09.2012 – La Plata Stadium Receives Prestigious IABSE Outstanding Structure Award Weidlinger designed the unique twin-peaked Tenstar Dome™ for South America’s first fabric-covered stadium.
New York, NY – Weidlinger Associates, Inc., was the designer of the one-of-a kind twin-peak fabric dome of Argentina’s La Plata Stadium, winner of the prestigious 2012 Outstanding Structure Award from the International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering (IABSE). The award, which recognizes “…the most remarkable, innovative, creative, or otherwise stimulating structures…” from throughout the world, was presented to the stadium’s owner, Buenos Aires Province, at the 22nd Jornadas Argentinas de Ingeniería Estructural (Congress of Argentinean Structural Engineers) on September 5, 2012. The 18th IABSE Congress will convene September 19-21, 2012, in Seoul, Republic of Korea.
The Outstanding Structure Award, established in 1998, is among the highest distinctions bestowed by the IABSE. Each year, one structure is selected to receive the award, which is presented to the structure’s owner. Diplomas are provided to the owner for distribution to parties involved in planning, design, and construction. Criteria for the award include innovation, creativity, sustainability, and respect for the environment.
As a follow-up to the award, the IABSE will publish a paper by Weidlinger in a 2013 issue of the organization’s journal, Structural Engineering International (SEI), detailing the design and construction of the stadium and its precursors. The article, to be authored by La Plata’s designers and project managers, Andrzej Brzozowski, Gregory Freeman, Tian-Fang Jing, and Matthys Levy, will chronicle the adaptation of the Tenstar Dome tensegrity roof system, beginning with the iconic Georgia Dome developed by Levy.
Clad in a PTFE (Teflon®) fiberglass membrane, La Plata is the first fabric-covered stadium in South America and the first South American stadium designed to be fully enclosed, with the option of being partially covered. The dome’s patented “Twinstar” design is also the first adaptation of the Tenstar Dome tensegrity roof concept to a twin-peak contour, forming a figure-eight-shaped central opening by using tension to resist distortion. Unlike some other tensile roofing systems, La Plata’s does not rely on its fabric to provide stability.
Weidlinger provided complete structural engineering services through its final construction in 2011. The firm originally designed the stadium with architect Roberto Ferreira in the late 1990s, based on a prize-winning concept that employed its unique dog-bone configuration to provide separate identities for the two football teams that were its intended residents. But construction was halted in 2000, when Argentina’s economy faltered. The 53,000-seat stadium opened in 2003 with only a playing field and seating bowl, and lacking its signature twin-peaked fabric dome.
In 2009, when the site was chosen to host the opening game of the 2011 Copa América, construction was resumed, and the completed stadium, for which Birdair, Inc., provided construction-management services, reopened on February 17, 2011.
“I’m thrilled that the IABSE has selected La Plata Stadium to receive this prestigious award and that the international community of structural engineers represented by the organization recognizes the extraordinary nature of this structure,” said Weidlinger Principal Tian-Fang Jing. “It confers prestige on the entire family of Tenstar Dome stadiums that preceded it, starting with the Georgia Dome, and encourages us to create new and daring configurations with this innovative technology.”
Founded in 1929 and headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, the International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering (IABSE) is a scientific/technical association comprising approximately 4,000 members in 100 countries, encompassing 48 National Groups worldwide. The association aims to exchange knowledge and to advance the practice of structural engineering worldwide in the service of the profession and society.
Matthys Levy Awarded Thomas Egleston Medal for Distinguished Engineering Achievement by Columbia University Alumni Association
New York, NY – November 12, 2008 – Matthys Levy, chairman emeritus of the international engineering firm Weidlinger Associates, Inc., was awarded the Thomas Egleston Medal for Distinguished Engineering Achievement, the highest honor given by the Columbia Engineering School Alumni Association. The medal was presented during the association’s annual awards dinner held at the university’s Low Memorial Library on november 11, 2008. Levy, who received his master’s and professional degrees from Columbia’s Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science in 1956, was cited for his “pioneering work in designing and developing unprecedented structures of beauty and utility around the world.”
In accepting the award, Levy challenged the engineering community, and Columbia University alumni in particular, to join him in his concern about the “looming water problem.” Levy’s most recent book, Why the Wind Blows (2007), is an entertaining account of the science of weather and climate change that urges action on global warming. Levy began his remarks by recalling 1956, “when we were bathed in the afterglow of the victory over fascism…and global warming had not yet revealed itself from under the greenhouse blanket.” He contrasted that more innocent time to 2008: “Today, over a billion people, one sixth of the world’s population, lack access to fresh water and almost three billion lack adequate sanitation facilities. To sustain us, we all need about 30 liters per day. Where will we get it?”
Levy received the Egleston Medal for more than a half century of accomplishments, specifically the design of domes, buildings, and bridges, and his responsibility “for many breathtaking feats of engineering…that added immensely to the built environment.” The citation singles out his direction of “one of the world’s leading structural engineering and applied mechanics firms,” membership in the national Academy of Engineering, two roof-design patents, more than 50 technical papers, and seven books, two of which were co-authored with his teacher and mentor, Columbia’s legendary Mario Salvadori. Projects mentioned by name include: the Georgia Dome Stadium in Atlanta; the Javits Convention Center and the Rose Center for Earth and Space in New York City; La Plata Stadium in Argentina; the Schalke Stadium Retractable Dome in Gelsenkirchen, Germany; the Bank of China Headquarters in Beijing; as well as the investigation of the World Trade Center tower collapses, which provided ” key information to insure safer buildings in the future.”
