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. 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.