SAVING MODERNIST BUILDINGS—SAARINEN’S LIBRARY.

SAVING MODERNIST BUILDINGS—SAARINEN’S LIBRARY. Eero Saarinen designed some of my favorite structures, including the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, the TWA terminal at Kennedy Airport and the CBS building in New York City. I first saw his library at the University of Chicago Law School in the early sixties, just after it had been built. I thought it was magnificent. The law school faculty was very proud of it. An article by Joel Henning in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal describes how the library has now been restored and improved. It’s hard for some one like me who grew up loving many Modernist buildings to realize that consideration was given to demolishing the Saarinen library in the 90’s, at a time when “mid-century Modernist architecture was largely scorned.”