The Modern Concrete Skyscraper: Nervi's Towers: Milan, Montreal, & Sydney

The famed Italian structural engineer Pier Luigi Nervi, a modernist master of concrete design and construction, collaborated with architects worldwide. His iconic skyscrapers – Pirelli Tower in Milan with Gio Ponti, the Montreal Bourse with Luigi Moretti, and Australia Square and MLC Centre in Sydney with Harry Seidler – attest to his global influence and provide a rich range of illustrations of the integration of architecture and engineering.

Based on his 2017 book, Beauty’s Rigor: Patterns of Production in the Work of Pier Luigi Nervi, this talk by architect and professor at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Thomas Leslie will show how Nervi’s principles of structural efficiency and aesthetic expression influenced skyscraper construction throughout the 1960s and 1970s. This is a virtual program — online only.

As a counterpoint to the focus on Nervi, after the talk, Bill Baker, a consulting partner at SOM and the lead structural engineer for the Burj Khalifa, among many other skyscrapers, will engage Leslie in dialogue, exploring issues of engineering genius and the invention of new forms. 

Thomas Leslie is Professor of Architecture at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign where he researches the integration of building sciences and arts, both historically and in contemporary practice. He is the author of Chicago Skyscrapers, 1871-1934 and its sequel Chicago Skyscrapers, 1934-1986 (Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2013 and 2023). He is also the author of Beauty's Rigor: Patterns of Production in the Work of Pier Luigi Nervi (University of Illinois Press, 2017).

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.