Minoru Yamasaki
Minoru Yamasaki (December 1, 1912 - February 6, 1986) was an American architect, born in Seattle, Washington, a second-generation Japanese-American. Despite a poor background, he earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Washington; he earned money to pay for his tuition by working at an Alaskan salmon cannery when not attending classes. After moving to New York City in the 1930s, he enrolled at New York University for a master's degree in architecture and got a job with the architecture firm Shreve, Lamb and Hermon, designers of the Empire State Building.
His first significant project was the Pruitt-Igoe housing project in St. Louis, Missouri, 1955. Despite his love of Japanese traditional design, this was a stark, modernist concrete structure. It was so unpopular that it was demolished in 1972. He also designed several "sleek" international airport buildings and was responsible for the innovative design of the 1,360 ft (415 m) towers of the World Trade Center, for which design began in 1965, and construction in 1972.
For years, the destruction of the Pruitt-Igoe housing project was considered to be the beginning of postmodern architecture. Another of Yamasaki's most well-known designs, the World Trade Center, was also destroyed in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
He was first married in 1941 and had two other wives before marrying his first wife again in 1969. Yamasaki died of cancer at the age of 73.
Works
- U.S. Science Pavilion for the Seattle World Exposition (since renovated to house the Pacific Science Center) (1962)
- Irwin Library at Butler University, Indianapolis, Indiana
- U.S. Consulate General, Kobe, Japan
- Conservatory of Music, Warner Concert Hall and King Building at Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio
- McGregor Center at Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan
- Cowling Gymnasium, West Gymnasium, Olin Hall, Goodhue Hall, and Watson Hall, Carleton College, Northfield, Minnesota
- Reynolds Metals Regional Sales Office, Detroit, Michigan
- Plan for University of Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada
- Lambert-St. Louis Air Terminal, St. Louis, Missouri (1956)
- Pruitt-Igoe Housing Project, St. Louis, Missouri (1955, demolished 1972)
- William James Hall, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts (1963)
- American Natural Resources Building, Detroit, Michigan
- King Fahd Dhahran Air Terminal, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia
- Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency Head Office, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
- Founder's Hall, Shinji Shumeikai, Shiga Prefecture, Japan
- Congregation Beth El Temple (1968)
- World Trade Center, New York, New York (1970, destroyed 2001)
- Picasso Tower, Madrid, Spain
