Leslie E. Robertson

Leslie E. Robertson Associates, R.L.L.P., New York, NY

The Architect & the Structural Engineer - Partners in Design
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Friday, February 20th, 2009
4:10 P.M.

Sinclair Laboratory Auditorium

Overview:

The pendulum has swung from an extreme where the Engineer dominated the design of buildings and structures to an extreme where the Architect has become the nearly undisputed leader...sometimes with little or no concern of the talents, aesthetic sense, and opinions of the Engineer. This lecture examines a little of the messages to be found on both sides of this pendulum. As well, making use of a myriad of PowerPoint images, buildings and structures, large and small, will be examined in the light of the significant impact of the functional, the sustainable, and the aesthetic sense of the Structural Engineer.

LESLIE E. ROBERTSON, P.E., C.E., S.E., D.Sc., D.Eng., Dist.M.ASCE, NAE, AIJ, JSCA, AGIR, Cht. Str. Engr. U.K. & Ireland: Dr. Robertson is responsible for the structural design of the World Trade Center (New York), the United States Steel Headquarters (Pittsburgh), the Bank of China Tower (Hong Kong), and the Puerta de Europa (Madrid) as well as exceptional museums and the award-winning Miho Museum Bridge (Japan).

He is a Distinguished Member of the American Society of Civil Engineers and has received the IStructE Gold Medal of the U.K., the Gengo Matsui Prize of Japan as the outstanding Structural Engineer in the world, an AIA Institute Honor; and was recognized as ENR's Construction 'Man of the Year'. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering as well as an Honorary and Advisory Board Member of the Center of Sustainability, Accountability and Eco-Affordability for Large Structures. He lectures regularly to students of all ages and is currently teaching at Princeton University. Further, he is a Distinguished Engineering Alumnus of the University of California, Berkeley, has received ASCE's Outstanding Projects and Leaders (OPAL) Award, AISC's J. Lloyd Kimbrough Award, Tokyo Society of Architects Honorary Fellowship and Medal, and is the first recipient of the Henry C. Turner Prize and of the Fazlur Rahman Kahn Medal.

Dr. Robertson is currently working with I.M. Pei on the Miho Institute of Aesthetics - the Chapel, and has completed designs for the Suzhou Museum in Suzhou, China and the Museum for Islamic Art in Doha, Qatar. With the Pei Partnership he is working on the design for a new 420-meter tower in Shenyang, China, and has been working with Kohn Pedersen Fox on the Shanghai World Financial Center, which now extends to a height of 492 meters (1614 feet). Additionally, he is collaborating with Dynamic Architecture of Florence, Italy to develop prototypical designs for the Rotating Tower, Moscow.

Mr. Robertson serves on the board of several cultural and professional organizations including New York City's Skyscraper Museum, the Architectural League of New York and the MacDowell Colony. The University of Notre Dame, Lehigh University, and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have awarded him honorary doctorate degrees in engineering, and the University of Western Ontario in Canada presented him with an honorary doctorate in science.

The Architect and the Structural Engineer - Partners in Design:

The pendulum has swung from an extreme where the Engineer dominated the design of buildings and structures to an extreme where the Architect has become the nearly undisputed leader...sometimes with little or no concern of the talents, aesthetic sense, and opinions of the Engineer. This lecture examines a little of the messages to be found on both sides of this pendulum. As well, making use of a myriad of PowerPoint images, buildings and structures, large and small, will be examined in the light of the significant impact of the functional, the sustainable, and the aesthetic sense of the Structural Engineer.

The Fazlur R. Khan Distinguished Lecture Series has been initiated and organized by Dan M. Frangopol, the first holder of Lehigh's Fazlur Rahman Khan Endowed Chair of Structural Engineering and Architecture.