Art of the Skyscraper:
The Genius of Fazlur Khan
Dr. Ahmed S. Khan
Senior Professor
Dept of EET
DeVry University
Addison, IL
Dr. Fazlur Rahman
Khan was an outstanding structural engineer of the
twentieth century. His contributions and innovative
approach to tall building design and attention to
aesthetic details to the field have been so significant
that he has been called “the Einstein of structural
engineering” and “the father of modern
skyscraper.” For his contributions to the
field, he has not only received highest international
awards for engineering but also recognized for his
architectural creativity. To honor this world-famous
engineer, a chair has been established in Dr. F
R Khan’s name at Lehigh University. The Structural
Engineers Association, Illinois, has installed a
Khan Sculpture in Sears Tower; and the city of Chicago
has named one of the streets in downtown Chicago
“Fazlur R. Khan Way.” Had there been
a Nobel Prize in engineering, he surely would have
won it.
Dr. Fazlur Rahman Khan revolutionized the construction
of tall buildings by inventing “framed tube,”
“braced tube” and “bundled tube”
structural systems, which made it possible to construct
the 100-story John Hancock Center and the 110-Story
Sears Tower in Chicago (a building so tall that
it needed Federal Aviation Administration approval
before the construction could commence) using minimum
amount of steel. Dr. F.R. Khan’s structural
system inventions play a fundamental role in the
design of modern high rise buildings. His efforts
were not only limited to structural engineering
but also played an important role in the form and
architecture of the buildings he worked on.
In Art of the Skyscraper: The Genius of Fazlur Khan,
the author, Dr. Mir M. Ali, professor of architectural
structures at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign,
offers a vivid portrait of Fazlur Rahman Khan (1929-1982).
In 16 chapters spread over 240 pages that include
many illustrations and pictures, the author has
done a marvelous job of telling the story of a highly
technical man in both technical and non-technical
manners.
In the first few chapters of the book, Professor
Ali discusses Dr. F. R. Khan’s childhood,
youth, education, and early years of his professional
career. In the latter chapters, he addresses the
development of tall buildings in Chicago, and highlights
Dr. F. R. Khan’s innovations, contributions
and leadership role in the design and development
of tall buildings. He focuses on the period from
1950 to the early 1980s when Dr. Khan worked mostly
at the Chicago offices of Skidmore, Owens &
Merrill (SOM), one of the largest and most renowned
architectural firms in the world. Dr. Khan’s
innovative contributions to structural engineering
enabled SOM to become a leader in the development
of tall buildings. The author also portrays Dr.
Khan as a lover of humanity and a deeply introspective
and spiritual man (Chapters 9 and 13).
Dr. Ali is uniquely qualified to tell the story
of Dr. Khan. A structural engineer himself, Professor
Ali had been the chairman of the structures division
of the School of Architecture at the University
of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign from 1993 to 2003.
He knew Dr. Khan personally and also worked with
him on some of his projects at SOM.
Reflecting on the reasons as to why Dr. F. R. Khan
selected the University of Illinois for pursuing
graduate studies, Professor Ali writes: “Fazlur
R. Khan went to University of Illinois at Urbana
Champaign in 1952 to pursue graduate studies in
structural engineering. He was attracted to this
institution because of its worldwide reputation
in the field of engineering. This reputation was
due to names of renowned people like Hardy Cross,
Thomas Shedd, N.M. Newmark, and Ralph Peck within
its faculty… Khan departed for Urbana-Champaign
from Dhaka, an old city in the heart of Bangladesh
(formerly East Pakistan). He had studied engineering
at Bengal Engineering College Calcutta, India, and
moved to Dhaka after the creation of East Pakistan”
(p.20). He further writes: “It is not known
how Khan got his admission to the University of
Illinois, since it was extremely competitive for
foreigners --- particularly for those coming from
a new country like Pakistan.” (p.21).
The author provides an account of the academic brilliance
of Dr. F. R. Khan, specifically how he completed
three graduate degrees in a short span of three
years. Dr. Ali writes: “Khan got enough academic
credits by taking courses in both civil engineering
and theoretical and applied mechanics simultaneously
to get two Master’s degrees in two years.
He completed his PhD thesis in the very short time
of one year after that”. When Chester Siess
(Khan’s adviser) was asked about how Khan
managed to get three graduate degrees in three years
and how the Civil Engineering Department allowed
that to happen, he replied, “Faz was unusually
brilliant and we could make an exception for someone
like him” (p.24).
