Editor’s Note: In June, The Creative Architect: Inside the Great Midcentury Personality Study, by Pierluigi Serraino, will be published by Monacelli Press. The book is based on psychological tests conducted by the University of California, Berkeley, in 1958–59 to try to determine what promotes creativity in architects. RECORD presents excerpts of three case studies of the leading architects of the day—Eero Saarinen, Philip Johnson, and Richard Neutra—along with the author’s summary of the goals, methodology, and findings of this unusual, almost-forgotten investigation. Go back to the main article.
Saarinen was dyslexic. As a coping mechanism, he sketched his thoughts and ideas during his interview with psychologist William Smelser, who noted Eero’s quest for enduring acknowledgement for his work. He needed to assert his own autonomy independently of his father, Eliel: “He answered the question about his ‘best work’ in terms of what his father said and what St. Peter might think,” Smelser wrote. “The subject is closely identified with his father (a famous architect) but received little affection from him.” Smelser also observed: “He has strong status concerns about his own greatness, and apparently this is a function of his concern about being independent of his father’s name.”
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