In a talk on his autobiography The Structure of Design: An Engineer’s Extraordinary Life in Architecture, Leslie E. Robertson recounted examples of the partnerships and problem-solving that forged so many classics of modern architecture, including his collaborations with architects, including Minoru Yamasaki, Philip Johnson, and I. M. Pei, among many others. He also dicussed his delight in working with leading sculptors such as Richard Serra and Beverly Pepper.
One of the world’s leading structural engineers, Les Robertson collaborated closely with architects to create the innovative designs of the original World Trade Center, the U.S. Steel Tower in Pittsburgh, the Bank of China Tower in Hong Kong, Shanghai World Financial Center, and Lotte World Tower in Seoul. He retired as a partner in the firm Leslie E. Robertson Associates (LERA) at the end of 1994, continuing to work on LERA projects through 2012, then practiced as See Robertson Structural Engineers, LLC and as a Design Director with the Robert Bird Group, a global consulting engineering firm. He passed away on February 11, 2021.