Shaping the Future with Eero
Last evening, I had the pleasure of attending a talk by Donald Albrecht at the Indianapolis Museum of Art titled Eero Saarinen: Shaping the Future. I found the discussion captivating, and Saarinen's impact on design and the country in only ten short years is astounding.
I could write at length about Albrecht's talk, but since the entire session has been graciously posted online by the IMA here, I'll stick to three points that I connected with that will influence how I work — and we as designers should work — going forward.
Operating simultaneously at different scales
Eero understood design's flexibility and scalability to allow for solutions at many scales. Because of this, he spanned realms — automobile, Telecomm, air travel, information technology, higher education, and sizes, working on everything from large-scale buildings to side chairs.
What he studied on a large scale, such as the Gateway Arch in St. Louis or the TWA Flight Center at JFK in New York City, he also studied similar forms and ideas in furniture on a small scale. You can't help but notice some of the similarities between the sculptural qualities of the TWA Flight Center and his work on the Pedestal Collection from Knoll.
“In working out a design, you always have to keep thinking of the next largest thing – the ashtray in relation to the tabletop; the chair in its relation to the room; the building in relation to the city.”
Eero understood that it's essential to constantly zoom into and out of what you're creating, even within a project. I find this is a critical skill for designers. Zooming out: How does the object I'm working on relate to its surroundings? And then zooming in: What are the details of this piece that need to be resolved for it to be successful? By constantly zooming in and out, we can see the formal qualities and craft it's created with, the holistic impact of our work, and how it impacts the things around it.
Questions to ask:
Has this been solved on a smaller/larger scale by someone?
Where do I need to take a "zoomed out" view of my work? Zoom in?
What am I studying at one scale that might influence another?
Looking forward while looking backward
One of the hallmarks of his work is that it usually conflated something American with something European. For example, the General Motors plant, built at $100 million in the 1950s, was all custom designed. It was labeled as an "Industrial Versailles." His residence for Cummins CEO J. Irwin Miller, the Miller House, was marked as a "Contemporary Palladian Villa," as its landscape domesticated the prairie. Morse and Ezra Stiles Colleges at Yale and the MIT Chapel pulled in historic Italian stonework, which was suggestive of ancient grottos.
As he was designing the Gateway Arch, he placed a model of it in the center of the office. Surrounding the models were pictures of arches from classical Rome. He wanted to situate his work in history by taking something from the past and changing it to make it modern—cladding the entire arch in the most modern material, stainless steel.
Questions to ask:
What from the past can inspire what I create today?
What from the past can I make modern?
Years from now, what will someone see in, or pull from, what I create?
Attempting the first, thinnest, biggest, etc.
Saarinen wanted to push the envelope through his approach, materials, and implementation. His design for the Washington Dulles International Airport was the first civilian airport built for jet travel. In nearby Columbus, IN (a midwestern mecca of architecture), Irwin Bank was the first bank to feature a drive-in teller, and his residence for J. Irwin Miller was the first use of a conversation pit.
I can adopt a similar approach in my work. How might I try something that's a first for me or my team with each project? By trying foreign processes or techniques, we force ourselves to shy away from "the way it's always been done" and grow into better versions of ourselves. With this approach comes the recognition that we'll make mistakes.
Not only did being the first, best, or most significant of something make his clients feel good about the project, but it also allowed Eero to be very involved in the press talking about his work. I liken this to starting with the end in mind and working back to the present. Identifying what would excite a client or how to create success allows us to shape the project toward that goal.
Questions to ask:
What biases do I have about "the way it's always been done?"
What part of the process always trips me (or others) up?
If I were interviewed about this project, what would I say?
From 1950 to 1961, Eero helped create an international image for the United States. Sadly, he died at the young age of 51. His work was inspirational for his own time and will continue to shape future generations. I hope his legacy will live on through what he created and how he approached the work.