Tulip Table

Product Design Info

Designer: Eero Saarinen

Eero Saarinen was a Finnish American architect and industrial designer of the 20th century famous for varying his style according to the demands of the project: simple, sweeping, arching structural curves or machine-like rationalism.

Eero Saarinen was elected a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects in 1952. He is also a winner of the AIA Gold Medal in 1962.

Saarinen is now considered one of the masters of American 20th century architecture. There has been a veritable surge of interest in Saarinen's work in recent years, including a major exhibition and several books. This is partly because of the Roche and Dinkeloo office having donated their Saarinen archives to Yale University, but also because Saarinen's oeuvre can be said to fit in with present-day concerns about pluralism of styles. He was criticized in his own time - most vociferously by critic Vincent Scully—for having no identifiable style; one explanation for this is that Saarinen adapted his modernist vision to each individual client and project, which were never exactly the same.

Art: Tulip Table

Originally designed by Finnish born designer Eero Saarinen, his graceful designs remain as fresh and popular as when they were first introduced in 1957.

Winner of the 1969 Museum of Modern Art Award, the Tulip table is Saarinen's genius solution to clearing up what he saw as the "slum of legs" that populates the under-carriage of most dining sets.