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If the crisp fall air whets our mental appetite, two architectural tours and one blockbuster exhibit will go far to satisfy it.
The work of Finnish modern architect Eero Saarinen (1910-1961) is so all-encompassing that the traveling exhibit "Eero Saarinen: Shaping the Future" is split between the Walker Art Center and the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. It runs through Jan. 4, 2009.
Eero Saarinen was the son of the also famous Finnish architect Eliel Saarinen, who made the Cranbrook Academy in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., the cradle of American modernism. They collaborated until Eliel died in 1950. Christ Church Lutheran in Minneapolis' Longfellow neighborhood was the last completed work of the father-son team.
It's been 36 years since a major collaboration between the two institutions, noted Kaywin Feldman, the MIA's new director. "It won't be another 36," she promised. It's hard to know who got the better half.
The Walker displays Saarinen's iconic modernist furniture, such as the womb chair and pedestal table; photos and models of his corporate buildings, such as the blue glass IBM training facility in...