Eliel Saarinen studied painting and architecture at the Helsinki University of Technology but founded an architectural office together with Herman Geselius and Armas Lindgren in 1896. Saarinen's greatest work for the studio was the Finnish pavilion for the Paris World Exhibition in 1900, made in a mix of traditional Finnish wooden architecture, British Gothic Revival, and Jugend. The architecture and interior design for the railway station in Helsinki from 1909 is regarded as one of his most impressive works.
During the first part of the 1920s Saarinen worked mainly on extensive city planning and development in Finland, Estonia, and Hungary. In 1923 Saarinen entered the competition for the Tribune Tower in Chicago. Although Saarinen’s entry took second place and was therefore never built, Saarinen moved to Illinois where he worked on a scheme for the development of the Chicago Lakefront. One year after the relocation, Saarinen became a visiting professor at the University of Michigan.
In 1925 Saarinen was asked to design the campus of the Cranbrook Educational Community near Detroit, which was intended to be an American equivalent to the Bauhaus. Saarinen became one of the academy’s founders, lectured there, and became its president in 1932. At Cranbrook, Saarinen worked together with Ray Eames (then Ray Kaiser) and Charles Eames, who had great influence on their coming furniture designs.
As a furniture designer, Saarinen is most known for the pieces in the Finnish national romantic style he made during the early 1900s. Among these, a chair made for the Helsinki Railway Station and the Heart Chair designed for the National Board of Railways in the same city are the most well-known. Saarinen also designed furniture for Munksnäs hotel outside of Helsinki as well as for private homes.
Together with Geslius and Lingren, Saarinen designed the ceramics series Fennia for the Finnish manufacturer Arabia from 1902-1912. Eliel Saarinen passed away in 1950. His son Eero Saarinen came later to be a world-famous architect and furniture designer in his own right.
