Architect Eero Saarinen the subject of entertaining, enlightening Atlanta exhibit

Bottom line: A rewarding primer for newcomers, and a delightful reminder for fans, of the powerful influence of modernist architect Eero Saarinen’s contributions to American design.

It’s hard to think of a man who better exemplified the promise of modernism and the power of great design to transform lives than Finnish-born, American-made architect Eero Saarinen, the subject of an entertaining and enlightening exhibit, “Eero Saarinen: A Reputation for Innovation,” through June 30 at the Museum of Design Atlanta in Midtown. The show documents Saarinen projects built and unbuilt, like his plan for the Smithsonian Gallery of Art in Washington. Though the museum was never built, it nevertheless cemented Saarinen’s reputation as a modern visionary.

A maverick of the post-World-War-II era, Saarinen took innovations of wartime, such as fiberglass, added a dash of postwar optimism, and shaped them into new, nature-inspired forms. His iconic, graceful Tulip Chair (1956), modeled of fiberglass, molded plywood and plastic, was also the first one-legged chair. Saarinen sourced such materials on the job as a wartime design expert at America’s precursor to the CIA, the OSS (Office of Strategic Services).

The sinuous drama and belief in progress contained in Saarinen’s designs was typified by the magnificent portal to the west, the St. Louis Gateway Arch, or by the design for the TWA terminal at John F. Kennedy International Airport, inspired by the look of a bird in flight. His designs for the TWA terminal and the first airport designed specifically for jets, Dulles International Airport, made air travel chic with its swooping facade conveying the excitement of travel. Saarinen called Dulles “the best thing I have done.” A large architectural model of the TWA terminal offers a feel for its dramatic forms, and photographs of the blood-red, chic waiting area suggest the futuristic vibe of Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey.”

Whether designing chairs or buildings, Saarinen seemed to exemplify what it meant to be modern, hopeful and energetic, and he was rewarded for his influence with the June 1956 cover of Time magazine, a rare feat for an architect.

Saarinen and his influential eye are the focus of a fantastic show that examines the architect’s professional life and, glancingly, his personal life. The son of a Finnish architect, Eliel Saarinen, who emigrated to America, Saarinen learned both at his creative father’s side and by the side of midcentury movers and shakers, architects and designers. Charles and Ray Eames, Harry Bertoia and Florence Knoll (who would go on to mass produce Saarinen’s furniture designs) all studied alongside Saarinen at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan.

Fans of midcentury modern design will undoubtedly relish a show that encapsulates the era with some of the furniture designs that define it: the 1948 Womb Chair, 1946 Grasshopper Chair and 1956 Tulip Chair. Epitomizing the look and feel of the era is a short 1958 Charles and Ray Eames animated film “The Expanding Airport,” which discusses the impact of airport design in human terms and references Saarinen’s designs. The charming, revealing film gives a heightened respect for the incredible complexity of designing these airport spaces where humanity and industry coalesce. “The Expanding Airport” alone is almost worth the price of admission and will induce paroxysms of delight for fans of the “Mad Men” era.

But Saarinen not only exemplified his age, he exemplified the role of the architect to not merely build static spaces, but to take into account human behavior. His TWA terminal design innovated an idea that now seems second nature: the moving carousel for luggage retrieval. His Womb Chair was built with the more casual, modern posture in mind, the desire to be closer to the ground and comfortably slouched. That posture was illustrated in the Norman Rockwell cover art of a 1959 “Saturday Evening Post,” in which a sheepish father smoking a cigarette and deep into the Sunday paper slinks into Saarinen’s womb chair as his wife and children file by on their way to church.

“Eero Saarinen: A Reputation for Innovation” is an effervescent dip in the pleasures of midcentury Americana, and a reminder of how a country’s promise and ingenuity can be made material in design.