Professor Ali has also included a number of examples
of Dr. F. R. Khan’s contribution to the field
of structural engineering, providing technical details
with relevant background information. The author
presents detailed description of Dr. Khan’s
“braced tube” and “bundled tube”
approaches, which are widely known in the field
of advanced structural analyses. The author also
discusses some of his contributions that are significant
but not well known to the general public. Regarding
Dr. Khan’s contributions in designing buildings
in seismic zones, the author writes: “A further
innovation by Khan, and something that is not as
well known, is his original concept of dissipating
energy as the lower storey of buildings in seismic
zones…He thought of a shock-absorbing soft-story
concept in which a ‘stability wall,’
consisting of neoprene pads, and deformable cables
would be used in the lowest most level in a predetermined
fashion such that during an earthquake the lower
level would dissipate energy and isolate the upper
floors from any damage…Thus designing the
entire building to resist high earthquake forces,
the bottom story of the building is allowed to distort
with earthquake, thereby screening out most of the
forces there. The upper part of the structure remains
unaffected and behaves as an elastic system, whereas
the lower story behaves as an elasto-plastic bilinear
system.” An earthquake in Yugoslavia in the
1960s in which the bottom story of many buildings
was excessively damaged, when brought to Dr. Khan’s
attention by a colleague, led to this innovation.
In the process of writing the book, Professor Ali
interviewed a number of Dr. Khan’s colleagues,
friends and advisers and included their impressions
about his abilities. Dr. Khan’s co-adviser
for graduate studies, Narbey Khachaturian had this
to recall: “He (Khan) was a universal man,
a man who would look at all aspects --- social,
architectural, aesthetic, you name it – the
entire universe. Khan was also a very good and perceptive
listener. He could grasp very quickly what you would
tell him. He had that unusual mental ability.”
Professor Ali reveals that Dr. Khan was aware of
the fact that his success was not solely due to
his own genius and expertise, but also due to the
help and collaboration of his associates, fellow
architects and engineers. In 1981, Dr. Fazlur Rahman
Khan paid tribute to his advisor for his success
and innovations. He said: “It is not always
easy to pinpoint the most important reason for my
occasional successes in innovations…I have
come to realize that three years I spent at the
University of Illinois first under the advisorship
of Thomas Shedd, but more significantly under the
research environment and advisorship of Chester
Siess have indeed been the most significant and
responsible factors in shaping my attitudes and
approach to structural design” (p.20).
Dr. F. R Khan was far more than an innovative structural
engineer; he was also a philosopher, a thinker and
a humanitarian. His designs not only reflect technical
innovations, but also meet the local demands and
cultural expectations. He paid attention to the
minute details of his designs. Commenting on his
own thinking process about design, Dr. Khan said:
“When thinking design, I put myself in the
place of a whole building, feeling every part. In
my mind I visualize the stresses and twisting a
building undergoes.” Dr. Khan also made sure
that his designs were people-friendly too; he placed
people first because people were so close to his
heart. In this regard, the author has reproduced
a comment by Engineering News-Record (1972): “Invariably,
when Khan lectures on high-rise buildings, he first
goes through a brief slide-supplemented history
of tall buildings, and then explains the details
of some of his innovations. Suddenly, shots of crowded,
smog-covered Chicago and New York City appear on
the screen. Khan then cuts to shots of buildings
with tree-filled, people-filled plazas. While this
is going on Khan expounds on how designers have
to face up to urban problems and let their consciences
push them in that direction.”
Professor Ali has also presented the other facets
of Dr. Khan’s personality: a philosopher,
a thinker, an educator, and a prolific writer. He
had a keen interest in the people, art and music
and literature. In 1972, he said, “The technical
man must not be lost in his own technology; he must
be able to appreciate life, and life is art, drama,
music, and most importantly, people.”
Dr. Fazlur Rahman Khan has left behind a legacy
of tall building design. In his design he believed
in logic, truth, objectivity, and rationality. He
practiced collaboration. His innovative ideas are
present in the form of tall buildings in the major
cities of the world today. One Magnificent Mile
and Onterie Center, John Hancock Center, The Sears
Tower, all in Chicago; World Trade Center, Hong
Kong; and the Hajj Terminal, Jeddah, are some of
his best known completed projects.
“Art of the Skyscraper: The Genius of Fazlur
Khan” is an important book on the life and
accomplishments of one of the greatest structural
engineers of the twentieth century whose influence
continues today. Professor Ali has presented a tribute
to the brilliance of Dr. F R Khan that will keep
his memory everlasting. He has done a wonderful
job of combining the biography of Dr. Fazlur Rahman
Khan with the technical problems and challenges
associated with the construction of tall buildings.
It is a fascinating story of the genius of Dr. Fazlur
Rahman Khan; a must read for all technical and non-technical
minds; and an invaluable resource for students,
architects, and engineers.
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