Deere and Company Administrative Center

The Deere and Company Administrative Center rises within a wooded ravine outside Moline, Illinois, designed by Eero Saarinen as one of his final projects before his death in 1961, with the building completed posthumously in 1964 under his successor firm Roche and Dinkeloo, which later added a matching wing in 1978. Saarinen chose Cor-Ten weathering steel as the building's primary structural and exterior material, one of the first major applications of the material in American architecture, allowing its surface to oxidize into a dark, stable rust patina intended to harmonize the building with the surrounding trees rather than requiring paint or other maintenance. The building's deeply recessed, trellis-like sunscreens and glass walls were designed to blend the interior offices visually into the wooded ravine setting, reflecting John Deere's identity as an agricultural equipment manufacturer. The complex helped popularize Cor-Ten steel as a mainstream architectural material in the decades that followed. The American Institute of Architects recognized it with its Twenty-Five Year Award in 1993.