Saarinen was brought up in Russia where his father was a Lutheran minister. Eliel's first love was painting and while drawing from casts at school was distasteful to him, visits to the Hermitage were moving and important to him. He entered the Polytechnic Institute in Helsinki in both architecture and painting. While at first he went into architecture because it was more sure than painting, he developed a committment to architecture because he was challenged by the current ideas of a new architect.
Even before graduation from school, Saarinen was in practice with two of his classmates, Hermann Gesellius and Armas Lindgren (1896). Following their success with designs for country estates and the commission for the Finnish Pavillion at the Paris Exposition of 1900, they built their own compound of studios, offices and housing in the picturesque countryside overlooking a lake outside Helsinki. All of these works reflected the trend toward a picturesque national style which took into account native style, traditional materials, and indigineous building methods. Saarinen's major commission of the period, the railroad station for Helsinki (1904-19 ABG:left out number), was the culmination of his work in this style, with its many parts, each distinctively and harmoniously designed, so that their internal function could be read, and the parts decorated simply with a hint of art nouveau. Saarinen also worked on a variety of city planning projects during this period which enlarged his scope to the level of city.
Upon winning second prize in the Chicago Tribune Tower competition, Saarinen visited the United States (1923). He settled in Evanston and published a project for the Chicago Lake Front which precipitated a teaching offer at the University of Michigan. Saarinen met George G. Booth, philanthropist and publisher of the Detroit News, through one of his students. Saarinen became a leader in the execution of Booth's ideas, which developed into the creation of Cranbrook Academy of Art, for which Saarinen designed the buildings, served as director, and developed the education programs in the tradition of the Bauhaus.
After the picturesque Cranbrook buildings, Saarinen designed in a decidely modern style, whether for a public building or private residence. He still broke up the surface of the building with different materials, but his materials were tamed and less textured and his lines clearer. Yet no one element or the whole design ever overpowered the total effect or the landscape.
Saarinen's approach to architecture is organic, based on first principles and nature. Although his love of art was developed in the museums, his art is a direct response to nature without the intermediary of dogma or opinion. The strength of this committment to nature is clearly seen in his landscape studied and architectural drawings.
Saarinen submitted an architectural sketch to qualify as Acadmician.