04.04.17 | Robert Silman: Being Heroic?

Robert Silman is President Emeritus of Silman, the structural engineering firm he founded in 1966. He has directed all phases of its operations including the supervision of design, production of contract documents, construction, contract negotiations and cost review. The firm divides its time evenly between projects of new construction, alteration, renovation and preservation with Mr. Silman contributing his knowledge in all structural materials - steel, concrete, timber, fabric, aluminum, plastic, carbon fiber, and glass.

His many awards include the Louise du Pont Crowninshield Award from the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Association for Preservation Technology International’s Harley J. McKee Award, the AIA New York Chapter Award, and the prestigious Anton Tedesco Medal in 2005 from the IABSE. Mr. Silman has particular expertise in historic preservation, as evidenced by his work on Carnegie Hall, Fallingwater and The Museum of Immigration at Ellis Island, including knowledge of construction systems in the United States dating back to our earliest building types. He is also an international leader in the promotion of sustainable design. On the basis of his outstanding professional qualifications, the Secretary of the Interior appointed Mr. Silman to the Advisory Board for the National Center for Preservation Technology and Training, for which he is past-Chairman, representing the fields of engineering and preservation education.

He has lectured at various conferences and written a number of articles on sustainability for Structural Engineering International, and he was a member of the Consortium writing the High-Performance Guidelines for New York City Capital Construction Projects sponsored by the Mayor’s Office of Construction. Mr. Silman in association with the National Trust for Historic Preservation and Friends of the National Center for Preservation Technology and Training assisted in writing the Pocantico Proclamation on Historic Preservation and Sustainability. This work was followed by the Nashville Challenge in October 2009 co-chaired by Mr. Silman. And finally, he led his entire office to completely revise the firm’s specifications and design methodologies to incorporate principles of sustainability.

Currently, he teaches at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard, having previously taught at Columbia and Yale. He is just completing his term as a member of Cornell University’s College of Architecture, Art and Planning Advisory Council.

Sponsored by The Steel Institute of New York

With Support from The Cooper Union
The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture
The Albert Nerken School of Engineering
The Architectural League of New York

Introduced by Nader Tehrani