Driving by the Virginia Center for Architecture—that breathtakingly massive brick mansion on Monument with a million and one dark-framed leaded windows—is cause enough for holy exclamations, but seeing design-master Eero Saarinen’s work there is downright religious.

This is the man who gave us the St. Louis Gateway Arch (er, the Jeff erson National Expansion Memorial), the TWA Flight Center at JFK, and the main terminal at Dulles. On display at the Center are his smaller, more intimate pieces, created for the rest and comfort of the human body: furniture. Most notably there’s an original womb chair from 1948, a wide, inviting red embrace of a chair featuring his singularly fl uid folds and curves and a neat padded footrest. Before making it, he spent countless hours making notes and sketches of his observations on how people sit—how we actually sit, not how we’re supposed to for the sake of our spines. As a result, the womb chair even accommodates those of us who like to swing our legs over the arms and slouch like ragdolls; it was designed to “facilitate a relaxed sitting posture and a sublime feeling of security.” You may not have seen the womb, but there’s no way—not even if you’ve bought nothing but thrift store furniture for the last 30 years—that you’ve missed the pedestal chair and tables… those one-legged wonders landed places as icons of home furnishing design.

Building and creating was a clear path for him from an early age; he won first prize in a matchstick design contest at age 12, a national soap sculpture contest at age 16, and later that same year went on to enter an American small dwelling design contest with his father Eliel, also an architect. His native Finland didn’t keep him for long. The Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris kick-started his studies, followed by Yale’s A-school; he became a U.S. citizen in 1940 and ended up drawing illustrations for bomb disassembly manuals and offering designs for the Situation Room in the White House.

Once he started in on his large solo projects, grace, a light, fluid form and innovative function infused his works, and in furniture, he paved the path for fiberglass to be used in framing. The executive chair’s fiberglass body made a flexible, thin seat that responded to body weight, giving it an extra comfy feel and making it wildly popular.

The exhibit also includes Ross Littell’s dramatically long, brightly printed drapes made under the umbrella of Knoll, the furniture design company that produced Saarinen’s work. Titled The Furniture of Eero Saarinen: Designs for Everyday Living, it’s up until January 25, and it’s very much worth a look; seriously, people, he’s kind of the Brian Eno of the design world. Before you go check it out, test-drive the chairs in your dining room, living room and office and ask yourself if you’re getting a sublime feeling of security…if not, you might want rethink your interiors.