There is some doubt regarding the chronology of the pedestal series. However, it is certain that the chair were developed before the tables. It has been said that Saarinen began drawing the chairs as early as 1953. However, Don Petit, Saarinen's assistant is reported as saying that the first sketches were made in 1955 and full sized models of the chairs were completed in 1956. The work on the tables began after 1956 and were the last pieces of furniture designed by Saarinen before his untimely death in 1961.
The pedestal group was Saarinen's attempt to solve the problem of the "slum of legs" and to eliminate the resulting visual clutter. Since his early work with Eames, he had continued to work on the problem of creating "organic furniture", that is, furniture in a unified form and in a single material. Visually the pedestal group presents an organic unity. However, given the technical limits of the time, Saarinen did not manage to make this series from a single moulded material. The bases had to be made of cast aluminum since moulded plastic in such a graceful form did not have sufficient strengh to support a heavy table top or large person. Consequently, from this point of view, Saarinen considered this project a failure and hoped some day to find a mouldable plastic material strong enough to solve the problem without having to compromise the beauty of the final object.