He decided to study architecture because it involved two of his favorite subjects, history and art. He graduated from Tucuman University in Argentina. In 1952, he moved to the US for a fellowship at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. One of his professors recommended him to Eero Saarinen, the prominent Finnish-American architect. Pelli spent almost 10 years at the Saarinen firm, where the projects included the iconic TWA Flight Center at Kennedy Airport in New York.