Fazlur R. Khan - Willis Tower - Chicago, Illinois, USA.
N 41° 52.729 W 087° 38.191
16T E 447185 N 4636517
A 30 feet long bronze relief sculpture displayed as you exit the SkyDeck at the Willis Tower. Proclaims Fazlur Rahman Khan as one of the greatest Structural Engineer of our time.
Waymark Code: WMKXA3
Location: Illinois, United States
Date Posted: 06/07/2014
Views: 6
The Willis Tower formerly the Sears Tower remains the tallest building in the Western hemisphere. The Tower uses the bundled tube structural concept, invented by Dr.Fazlur Rahman Khan.
The former Sears Tower now the Willis Tower was originally designed in the late 1960's by Bruce Graham and The Structural Engineer, Fazlur R Khan, both of the Skidmore, Owings and Merrill firm. It was completed in 1974. From 1974 to 1996 the building remained the tallest in the World.
Visitors can travel to the 103rd floor, called the Skydeck. It is the highest working floor in the structure.
"The Structural Engineers Association of Illinois recognized his achievements with the John Parmer Award in 1987. The SEAOI also commissioned a sculpture in Fazlur Khan’s honor by the Spanish artist Carlos Marinas. The sculpture is located in the lobby of the Sears Tower (now the Willis Tower).
In 1998 the city of Chicago named the intersection of Jackson and Franklin Streets (located at the foot of the Sears, or Willis, Tower) “Fazlur R. Khan Way.”" Text Source: (
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Fazlur R. Khan (1929 — 1982)Fazlur Rahman Khan.
"Structural engineer Fazlur Rahman Khan (1929 — 1982) ushered in a renaissance in skyscraper construction during the second half of the 20th century. He was a pragmatic visionary, establishing structural systems that subsequently formed the basis of high-rise design: the framed tube and the tube-in-tube, the trussed tube, the bundled tube, the composite system utilizing both concrete and structural steel.
The series of progressive ideas that Fazlur Khan developed for efficient high-rise construction in the 1960s and 1970s was validated in his own work. His design for Chicago’s 100-story John Hancock Center established the trussed tube system, his design for the 110-story Sears Tower (the world’s tallest building from its completion in 1974 until 1996; the building is now called the Willis Tower) initiated the bundled tube system." Text Source: (
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From Wikipedia:
"Khan's central innovation in skyscraper design and construction was the idea of the "tube" structural system for tall buildings, including the "framed tube", "trussed tube" and "bundled tube" variations. Khan realized that the rigid steel frame structure that had dominated tall building design and construction so long was not the only system fitting for tall buildings. His "tube concept," using all the exterior wall perimeter structure of a building to simulate a thin-walled tube, revolutionized tall building design. Most buildings over 40-storeys constructed since the 1960s now use a tube design derived from Khan's structural engineering principles" Text Source: (
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SkyDeck - Ledge, Website: (
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