Dulles International Airport Terminal, Chantilly, Virginia, circa 1963. © Balthazar Korab Ltd.

To mark the 100th anniversary of Eero Saarinen’s birth year (Aug. 20, 2010), the Finnish Embassy is hosting a free exhibit at the embassy until Nov. 28. The exhibit, “Eero Saarinen: A Reputation for Innovation,” is free and open to the public from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday through Sundays. The exhibition is a tribute to Saarinen’s work in Washington, which began with the 1939 winning design (with Charles Eames and Ralph Rapson) for the Smithsonian Gallery of Art, a modern art museum on the Mall that was never built, and ended with the nation’s first jet airport, Dulles International Airport. Dulles was completed one year after Saarinen’s death on Sept. 1, 1961 at the age of 51. Saarinen also spent time in D.C. during the war years as the head of the Office of Strategic Services’ Presentation Division responsible for all exhibits work. One of his jobs while at OSS was designs for the Situation Room at the White House. Looks like a good opportunity to learn more about some of Saarinen’s less publicized work and to check out Finland’s modern embassy.