Eero Saarinen

Recently there was an exhibit of the work and life of Eero Saarinen (1910-1961), a Finnish born architect. He moved with his family to the United States in 1923 and followed in his father, Eliel Saarinen's footsteps. To see how the exhibit was set up at both of the Yale University Art Gallery and the Yale School of Architecture click here. He was quite the designer and was the first to design pedestal furniture and the plastic 'tulip' chairs in 1957.
Yale's campus hosts one of his designs, the David S. Ingalls Ice Hockey Rink completed between 1956-58. It's home to the YU ice hockey team and seats 2800 people. It's affectionately called 'the whale' because it resembles....a whale! You'll see why in the photos below.

He designed so many buildings and other interesting things. The TWA terminal at JFK Airport in New York City and the CBS Building, also in New York are just a couple of places. But my
favorite is the US Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, America's Gateway Arch to the West. Or, as we St. Louisin's call it, the Arch. St. Louis is my beloved hometown. Below is a photo of a photo that I took a couple of years ago. Saarinen died before the arch was completed.

Here's an interesting bit of trivia...well sort of...for me at least. I was about 10 years old when the arch was completed and they came around to all of the grammar schools in St. Louis and asked to sign our name to something (can't remember after all these years). Anyway, my name and thousands of other people's names are embedded somewhere in the arch. Meet me in St. Louie, Louie!