The Structure of Design

In The Structure of Design, Leslie Earl Robertson recounts a storied career in engineering which has generated among the most innovative and formally daring buildings of the modern era, as well as his extensive collaborations with several titans of the practice: Minoru Yamasaki, Philip Johnson, Max Abramovitz, Romaldo Giurgola, I. M. Pei, Pei Partnership, KPF, Kiyonori Kikutake, and Gunnar Birkerts. Robertson’s large-scale projects with some of the leading sculptors of the day, including Richard Serra and Beverly Pepper, display the range of this engineer’s craft. As a restless student from modest origins, Robertson’s first encounters with engineering were almost accidental, yet he would go on to be lead engineer of the landmark IBM buildings in Pittsburgh and Seattle while still in his early thirties. Immediately thereafter he embarked on what would become his most renowned project, the World Trade Center, to be followed by scores of major buildings around the world. The Structure of Design is a personal and accessible chronicle of the partnerships and problem-solving that have forged classics of modern architecture, and a privileged look at how the key discipline of engineering influences design, as told by a genius and poet of structure.

Leslie E. Robertson is the founder of Leslie E. Robertson Associates. In 1952, he graduated from the University of California at Berkeley with a Bachelor of Science, and soon began his career as a structural engineer. He has lectured all over the world and has earned numerous awards and honors, including the U.K.’s Institution of Structural Engineers Gold Medal; America’s Most Creative Engineer Award; and the AIA Institute Honor Award. The recipient of four honorary doctorate degrees in engineering and science, he was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in recognition of his expertise and contributions to the field of structural engineering. Robertson’s design for the World Trade Center was awarded the Outstanding Civil Engineering Achievement by the American Society of Civil Engineers. He is a Fellow of the Institution of Structural Engineers in the U.K. and Ireland, a First Class Architect and Engineer in Japan, and an Inaugural Member of the Academy of Distinguished Alumni at the University of California at Berkeley. He has served on numerous committees and organizations devoted to civil rights, world peace, and the environment.