently, the initial natural to hold Eero's interest, since member Oliver Lundquist won First cascade of pools descend the hill on " look" of GMTC appears as an in prefabrication, standardization, modular Place in a postwar house design com axis. In Eero's design, a more functional dustrial design product, expanding also construction and rapid erection were all petition sponsored by California Arts expression articulates the slight dif the fascination with technology that part of the problem. and Architecture (both Charles Eames ferences between the two chambers - Eero had explored during the war years. and Richard Neutra were on the jury). 26 accepting their unequal sizes rather It is clear that he sought to express " ... In late 1941 , Eero was also retained by Its concept was to facilitate a variety of matter-of-factly but organizing them a high precision, mass-production, the United States Gypsum Company to combinations by use of its " P.A.C. much as the " plug-on" cores of his metal industry"27 and part of the im propose a theoretical design using its System" of pre-assembled component other projects, emphasizing the main agery incorporated icons of mobile products. The result was a project for service cores. This fascination with in volume of the Reception Hall but homes and aircraft wings. " Demountable Space," a Community dustrial technique also led to the " Un creating a rear zone of support offices House that featured a modular building folding House" of 1943-44, a packaged that rises full height on the South eleva The period of 1945-48 continued the ex whose tensile-supported roof was hung trailer that could be unpacked on site tion, reiterating the image of an office ploration of an appropriate expression, from a central mast, not unlike and also arranged in combinations. In building on its face. The ascent from the and one final event secured for Eero his Buckminster Fuller's Dymaxion House a project sponsored by Pittsburgh Plate hill to the South is oblique rather than clear identity as it ultimately separated of 1927-30. The building was an aformal Glass in 1944 , Saarinen took the idea of axial, and the steps more "naturally" in- him from his father's philosophy of system which could be extended and its a service core a further step; in his facade components reconfigured. Ser restaurant design, a self-contained food vices were handled as "plug-on" unit called "Serving Suzy" (a pun on the prefabricated core elements. " Lazy Susan") brought the services to the customer, perhaps an anticipation of his rethinking the basic problem that By early 1943, when most building con would eventually led to the Mobile struction had stopped for the war effort, Lounge concept at Dulles Airport. Eero joined the Office of Strategic Ser vices as a civilian consultant at the sug gestion of a Yale classmate, Donal A limited Competition for a Legislative McLaughlin. While in the OSS, he also Palace in Quito, Ecuador, brought forth maintained the Washington, D.C. office two designs from the office: one by Eliel, of Saarinen and Swanson, which had the other by Eero. While there are cer been awarded a contract for housing tain basic similarities of parti, the dif with the National Capital Housing ferences between them are more telling Authority. The small office, which in of the extent to which Eliel interpreted cluded young architects John Harkness the problem in traditional monumental and Norman Fletcher Uater founding terms and to which Eero sought a more partners of The Architects Col Modernist image. A Great Hall of Recep 62 laborative), did a number of projects that tion becomes a solid volume surrounded General Motors Technical Center, Warren, Michigan, 1945, early scheme design. This was the concept of a great di Communita !Milani 1962 stainless steel arch for the Jefferson Na 12. Carter. Peter: "Eero Saarinen 1910-1961"; Ar tional Expansion Memorial Competi chitectural Design: Vol. 31 !December 19611 13. Aalto. Alvar: Foreward to Christ-janer. Al bert: tion. It is a matter of historical record Eliel Saarinen; University of Chicago Press that both Eliel and Eero submitted !Chicago) 1948 designs to the first phase, and the initial 14 . see Miller, R. Craig: "Interior Design and Fur confusion with notification of the win niture": Design in America: The Cranbrook Vi ner. However, Eero's concept swept the sion 1925-1950: Detroit Institute of Arts !Detroit) 1983 second phase and produced Modem 15. Yale did not become a "Modern" program un ism's only great civic monument. Its til 1938. when Wallace K. Harrison was brought sculptural, plastic form grew out of in to teach. Saarinen's ease in using freer 16. Bulletin of the Beaux-Arts Institute of Design: Vol. geometries. Its imagery was literal, 8 No. 8 !June 19321 recognizing the "sign" value of a 17. op. cit .. Vol. 9 No. 7 !May 19331 18. op. cit., Vol. 8 No. 10 !August 19321 " Gateway to the West," and evocative, Perhaps his encounter with Mies van der chitecture from now on ... I think it will 19. Smithson. Peter: "Aivar Aalto - the second drawing into itself the scale of the site Rohe, whose current work in the United be a most positive force . The message generati on ethos": Architectural Design; Vol. 37 and significant adjacent buildings. Its States pointed to a new direction,2s of complete honesty and integrity which !December 19671 sheer size was truly monumental, and caused him to reconsider the ex they carry should set off re-examination 20. "Wheaton College Art Center": Architectural Forum: Vol. 69