,
Helsinki in
St. Louis outside
Washington, D.C. in the
Delaware Park–Front Park System at
John F. Kennedy International Airport. After his tour of Europe and North Africa, Saarinen returned to Cranbrook to work for his father and teach at the academy. His father's firm, Saarinen, Swanson and Associates, was headed by Eliel Saarinen and Robert Swanson from the late 1930s until Eliel's death in 1950 and headquartered in
Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, until 1961 when the practice was moved to
Hamden, Connecticut. While still working for his father, Saarinen first gained recognition for his design capabilities for a chair he designed together with Charles Eames, which received first place in the Organic Design in Home Furnishings competition in 1940. The
Tulip chair, like all other Saarinen chairs, was taken into production by the
Knoll furniture company, founded by
Hans Knoll, who married Saarinen family friend
Florence (Schust) Knoll. Further attention came also while Saarinen was still working for his father when he took first prize in the 1948 competition for the design of the
Gateway Arch National Park (then known as the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial) in
St. Louis. The memorial was not completed until the 1960s. The competition award was mistakenly addressed to his father because both he and his father had entered the competition separately. During his long association with Knoll, he designed many important pieces of furniture, including the Grasshopper lounge chair and ottoman (1946), the Womb chair and ottoman (1948), the Womb settee (1950), side and arm chairs (1948–1950), and his most famous Tulip or Pedestal group (1956), which featured side and arm chairs, dining, coffee and side tables, as well as a stool. All of these designs were highly successful except for the Grasshopper lounge chair, which, although in production through 1965, was not a big success. One of Saarinen's earliest works to receive international acclaim is the
Crow Island School in
Winnetka, Illinois (1940). The first major work by Saarinen, in collaboration with his father, was the
General Motors Technical Center in
Warren, Michigan, which follows the rationalist design
Miesian style, incorporating steel and glass but with the addition of accent of panels in two shades of blue. The GM Technical Center was constructed in 1956, with Saarinen using models, which allowed him to share his ideas with others and gather input from other professionals. With the success of this project, Saarinen was then invited by other major American corporations, such as
John Deere,
IBM/
IBM Rochester, and
CBS, to design their new headquarters or other major corporate buildings. Despite the overall rational design philosophy, the interiors usually contained dramatic sweeping staircases as well as furniture designed by Saarinen, such as the Pedestal series. In the 1950s, he began to receive more commissions from American universities for campus designs and individual buildings. These include Birch Hall at
Antioch College, the Noyes dormitory at
Vassar and
Hill College House at the
University of Pennsylvania as well as the
Ingalls ice rink,
Ezra Stiles and
Morse Colleges at
Yale University,
Concordia Senior College in
Fort Wayne, Indiana, the
MIT Chapel and
Kresge Auditorium at
MIT, and the
University of Chicago Law School building and grounds. Saarinen served on the jury for the
Sydney Opera House commission in 1957 and was crucial in the selection of the now internationally known design by
Jørn Utzon. A jury which did not include Saarinen had discarded Utzon's design in the first round; Saarinen reviewed the discarded designs, recognized a quality in Utzon's design, and ultimately assured the commission of Utzon. He was the principal partner from 1950 until his death. The firm carried out many of its most important works, including the
Bell Labs Holmdel Complex in
Holmdel Township, New Jersey; the
Gateway Arch in
St. Louis, Missouri; the
Miller House in
Columbus, Indiana; the
TWA Flight Center at
John F. Kennedy International Airport, which he worked on with Charles J. Parise; the
Dulles International Airport Main Terminal; and the new East Air Terminal of the old
Athens airport in Greece, which opened in 1967. Many of these projects use
catenary curves in their structural designs. In 1949 and 1950, Saarinen was hired by the then-new
Brandeis University to create a master plan for the campus. Saarinen's plan
A Foundation for Learning: Planning the Campus of Brandeis University (1949; second edition 1951), developed with
Matthew Nowicki, called for a central academic complex surrounded by residential quadrangles along a peripheral road. The plan was never built but was useful in attracting donors. In 2019, the terminal was transformed into the
TWA Hotel and features furniture designed by Saarinen. In 1960, Saarinen was hired to design the
CBS Building in New York City. It was the only skyscraper he would ever design. Saarinen designed the
Kleinhans Music Hall in
Buffalo, New York, together with his father, Eliel Saarinen. He also designed the former
Embassy of the United States in London, which opened in 1960, and the former
Embassy of the United States in Oslo. Saarinen worked with his father, mother, and sister designing elements of the Cranbrook campus in
Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, including the Cranbrook School, Kingswood School, the Cranbrook Art Academy, and the Cranbrook Science Institute. Eero Saarinen's leaded-glass designs are a prominent feature of these buildings throughout the campus. ==Non-architectural activities==