W.W. Norton no longer sells my book Engineering Architecture
December 18, 2020
After 16 years in print Engineering Architecture: The Vision of Fazlur R. Khan is no longer offered for sale by the publisher. The book is now out of print.
I’m saddened by this news, but the publisher, W.W. Norton & Company, deserves my thanks for keeping the book in its catalog this long. It was not a book that sold well. The list price was high – US$55.00 – which, as I understand it, reflected the high cost of including over 200 illustrations, carefully placed within the text at their appropriate locations. I do not regret this aspect of the book and I am grateful that my editor at W.W. Norton supported my request to include the many illustrations. It is these many, varied, images that not only help explain important technical issues but also help one develop a sense of my father as a person. They are, for me, what makes this record of my father’s life and work truly special.
New Podcast About Chicago’s John Hancock Center
March 29, 2019
These Four Design Ideas Turned ‘The Hancock Center’ Into An Iconic Skyscraper
This episode in Chicago radio station WBEZ’s Curious City series responds to a listener’s question about Chicago’s John Hancock Center.
https://www.npr.org/podcasts/401317007/curious-city
Google Doodle
April 5, 2017
The Doodle is now in Google’s Doodle Archive, Fazlur Rahman Khan’s 88th Birthday.
Text accompanying Birthday Tribute
April 3, 2017
I wrote a short post to accompany the Doodle. It will be archived with the Doodle in Google’s Doodle Archive.
https://www.google.com/doodles/fazlur-rahman-khans-88th-birthday
As a youth my father never imagined that one day he would be building skyscrapers. He was born in East Bengal, British India, which became East Pakistan in 1947 and then Bangladesh in 1971. Graduate studies first brought him to the United States and the promise of challenging work drew him to a busy design office in Chicago – that of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill – where he remained until his death in 1982. A surge in demand for residential and office space in the 1960s and early 1970s made tall buildings desirable, but traditional design and construction methods were uneconomical, having evolved for shorter structures. He recognized that a new approach to skyscraper design was needed and set his mind to the task.
In 1972, at 42 years old, he was named Construction’s Man of the Year by Engineering News-Record. His pioneering work in skyscraper design was rejuvenating the design profession as he developed new ways of framing tall buildings, dramatically improving structural efficiency and economy. In 1965 he had initiated the “trussed tube” structural system with his design for Chicago’s 100-story John Hancock Center. By 1971 he was designing the world’s tallest building, the Sears Tower, using his latest innovation, the “bundled tube” (the Sears Tower, now Willis Tower, remained the “world’s tallest” for the next 22 years). His innovations subsequently formed the basis of tall building design.
A humanitarian in his personal as well as professional life, he was inspired by the belief that his work had a positive impact and he encouraged other engineers not to lose track of the purpose of their profession. When he was named Construction’s Man of the Year, he reflected, “The technical man must not be lost in his own technology. He must be able to appreciate life, and life is art, drama, music and, most importantly, people.”
Birthday tribute
April 3, 2017
Today’s Google Doodle is a wonderful tribute to my father on his birthday. Be sure to see it!
Google’s Birthday Tribute to Fazlur Khan
Lecture series at Lehigh
March 22, 2016
I am so pleased that John Zils will be the Fazlur Rahman Khan Distinguished Lecture Series speaker next month. He worked closely with my father at SOM and was a tremendous support for me when I was working on Engineering Architecture: The Vision of Fazlur R. Khan.
Graceland Cemetery
May 28, 2015
A couple of people have asked me recently whether it is all right for admirers of my father to visit his grave. Yes, certainly – I am glad friends and admirers visit. The cemetery also welcomes visitors. I only ask that, if you want to take flowers, please take cut flowers. The cemetery does not allow visitors to dig or plant in the ground.
A Walk Through Graceland Cemetery, guide to Graceland Cemetery by Barbara Lanctot, published by the Chicago Architecture Foundation (2011)
The Chicago Architecture Foundation publishes a nice guide to Graceland Cemetery. The book includes a map of the garden-style cemetery and descriptions of selected gravesites. A number of architects and engineers are buried at Graceland, including William Le Baron Jenney, Louis Sullivan, Daniel Burnham, and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Bruce Graham’s memorial stone is next to my father’s gravesite.
This is the description for my father.
Fazlur Khan, in A Walk Through Graceland Cemetery, A Chicago Architecture Foundation Tour (on pages 50 & 51)
The entrance to Graceland Cemetery is located at 4001 N. Clark Street. There is an office just inside the entrance where you can ask for directions (call about hours, the phone number is (773) 525-1105). Also, if you’re interested in the Chicago Architecture Foundation guide, the office has the book for sale.
I could not help feeling a tinge of disappointment on hearing that the Sears (now Willis) Tower has lost its title as tallest building in North America to One World Trade Center in New York. But I was pleased that the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat executive director, in announcing the height of One World Trade Center, recalled the building designers’ early vision of a spire and beacon honoring the Statue of Liberty. The spire of One World Trade Center “which holds the beacon light,” he said, “shining out at the symbolic height of 1,776 feet, is especially poignant – echoing the similarly symbolic beacon atop the Statue of Liberty across the water.” In fact, in early drawings of 1WTC the designers showed the spire rising at one side of the tower (rather than centered on the roof).
Sears Tower no longer the Tallest Building in North America
March 11, 2014
One World Trade Center (1WTC) in New York, originally known as the Freedom Tower, has become “The Top of America,” as this week’s issue of Time magazine puts it. According to the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH), the organization that determines how a building’s height is measured, 1WTC’s height to architectural top is 1,776 feet. This includes the 408-foot-tall spire that rises above the main structure of the building. In announcing the CTBUH decision to include the spire in its measurement, the organization’s executive director noted the symbolic importance of the spire reaching to 1,776 feet and the Height Committee’s confidence that the spire will remain a permanent architectural feature of the building.
So, the Sears Tower (now Willis Tower) in Chicago has lost its title as the tallest building in North America (it was the World’s Tallest Building from its completion in 1974 to 1996, when it lost that title to the Petronas Towers). The main roof level at the top of the building structure is actually higher at the Willis Tower in Chicago than at 1WTC: 1,451 feet at the Willis Tower vs. 1,368 feet to the steel parapet at 1WTC. But since the late 1990s the CTBUH has evaluated buildings according to several measurements, with height to architectural top determining the official building height. Initially there were four measurement categories; these have been reduced to three, eliminating the height to roof measurement.
The current three categories of measurement are:
- Height to architectural top. Permanent spires are included in this measurement. 1WTC’s height to architectural top is 1,776 feet; the Willis Tower’s height to architectural top is 1,451 feet.
- Height to highest occupied floor. 1WTC’s highest occupied floor is at 1,268 feet; the Willis Tower’s highest occupied floor is at 1,354 feet.
- Height to tip. This measurement includes antennas. 1WTC’s height to tip is 1,792 feet; the Willis Tower’s height to tip measures 1,729 feet.
Yasmin Sabina Khan 