Architecture & design
Eliel Saarinen
1873–1950 · architect, urban planner
Finnish architect who designed the Cranbrook campus in Bloomfield Hills and led the Cranbrook Academy of Art, making metro Detroit a center of modern design.
- Born
Rantasalmi, Finland- Died
Bloomfield Hills, Michigan
aged 76- Birth name
- Gottlieb Eliel Saarinen
- Detroit years
- 1924–1950
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Already famous in Finland for the Helsinki railway station, Saarinen came to America in 1923 after his second-place Chicago Tribune Tower entry made his name. He taught at the University of Michigan in 1924, and in 1925 Detroit News publisher George Gough Booth asked him to plan Cranbrook, the arts and education community Booth was building on his Bloomfield Hills estate. Over the next two decades Saarinen designed Cranbrook School for boys, Kingswood School for girls, the Institute of Science, the Art Museum and Library and his own house, often with his wife Loja, daughter Pipsan and son Eero working on textiles, interiors and furniture. He became president of the Cranbrook Academy of Art in 1932, and the school he shaped trained or employed Charles and Ray Eames, Florence Knoll and Harry Bertoia. He died at Cranbrook in 1950 and was buried at Hvitträsk, his former home in Finland.
Highlights
- Master-planned and designed most of the Cranbrook campus from 1925
- President of the Cranbrook Academy of Art from 1932
- Saarinen House (1928–30) is preserved as a house museum
- His 1922 Tribune Tower design shaped American Art Deco skyscrapers
- Father of architect Eero Saarinen and designer Pipsan Saarinen Swanson
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 3
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Lived here · 1930–1950
Saarinen House (Cranbrook)
The Art Deco home and studio he designed for his family; restored and open for guided tours through Cranbrook Art Museum.
Worked here · 1925–1950
Cranbrook Academy of Art and Cranbrook Art Museum
The academy he led as president and the museum-and-library building he designed (1942).
Worked here · 1929–1931
Kingswood School Cranbrook
The girls' school he designed as a total work of art, with interiors and textiles by his family.