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Deere & Company signed a contract with Eero Saarinen & Associates in January 1957. Several sites were reviewed before deciding on 680 acres in south Moline. (Far left to near right): J. Lacy, E. Cook, William Hewitt, Eero Saarinen

When Eero first saw this farm machinery and this industrial machinery, he felt this was really of our time and of our country. He admired its guts, its power, its straightforward design. - Aline Saarinen at the official opening, June 4-5, 1964.

Eero Saarinen, Architect

Eero Saarinen, architect of Deere & Company World Headquarters in Moline, Illinois

Eero Saarinen was born in Helsinki, Finland, in 1910. The son of Eliel Saarinen, a renowned architect in his own right, the younger Saarinen and his family immigrated to the United States in 1923.

Saarinen initially studied sculpture at the Academie de la Grande Chaumiere in Paris from 1929-1930, and later studied architecture at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, graduating in 1934. Upon his graduation, he joined his father's practice.

Influenced by his study of art, much of Saarinen's architectural work has a sculptural feel. In 1947, he entered and won the architectural competition for the Jefferson National Expansion Monument in St. Louis, Mo. His design, now called the Gateway Arch, stands at the edge of the Mississippi River.

The Arch was Saarinen's first great triumph, but there would be many more. A number of highly acclaimed buildings, including the General Motors Technical Center near Detroit, the TWA Terminal at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York City, and the Dulles International Airport near Washington, D.C., established him as one of the most respected architects of his time.

In 1961, at the age of 51, Saarinen died in Ann Arbor, Michigan, just one week before the construction began on the 680-acre site for the Deere & Company headquarters building.