Collection of The Skyscraper Museum. Courtesy of the PANYNJ.
Please note: This program will be held at 7 World Trade Center, at the the office of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. You must RSVP by 5pm on Monday, August 31st to be included on the door list for building security. Please only register for the in-person program due to limited space; do NOT register for the YouTube livestream.
The Skyscraper Museum continues to honor the 25th anniversary of September 11th, 2001 with an in-person program featuring Museum trustee Bill Baker held at the office of the architecture and engineering firm SOM, at 7 World Trade Center in lower Manhattan.
The structural innovations of three brilliant young engineers starting in the 1960s led to a revolution in modern skyscraper design. Bill Baker, the structural designer of the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building, will offer his appraisal of three key figures – Leslie E. Robertson, William J. LeMessurier, and Fazlur R. Khan – whose work influenced the development of new systems of structures that made possible both unprecedented height and material efficiency.
In commemoration of the 25th anniversary of September 11th, 2001, Baker will focus especially on the structural design of the Twin Towers as conceived by Les Robertson as well as some of the later projects from his long career working on tall buildings around the world.
The Museum is grateful for the generous support of Elise Jaffe + Jeffrey Brown for endowing an annual lecture that honors our late trustee, the extraordinary structural engineer Leslie E. Robertson.
To register for this FREE program, click on the link above to RSVP. You will be redirected to Ticketstripe to reserve your seat. Members receive priority registration by emailing [email protected] with the names of all guests. Want to become member? Click here! The program will also be livestreamed to the Skyscraper Museum YouTube channel. You do NOT need to register for the livestream.
Bill Baker, PE, SE, FASCE, FIStructE, NAE, FREng
Consulting Partner, SOM
Bill Baker joined SOM in 1981, led the firm’s structural engineering practice for over twenty years and is now a Consulting Partner. He is best known for the design of the “buttressed core” structural system for the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, the world’s tallest manmade structure. Active with numerous professional organizations and institutions of higher learning, Baker has received many honors, including four honorary doctorates. He is a Fellow of both the ASCE and the IStructE, a member of the National Academy of Engineering (United States), and an International Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (United Kingdom). Recently he has been splitting his time between Chicago and the UK as an Honorary Professor at the University of Cambridge.