When Eero Met His Match: Aline Louchheim Saarinen and the Making of an Architect

(Hardback)

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A uniquely personal biographical account of Louchheims life and work that takes readers inside the rarified world of architecture media

Aline B. Louchheim (19141972) was an art critic on assignment for the New York Times in 1953 when she first met the Finnish-American architect Eero Saarinen. She would become his wife and the driving force behind his rise to critical prominence. When Eero Met His Match draws on the couples personal correspondence to reconstruct the early days of their thrilling courtship and traces Louchheims gradual takeover of Saarinens public narrative in the 1950s, the decade when his career soared to unprecedented heights.

Drawing on her own experiences as an architecture journalist on the receiving end of press pitches and then as a secret publicist for high-end architects, Eva Hagberg paints an unforgettable portrait of Louchheim while revealing the inner workings of a media world that has always relied on secrecy, friendship, and the exchange of favors. She describes how Louchheim codified the practices of architectural publicity that have become widely adopted today, and shows how, without Louchheim as his wife and publicist, Saarinens work would not have been nearly as well known.

Providing a new understanding of postwar architectural history in the United States, When Eero Met His Match is both a poignant love story and a superb biographical study that challenges us to reconsider the relationship between fame and media representation, and the ways the narratives of others can become our own.

Reviews

"A Fast Company Best Design Book of the Year"
"Hagbergs book is bold and original, both in subject matter and structure. The authors investment in the entanglement of love and professional drive, of language and form, does not fight for the inclusion of Aline Louchheim Saarinen in the existing canon but rather builds a new category all its own."---Mariana Janowicz, New York Review of Architecture
"Hagberg gives the discreet and specialised world of the architectural publicist an aura of romance and intrigue. Though its task is confined, When Eero Met His Match is an expansive, candid, insightful and oddly sexy book. As a tribute to Louchheim, it is impressive; as a portrait of an overlooked profession, it is revealing, funny and moving."---Will Wiles, Apollo Magazine
"A unique piece of media criticism. . . . [Hagberg] shines a light on the deep connection between words and visuals, media and memory, and how our experiences of the built world are filtered through the stories being told to us."---Jarrett Fuller, Fast Company
"Combining biography, history, personal narrative, and cultural criticism, and sweetened with a dash of epistolary romance, When Eero Met His Match brings Louchheim and an entire branch of architectural practice and production out of the shadows."---Sophia Stewart, Hyperallergic
"Hagbergs exploration of their relationship foregrounds the woman whose powerful mythmaking created the lasting impression of Saarinens singular creative genius."---Sarah Holder, City Lab
"[An] important book."---John J. Parman, Arcade Magazine
"When Eero Met His Match dives into the rarely seen lives of those behind the curtain of newspaper clippings and magazine articles. Part historical account, part personal memoir, Eva Hagberg's latest book unpacks the often secret and sometimes omniscient world of architectural publicity."---Kate Mazade, Madame Architect
"[An] unconventional biography. . . . the books true intellectual centre is the exploration of how architectural form is translated into and shaped by the stories we tell. . . . An accessible, elegant and exquisitely polymathic meditation on a complicated subject."---Stefan Novakovic, Azure Magazine
"When Eero Met His Match is at once a personal journey for its author as it is an impeccably researched reconstruction of two important figures in modern architecture, sure to appeal to architects, students, and architectural historians alike."---Sean Ruthen, Spacing National
"[An] excellent book. . . . Hagberg . . . uses When Eero Met His Match to correct the diminished role attributed to Aline in Eero's career, as portrayed in articles at the time but also in monographs published decades later."---John Hill, A Weekly Dose of Architecture Books
"It is a fascinating behind-the-scenes expos of the relationship between architectural practice and the media which exploded after the war and continues to form the basis of how architecture works today. Its also about fame, ambition, insecurity, love and lust (it would make a terrific movie)."---Stephen Parnell, RIBA Journal

Author Bio

Eva Hagberg teaches in the Language and Thinking Program at Bard College and at the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation at Columbia University. Her books include How to Be Loved: A Memoir of Lifesaving Friendship and Nature Framed: At Home in the Landscape. She lives in Brooklyn.