Word: eero
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...years later Eero proudly walked off with first prize in a Swedish newspaper matchstick-design contest, collected 30 Swedish kronor ($8). The same week, his father received a telegram from Chicago announcing that he was runner-up in the international Chicago Tribune Tower contest, with a design that Skyscraper Architect Louis Sullivan hailed as "a voice, resonant and rich, ringing amidst the wealth and joy of life." Eliel Saarinen promptly dipped into the $20,000 prize to move his family to the U.S. When the family landed in Manhattan, Eero Saarinen was twelve...
Growing up the son of a world-famed architect was no easy problem for Eero Saarinen. He had to win through to a style of his own. First clear-cut sign that he was going to be something more than just the son of a famous father was the national competition for the St. Louis Jefferson National Expansion Memorial in 1948. The elder Saarinen submitted a formal monumental design; Eero's entry was an audacious, 590-ft. stainless-steel arch that looked like a giant, glistening croquet wicket-which he had conceived while bending a wire and wool pipe...
Only days later was the secretary's mistake uncovered: the $40,000 first prize was properly Eero's. His arch, hailed by the jury as "a work of genius . . . which will rank it among the nation's great monuments," has not yet been built, but it is Eero Saarinen's favorite work...
...until at least midnight . . . Unlike the elder Saarinen's studio-house, which kept the family working and playing together and was a convivial center for artists, actors and musicians, the younger Saarinens allocate social life primarily to their infrequent vacations . . . Very occasionally, in a musing, somewhat rueful tone, Eero Saarinen questions whether he has not let architecture devour too much of his life . . . But one wonders if there could have been any other...
After he was divorced, Eero Saarinen and the author of those understanding lines (herself a divorcee) were married. He told his new wife frankly: "I think you will be able to be married to me, because you understand that my first love is architecture." Since then, Eero has kept the romance boiling with surprise "I love you'' notes Scotch-taped on the walls. They named their son, now 19 months, Eames, for Eero's old designer buddy, Charles Eames...