Happy Birthday Eliel Saarinen. Reprise

In our Birthday tribute to the Finnish architect, designer and urban planner Eliel Saarinen we noted the central role his entry for the 1922 Chicago Tribune Tower competition played not only on the development of his own career but also on the development of modernist architecture in America.

That the competition brought Eliel Saarinen such success and fame is all the more pleasing because his entry was almost not considered.

The official closing date for the competition was November 1st 1922; however, according to the official records of the competition, on November 29th “a consignment from Finland was received, which, when opened disclosed two designs of such astonishing merit that the Jury had been in almost constant session from November 29th until the morning of December 1st” ¹

One those entries was Eliel Saarinen’s, and despite the lateness of its arrival it was admitted to the competition because a clause in the rules granted entries from overseas 30 days grace if they were delayed “without fault on the part of the competitor”.

Thus much like Phileas Fogg Eliel Saarinen reached his fateful destination with just a day to spare.

Having been admitted to the competition Saarinen’s entry quickly upset the calm that had until then ruled.
On November 13th the competition Jury, under the chairmanship of Alfred Granger, had held a first vote; two weeks later, and following the arrival of some 50 foreign entries, a second vote was taken which resulted in the same placements as the first. According to the jury’s report, had Saarinen’s entry not “been of such unusual beauty and shown such a remarkable understanding of the requirements of an American office building as to compel its being awarded second place on its self-evident merit the final and first ballots of the jury would have remained the same”

But it was, and as a consequence entry number 90 from Chicago based Holabird & Roche was bumped from second to third place, entry 104 from Kansas City architect Arthur Frederick Adams missed out on a podium place and Eliel Saarinen began one of the most important journeys in the (hi)story of international architecture and design.

Yet had the package arrived just 24 hours later it could have been all so, so different……^*

* In the interest of fairness we don’t know with whom Saarinen sent his entry, but the modern Finnish postal service is much more reliable……

1, and all subsequent quotes, The international competition for a new administration building for the Chicago Tribune 1922, Tribune Company Chicago, 1923

Eliel Saarinen’s entry for the 1922 Chicago Tribune Tower competition