The Egleston Medal has been awarded since 1939 for “notable application of engineering principles, the development of processes or techniques, or the furtherance of a specific branch of the profession.” It is named for Thomas Egleston, founder in 1939 of the Columbia School of Mines, a predecessor school. Levy is the second Weidlinger founding principal to receive the prestigious award. In 1983, Dr. Melvin Baron was recognized for his work as an authority in the field of ground and underwater shock. A recipient must “significantly advanced his or her branch of the profession or the practice or management of engineering activities in general.” Recent awardees have pioneered in the fields of systems analysis and fuzzy logic; bioengineering of unstable respiratory disorders; modern control theory; probabilistic mechanics, structural reliability, and risk assessment; launch vehicles and satellite systems; and liquid-cooled engines.
Weidlinger Associates, Inc., is a 350-person consultant engineering firm that designs and rehabilitates buildings, bridges, and infrastructure and provides special services in applied science, forensics, and physical security. For more than 55 years, the firm has been acknowledged worldwide for design solutions both innovative and practical and for a commitment to advancing the state of the art in engineering. Headquartered in New York City, the firm has branch offices in the United States and the United Kingdom. For more information, please see www.wai.com.
Contact: Mollie Fullington or Lynn Trono
Linden Alschuler & Kaplan, Public Relations
212-575-4545 or ltrono@lakpr.com
Weidlinger’s Matthys Levy Receives 2007 CCNY Townsend Harris Medal
Levy engineered the Marriott Marquis Hotel, where the awards dinner was held
New York, NY – October 18, 2007. The international engineering firm of Weidlinger Associates, Inc., announced today that Matthys Levy received the 2007 Townsend Harris Medal from the Alumni Association of the City College of New York (CCNY). The medal was presented to Mr. Levy, a CCnY graduate, at the 127th Annual Alumni Dinner on Thursday, October 18, 2007, at the New York Marriot Marquis.
Levy was selected from among nearly 100 nominees by the Townsend Harris Medal Committee, consisting of former medalists, in recognition of his “exemplary contributions to his chosen field of endeavor.” The Medal is named for CUnY’s founder, who was also America’s first diplomatic representative to Japan. Levy is a founding principal and Chairman Emeritus of Weidlinger. Dr. Melvin Baron (deceased), also a founding partner of Weidlinger, received the Medal in 1988.
Levy has been the structural designer for many dramatic buildings, including Atlanta’s Georgia Dome Stadium and New York’s Rose Center for Earth and Space. The Whitney Museum, the Javits Center, and the Rockefeller Center pedestrian bridge are some of the many New York City landmarks he also engineered. As structural engineer of the Marriott Marquis, he was responsible in part for the soaring atrium, slip-formed concrete elevator core, and economic 112-foot-span Vierendeel superframe. Levy also engineered major buildings for CUnY’s Hostos, Baruch, and Manhattan campuses.
Levy is often interviewed and quoted as an expert on structural practice. He was Principal Investigator for the most comprehensive study of the World Trade Center collapses to date, which received the nation’s most prestigious engineering excellence award (from ACEC) in 2004. He has published numerous papers in the fields of structures, computer analysis, aesthetics, and building systems design; has illustrated two books; and is the co-author of five books: Why the Earth Quakes (1997), Earthquake Games (2000), Engineering the City (2000), Why Buildings Fall Down (2002, second edition), and Why Buildings Stand Up (2002, second edition). He is the also the author of Why the Wind Blows (2007), a timely and entertaining account of the science of weather and climate change.
Levy accepted his award before more than 600 alumni, members of the College community, family, friends, and co-workers. He is candid about the opportunity that City College provided him: “I had neither the funds nor good enough test scores to attend a big-name American university. City College, tuition free at the time, gave me a chance to develop academically, which I did in four challenging years.”
Weidlinger Associates, Inc., is a 350-person consultant engineering firm that designs and rehabilitates buildings, bridges, and infrastructure and provides special services in applied science, forensics, and physical security. For more than 55 years, the firm has been acknowledged worldwide for design solutions both innovative and practical and for a commitment to advancing the state of the art in engineering. Headquartered in New York City, the firm has branch offices in the United States and the United Kingdom. For more information, please see www.wai.com.
Contact: Mollie Fullington Linden Alschuler & Kaplan, Public Relations 212-575-4545 or cuzzi@lakpr.com
Reviews for Why The Wind Blows
Levy is not a meteorologist, but rather, an engineer, but he has nonetheless done an excellent job at describing and explaining weather phenomenon in terms that can be generally understood.
Now is a good time to read this book. Hurricane season is here, and it is expected to be a severe one (though so far it has been strangely silent). The quiet before the storm … a good time to catch up on your reading !
Greg Laden’s Science Blog
This is a straightforward, fascinating and powerful users’ guide to the planet, one that leaves us no doubt we need to make some pretty serious changes in our standard operating procedures, and pronto.
Bill McKibben, author of The End of Nature
Mixed in with some well known facts and interesting anecdotes, this book packs a world of sound, scientific information over a very wide range of subjects, all of it explained in a most unpretentious, engaging manner. Bravo!
Ernesto Castro, architect.
This book does a masterful job of explaining a complex topic while including all sorts of interesting historical tidbits, like the fact that the Egyptians invented sailing in 3200BC. And your conclusions about global warming and what we must do NOW are completely convincing.
Beverly Jacobson, author.
Fun, informative, and ultimately gripping, Why the Wind Blows is a welcome addition to the growing voice for action on global warming.
Civil Engineering, July 2007.
It is a useful and interesting book for a general audience; and clearly written.
Dr. Alan K. Betts, Atmospheric Research, environmental scientist