Gottlieb Eliel Saarinen was a Finnish architect known for his work with art deco buildings in the early years of the 20th century. Eliel was born in Rantasalmi on Aug. 20, 1873. He became the foremost architect of his generation in Finland before he moved to the U.S. in 1923. By 1914 he was widely known in Europe for his Helsinki railroad station (1904–14) and urban planning projects for Reval, Estonia, and Canberra, Australia. In 1922 he won second prize in a competition to build an office tower for the Chicago Tribune. His plan, with its bold approach to massing, had a profound influence on U.S. skyscraper design. He received the AIA Gold Medal in 1947. From 1932 to 1948 Saarinen was president of Cranbrook Academy of Art, at Bloomfield Hills, near Detroit, and thereafter, until his death, head of the graduate department of architecture and city planning. He designed a group of buildings in Bloomfield Hills, including Cranbrook School for Boys (1925–30), Kingswood School for Girls (1929–30), the Institute for Science (1931–33), and the Academy of Art (1926–41).