Word: eero
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From his father Eero learned two lessons he never forgot. One: "Always design a thing by considering it in its next larger context-a chair in a room, a room in a house, a house in an environment, environment in a city plan." The second, Eero learned one day when he went to visit a girl friend, leaving half-done at home his design for a matchbox-emblem contest. When young Eero asked to stay longer, he was firmly ordered home, told: "Competitions come first, girls second...
...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...