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Eero Saarinen
Aug. 24th, 2008 05:48 pmI'd read about this exhibit at the National Building Museum in Slate a couple of months ago. I've been trying to get my friend who lives here to go with me, but, with her father's death, it just hasn't happened.
So, I went on my own today and had a terrific and delightful time.
First of all the museum is in a building from just after the Civil War for handling the Veteran's Pensions. It's a full city block and based on the Roman basilica model. The interior has tons of sunlight and a little fountain. It's one of the most welcoming spaces in Washington. It's 1.8 miles from my apartment, and I'm so glad I discovered it.
Now as far as the exhibit goes, I loved it. I really had no idea how many of this man's buildings were bound up in my life. Dulles Airport, of course, holds memories thanks to my father leaving from there for Viet Nam in 1974 and coming home there in both 1965 and 1975. It was also "my" airport for years. We left from Dulles to go live in London and when we arrived we registered with the Embassy at the Chancellery building -- designed by Eero Saarinen.
There's a picture of me from a drive across country when I was four. The Gateway Arch was unfinished. And I would say from my drive in 2005, the Gateway Arch was the most memorable and impressive man-made structure I saw. There was a woman at the exhibit who got to talking with me about the arch. Apparently it only looks like a catenary arch, and she did her best to explain about the math necessary to construct it. I just remember seeing it from the highway and coming away with two vivid impressions.
The first was that I was only seeing half of it. It gave me the feeling like there was a complete oval, but half was buried. There are apparently days when the reflection of the Arch in the Mississippi might allow me to see my whole structure.
The other was that the whole was a Moebius strip. As I went down a ramp and around an exit, it changed, twisted on itself, became the symbol for infinity.
Even the church I attended as a teenager was based on his North Christian Church in Indiana.
Now I discover that Kresge was designed by him. Who wants to come with me to explore when I'm next in Boston. I also want to see more of his work at Yale.
So, I went on my own today and had a terrific and delightful time.
First of all the museum is in a building from just after the Civil War for handling the Veteran's Pensions. It's a full city block and based on the Roman basilica model. The interior has tons of sunlight and a little fountain. It's one of the most welcoming spaces in Washington. It's 1.8 miles from my apartment, and I'm so glad I discovered it.
Now as far as the exhibit goes, I loved it. I really had no idea how many of this man's buildings were bound up in my life. Dulles Airport, of course, holds memories thanks to my father leaving from there for Viet Nam in 1974 and coming home there in both 1965 and 1975. It was also "my" airport for years. We left from Dulles to go live in London and when we arrived we registered with the Embassy at the Chancellery building -- designed by Eero Saarinen.
There's a picture of me from a drive across country when I was four. The Gateway Arch was unfinished. And I would say from my drive in 2005, the Gateway Arch was the most memorable and impressive man-made structure I saw. There was a woman at the exhibit who got to talking with me about the arch. Apparently it only looks like a catenary arch, and she did her best to explain about the math necessary to construct it. I just remember seeing it from the highway and coming away with two vivid impressions.
The first was that I was only seeing half of it. It gave me the feeling like there was a complete oval, but half was buried. There are apparently days when the reflection of the Arch in the Mississippi might allow me to see my whole structure.
The other was that the whole was a Moebius strip. As I went down a ramp and around an exit, it changed, twisted on itself, became the symbol for infinity.
Even the church I attended as a teenager was based on his North Christian Church in Indiana.
Now I discover that Kresge was designed by him. Who wants to come with me to explore when I'm next in Boston. I also want to see more of his work at Yale.
