Nervi’s Towers: Milan, Montreal, & Sydney

The Skyscraper Museum resumes its lecture series In Situ: The Modern Concrete Skyscraper, which examines key experiments in concrete construction and the range of paradigmatic concrete skyscrapers throughout history, in preparation for our Fall 2024 exhibition of the same name.

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. This is a free virtual program—online only.

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.

To register for this FREE program, click on the link above to RSVP. You will be redirected to Ticketstripe where you’ll receive the Zoom link upon registering. The webinar is limited to 100 attendees, but will be livestreamed to our YouTube channel.