Birthday tribute
April 4, 2020
April 3 is my father’s birthday – he would be 91. I appreciate and am very happy to see the Chicago History Museum’s tribute to my father on its blog, “Chicago Stories Every Day.”
The Father of Modern Skyscrapers
In Chicago, everyone looks up to the work of Fazlur Rahman Khan, the structural engineer for the Sears Tower and John Hancock Center. Born on this day in 1929 in Bangladesh, Khan came to the United States to study at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he earned two master’s degrees and a PhD. He then joined Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, where his innovative work ushered in a new era of skyscrapers. Next time you’re on Franklin Street adjacent to the Willis Tower, you’ll see that it has the honorary designation of “Fazlur R. Khan Way.” Learn more about Chicago’s architectural history.
Yasmin Sabina Khan 