William F. Baker: "On the Harmony of Theory and Practice in the Design of Tall Buildings"

H.C Ørsted Lecture, 1/12 2015 with William F. Baker a Structural Engineering Partner for Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, LLP:
"On the Harmony of Theory and Practice in the Design of Tall Buildings"

Abstract:
William F. Baker is a Structural Engineering Partner for Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, LLP. Throughout his career, Bill has dedicated himself to the advancement of structural engineering. His best known contributions have been to tall building design including the development of the “buttressed core” structural system for the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest manmade structure. His expertise also extends to long-span roof structures, as well as specialty structures like Broadgate-Exchange House and the GM Renaissance Center-North Lobby. Baker has also collaborated with numerous artists, including Jamie Carpenter (Raspberry Island-Schubert Club Band Shell), Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle (Gravity is a Force to be Reckoned With), James Turrell (Roden Crater), and Jaume Plensa (World Voices).
In addition to working at SOM, Bill is actively involved with numerous professional organizations and institutions of higher learning. He has received honorary doctorates in engineering from the University of Stuttgart, Heriot-Watt University, and the Illinois Institute of Technology; an Outstanding Projects And Leaders (OPAL) Lifetime Award for Design from the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE); and the Fazlur Rahman Khan medal from the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH). Bill was also the first American to receive the Fritz Leonhardt Preis (Germany) and is one of only three living Americans to receive the Gold Medal from the Institution of Structural Engineers (IStructE). He is a Fellow of both the ASCE and the IStructE, a member of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), and an International Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering. He has had academic appointments at the Illinois Institute of Technology; University of Illinois at Urbana, Northwestern University, and the University of Cambridge. Bill frequently lectures on a variety of structural engineering topics within the U.S. and abroad.
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