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    Saarinen Outdoor Dining Tables

    Eero Saarinen 1957

    With the Pedestal Collection, Eero Saarinen resolved the "ugly, confusing, unrestful world" underneath tables and chairs. The collection is a defining accomplishment of modern design. All-weather hardware and materials ready the classic Saarinen table for a life outside—a modern focal point for any outdoor setting.

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    Construction and Details
    • Top available in Natural Cleft Slate or Vetro Bianco
    • Vetro Bianco is an engineered, resin-free quartz surface. The brilliant white surface is nonporous, stain-proof, and extremely durable, making it suitable for indoor and outdoor use
    • Tabletop features beveled edge
    • Top attaches to base with threaded rod
    • All stainless steel hardware
    • Base is heavy molded cast aluminum with abrasion resistant white or black Rilsan finish
    Sustainable Design and Environmental Certification
    • Learn more about Saarinen Outdoor Dining Table product certifications and materials at Ecomedes.

    With the Pedestal Collection, Eero Saarinen vowed to eliminate the "slum of legs" found under chairs and tables with four legs. He worked first with hundreds of drawings, which were followed by ¼ scale models. Since the compelling idea was to design chairs that looked good in a room, the model furniture was set up in a scaled model room the size of a doll house.

    Drawing on his early training as a sculptor, Saarinen refined his design through full scale models, endlessly modifying the shape with clay. “What interests me is when and where to use these structural plastic shapes. Probing even more deeply into different possibilities one finds many different shapes are equally logical—some ugly, some exciting, some earthbound, some soaring. The choices really become a sculptor’s choice.”

    Saarinen was assisted by Don Petitt, of Knoll’s Design Development Group, who introduced several ingenious methods of model making. Together with a Knoll design research team, they worked out the problems arising in production. Full scale models became furniture and, with family and friends acting as “guinea pigs,” the furniture was tested in the dining room and living room of the Saarinen house in Bloomfield Hills.

    Born to world famous architect and Cranbrook Academy of Art Director Eliel Saarinen and textile artist Loja Saarinen, Eero Saarinen was surrounded by design his whole life. By the time he was in his teens, Eero was helping his father design furniture and fixtures for the Cranbrook campus. After studying sculpture in Paris and architecture at Yale, Saarinen returned to Cranbrook in 1934.

    It was at Cranbrook that Saarinen met Charles Eames. The two young men, both committed to exploring new materials and processes, quickly became great friends and creative collaborators. They worked together on several projects, most notably their groundbreaking collection of molded plywood chairs for 1940 competition Organic Design in Home Furnishings, sponsored by MoMA.

    At Cranbrook, Saarinen also met Florence Knoll, who at that time was a promising young protégé of Eliel Saarinen. When Florence joined Knoll in the 1940s, she invited Eero to design for the company. Saarinen went on to design many of Knoll's most recognizable pieces, including the Tulip chairs and tables, the Womb chair, and the 70 Series of seating. In addition to these achievements, Saarinen became a leader of the second-generation modernists. Among his outstanding projects are the Dulles International Airport in Washington, D.C., the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, and New York's CBS Building and TWA Terminal at Kennedy International Airport.