Customer Reviews

Eero Saarinen: Shaping the Future

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This book was put together as an accompaniment to a touring exhibit of Eero Saarinen's work. It is one of three books I purchased for an architectural class project on Saarinen and this book is the best of the three, more comprehensive, more personal, and just as if not more informative. I would highly recommend it, it offers tremendous insight into the man as well as the work. The personal interviews and discussions at the end are superb. The editors obviously have a great admiration and affection for Saarinen, and they do an excellent job of making you understand why.

This book, and the exhibit that inspired it, go a long way toward explaining the why's and how's of Eero Saarinen's work. On the one hand, he could create what at first glance appear to be purely Miesian International Style designs. On the other, many of his more well known designs seem to anticipate--and perhaps inspire?--the work of architects like Frank Gehry half a century later. By relating his philosophy, his design process, and his willingness to experiment with new construction materials, this book goes a long way toward resolving this anomaly...not ALL the way, but a long way. The data whose release inspired the book and the exhibit are just a treasure trove of information about Saarinen's work. The text of the book is a little uneven, which is not surprising given the large number of authors involved. The inclusion of three lectures by Saarinen is very enlightening, especially the last one which contains perhaps the most extensive statement on his views about architecture. My only frustration is at the very end, with excerpts from the seminar at Yale in 2005 that brought together several of the more illustrious alumni of the Saarinen office. Robert Venturi raises all over again the issue about whether there is a consistent thread to Saarinen's designs, and the responses by his colleagues do not provide a satisfactory answer, unlike the rest of the book.