AIA Japan - The Design of the Burj Khalifa
When: Friday 28 May 2021 @ 21:00 (Eastern US time)/ Saturday 29 May @ 10:00 (Japan time)
CES Credits - 2.0 LU for AIA members
Speaker: William F. Baker, Structural Engineering Design Partner at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, LLP
Description:
Bill Baker will present the design of the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building. The presentation will trace the design from the competition in 2003 to the Grand Opening in 2010. He will also discuss the impact the building has had over the past decade.
Speaker bio:
William (Bill) F. Baker is a Structural Engineering Design Partner for the architectural engineering firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, LLP. His work spans a wide array of structural engineering projects, ranging from small pavilions to the world’s tallest structure, the Burj Khalifa. One of the focuses of his research and design is the optimization of structural/architectural geometry to minimize the embodied carbon of buildings. He has an Honorary Professorship in Structural Engineering Design with the Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge where his research and lectures focus on design and on adapting the contributions of Rankine, Airy, Maxwell, and Michell to structural optimization and modern structural design. Baker’s honors include being a member of the National Academy of Engineering, an International Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Gold Medal from the Institution of Structural Engineers, the Fritz Leonhardt Preis (Germany), the Gustav Magnel Gold Medal from the University of Ghent, the Fazlur Rahman Khan Medal from the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, and the American Society of Civil Engineers’ Outstanding Projects and Leaders Lifetime Award for Design. He has received Honorary Doctorates in engineering from the University of Stuttgart, Heriot-Watt University, Illinois Institute of Technology, and the University of Missouri.
His principle areas of interest and expertise concern the structural engineering design of buildings; most notably, tall and very tall buildings (skyscrapers), long span roofs and specialized structures. With a focus in tall building design, he has led the structural engineering design of 26 towers over 300 meters tall, including the world’s tallest manmade structure, the 2,700-foot-tall Burj Khalifa. His long-span roof experience varies from the cable-supported roof structure at Chicago’s McCormick Place North Building, the Broadgate Exchange House in London and the Entrance Pavilion for General Motors’ Headquarters in Detroit. His work on specialty structures ranges from the engineering of sculptures in collaboration with numerous artists, including James Carpenter, Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle, James Turrell, and Jaume Plensa to collaboration on highly engineered and detailed single family homes. Further interests extend to research and development related to structural optimization and structural topology. By exploring optimal topologies, he hopes to create new architectural design opportunities based on engineering principles.
