ABSTRACT
As with so many other cities teeming with vitality, Detroit, Michigan, was a thriving seaport on the Detroit River that linked Lake Huron and Lake Erie. The thriving automotive industry powered the city through the Depression and World War II, when it was able to convert its assembly lines into the manufacture of military equipment. Eero Saarinen was born in Finland but came to America in 1923 with his father, Eliel Saarinen, who was also an architect. The Dulles Airport in Washington, DC, is the equivalent of a Penn Station gateway to a city. Built in the days before air travel declined in status to that of a flying bus, it still today garners that excitement and anticipation. It continues to be exactly what Saarinen intended. Finally, there is the TWA Flight Center at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York. This building is probably the most controversial of Saarinen's work and the most troubling to architectural purists.
