Born in Finland in 1910, Eero Saarinen was the son of a noted and respected architect. In 1923 the Saarinens emigrated to the United States, where his father administered the Cranbrook Institute of Architecture and Design. 

Between 1930 and 1934, Saarinen studied at the Yale School of Architecture. After a two year fellowship in Europe, he returned to Cranbrook in 1936 to become an instructor of design and his father's partner in the architectural firm. It was during this period that he began to build a reputation as an architect who refused to be restrained by any preconceived ideas.

In 1947 Saarinen entered the architectural competition for the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial. This was his first opportunity to establish himself as an independent architect, and he set out to design a monument not only to Thomas Jefferson and the nation, but also to the modern age. For him, "The major concern . . . was to create a monument which would have lasting significance and would be a landmark of our time. . . Neither an obelisk nor a rectangular box nor a dome seemed right on this site or for this purpose. But here, at the edge of the Mississippi River, a great arch did seem right."

The Arch was Saarinen's first great triumph, but there would be many more. He was one of the most prolific, unorthodox and controversial masters of 20th-century architecture.

Projects such as the General Motors Technical Center near Detroit, the TWA Terminal in New York City, and the Dulles International Airport near Washington, D.C. brought him acclaim and established him as one of the most successful and creative architects of his time.

Saarinen designed furniture throughout his entire career, applying the same keen interest in exploring new materials, innovative construction techniques, and sculptural forms that he demonstrated in his buildings.

While still in his teens, he designed furnishings for the Cranbrook Institute. However, the important breakthrough came in 1940 when he and Charles Eames won first prizes in the New York Museum of Modern Art’s Organic Design in Home Furnishings competition. Although their molded plywood chairs for the competition were not mass-produced, their designs laid the groundwork for Saarinen’s postwar furniture for Knoll Associates.

His furniture designs from the Womb chair to the Pedestal series of sculptural chairs and tables have become icons of postwar design.

Despite his tragic early death at the age of 51, in the postwar decades of what has been called “the American Century”, Saarinen helped to create the international image of the United States with his designs for some of the most potent symbolic expressions of American identity.