Structural Engineer Leslie Robertson Dies at 92 architectmagazine.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from architectmagazine.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The steel design community suffered a huge loss Thursday when Leslie E. Robertson, whose career came to be defined by his work on the World Trade Center, died following a diagnosis of blood cancer.
“Les had such a cordial influence on others, including for me personally,” said Charles J. Carter, SE, PE, PhD, president of the American Institute of Steel Construction.
“I first met him as an undergraduate student when he agreed to meet for a morning to discuss his recently completed Bank of China building. He made the whole concept of the building lateral system clear to me (as a student!) in about 20 minutes with just a few sketches and a brilliantly simple physical experiment that proved he found a creative way to eliminate column bending.”
Leslie Robertson, Who Engineered the World Trade Center, Dies at 92
He remained proud of the towers, which stood long enough for thousands to escape on 9/11, but carried with him “a troubled heart.”
Leslie E. Robertson in front of a model of the Lower Manhattan area where the World Trade Center was being built. After 9/11, he reflected: “Should I have made the project more stalwart? And in retrospect, the only answer you can come up with is, Yes.”Credit.via The Monacelli Press
By Fred A. Bernstein
Feb. 11, 2021
Leslie E. Robertson, the structural engineer of the World Trade Center, whose work came under intense scrutiny after the complex was destroyed in the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, died on Thursday at his home in San Mateo, Calif. He was 92.