| Eero Saarinen was commissioned in 1956 by John Deere & Company
to design a corporate headquarters facility. The site was outside of
Moline, Illinois on 700 acres of rolling woods. Saarinen chose to place the administrative center
so that it rested across a gentle ravine. The company required around 300,000 square feet of office space, in addition to 23,000 square feet of auditorium space and a 30,000 square foot display building. The auditorium and display building were completed after the administrative center and were largely the work of one of Saarinen's associates, Kevin Roche. One of John Deere's major requirements for the office space was flexibility. They wanted a facility which expressed their current position, but they needed the ability to accommodate further growth and expansion. The result of this requirement was Saarinen's use of an open office plan in which a typical office floor was a large universal space which could be configured with cubicles as needed. While this plan proved functional, it receives mixed reviews from John Deere workers. According to Edward And Mildred Hall, who conducted a behavioral study of the facility, "...a few employees felt that their creativity as well as their own sense of individualtiy was hampered by the building" (Hall, 136). Other floors held closed executive offices with an internal secretarial pool. John Deere also required an executive dining hall which Saarinen placed on one of the lower floors overlooking the artificial lake. |
 Ford, 300
|
|  Arch Forum, July 1964 |
