Four of the key engineers who worked on 1964 World’s Fair in NYC gathered on 05.07.14 to reflect on the burst of creativity and daring of that time, and how the industry has changed in the past 50 years. Vincent DeSimone, PE, FACI, FASCE, chairman of DeSimone Consulting Engineers; Ken Hiller, PhD, PE, FASCE, former vice president and chief engineer at Bovis; Frank Marino, director of operations at Seismic Structural Design Associates; Alan Ritchie, AIA, principal at Philip Johnson Alan Ritchie Architects; and Charles Thornton; PhD, Hon. AIA, PE, Hon. ASCE, chairman of Charles H. Thorton & Company, were all very young when they worked under lead architect Lev Zetlin; they had all gone to Manhattan College, where Zetlin taught, and bonded over working for a “brilliant but difficult” man. There was clearly a “seat-of-the pants feeling” as the young, ambitious men dove headfirst into this huge project that has become a New York icon. “If you would have told me that Men in Black would have been at the Fair…,” DeSimmone chuckled. Continue reading “Engineering the 1964 World’s Fair”