Lichtenstein Distinguished Lecture - Matthys P. Levy

The limits of the tallest building and the longest bridge

Ever since the late nineteenth century, structures have been built higher and bridges have spanned further. In 1939 when I arrived in the United States, New York could boast having the world’s tallest skyscraper, the Empire State Building, and San Francisco the world’s longest suspension bridge, the Golden Gate Bridge. After the Second World War, these records would soon tumble as longer and taller structures would be planned and built until here we are in the twenty-first century with Dubai’s Burj Khalifa tower scraping the clouds at 828 m high and the planned Stretto di Messina Bridge jumping 5070 m across the strait separating Sicily from the Italian mainland. Have we reached too high and too far in our quest for sheer size? Have we reached the technological limit of how high we can build or how far we can span? What about Frank Lloyd Wright’s mile high tower and the tempting Strait of Gibraltar waiting to join Europe to Africa. I propose to explore the limits that technology presents us in this quest and whether there are socio-economic constraints that may outweigh mere physical limits.

Speaker: Matthys P. Levy, Founding Principal and Chairman Emeritus, Weidlinger Associates

Born in Switzerland and a graduate of the City College of New York, Mr. Levy received his MS and CE degrees from Columbia University. He is the recipient of the ASCE Innovation in Civil Engineering Award and three PCI awards. He was named a Structural Engineering Legend in Design by Structural Engineering Magazine in 2003. He is the co-author of the best selling book, Why Buildings Fall Down, as well as, Structural Design in Architecture; Why the Earth Quakes; Earthquakes, Volcanoes & Tsunamis; and Earthquake Games and Engineering the City. His recent book, Why the Wind Blows, a history of weather and global warming, was published in 2007. He was the principal designer for many projects including the Javits Convention Center and the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, and a cable-stayed pedestrian bridge at Rockefeller University. He is the inventor of the Tenstar Dome structure, a unique tensegrity cable dome used to cover large spaces with minimal obstruction. Mr. Levy has served as an expert in forensic investigations including the World Trade Center Collapses in New York. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1996.

Host: Hojjat Adeli (phone: 614-292-7929)