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J O H N B. S K I L L I N G
1921–1998
Elected in 1965
“Pioneering building engineer.”
BY WILLIAM J. BAIN, JR.
SUBMITTED BY THE NAE HOME SECRETARY
J OHN B. SKILLING was one of the greatest men I have
known—a legendary structural engineer, a lyrical designer, and
one of the top conceptual skyscraper engineers in the world. In
the 1960s, E ngineering News-Record ( ENR) called him the
prototype of the modern structural engineer. Years later,
mainstream media dubbed him the Man of Steel. A true
innovator, John B. Skilling died in Seattle on March 5, 1998, at
76, just two years after retiring from Skilling Ward Magnusson
Barkshire.
John was born on October 8, 1921, in Los Angeles. He entered
the engineering field early when he worked on federal
construction projects during the summers with his father, who
was a civil engineer. These projects took his family from city to
city, eventually bringing them to the Pacific Northwest, where
John would later put down roots and raise his own family.
After graduating from Kent Senior High School in 1940, John
enrolled at the University of Washington. When the war
intervened, he worked at the Boeing Company, for which he
later designed hangars with impressive long-span roofs. After
the war, John returned to the University of Washington, where
he earned a B.S. in civil engineering in 1947.
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274 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES
John then joined the structural engineering firm of W. H.
Witt Company, where he was made a partner after just three
years. The firm subsequently underwent several incarnations
and name changes, but John stayed with the firm for 50 years—
his entire professional life. When John eventually took over as
head of the firm, it became known as Skilling Ward Magnusson
Barkshire. Under John’s leadership, the company was
responsible for the structural engineering of more than 1,000
buildings in 36 states and 16 countries, garnering more than 85
awards for excellence in structural design.
According to Who’s Who in Engineering (1998), John was
“personally responsible for the structural design of many of the
most significant structures in the U.S.” These structures included
more than 75 high-rise buildings (four of the world’s 10 tallest
at the time) and more than 40 long-span structures.
Early projects included the IBM Building (1963) in Pittsburgh,
the first exterior-space-frame office building and the first
building to use 100,000 psi high-strength steel.
For the Seafirst Headquarters Building (1969) in Seattle, John
used a Vierendeel truss to form the exterior walls. All loads
were carried by the four corner columns and the central elevator
core, which left flexible spaces on the upper floor interiors that
were free of columns and open, uninterrupted entrances to the
building from the plaza.
These engineering innovations plus the original structural
design of Seattle’s IBM Building (1964) led to receiving the
commission to engineer the quarter-mile-high twin towers of
the New York World Trade Center (1972). John and colleague
Les Robertson used three studies that were “firsts” in the field;
a comprehensive wind-environmental study, a boundary-layer
wind-tunnel study, and a human-sensitivity-to-building-motion
study. The World Trade Center was also the first building to
use prefabricated, multiple-column-and-spandrel steel wall
panels. And it was the first building to use mechanical damping
units to reduce wind excitation. The buildings withstood a
bombing attack in 1993 but unfortunately were unable to
survive the dual terrorist attack in 2001.
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JOHN B. SKILLING
For Seattle’s Kingdome (1976), John and his colleague John
(Jack) V. Christiansen made good use of John’s pioneering work
in the 1950s on thin-shell concrete structures. With double
curvature shapes in the roof, the Kingdome became the largest
thin-shell concrete structure in the world.
John’s Seafirst Headquarters Building had only four exterior
corner columns, but even those four were eliminated for the
Rainier Tower (1977). The result is a daring, flared, concrete
pedestal that covers only a quarter of the site at ground level
allowing for more open views of the surrounding classical
buildings. The first rental floor is 12 stories above the ground,
providing excellent views and, thus, higher leasing rates. This
concept, created by John, is an example of how much
responsibility he had for the architectural forms of his
buildings.
At 76 stories, John’s Columbia Seafirst Center (1985), still
Seattle’s tallest building, was the first in which composite
columns were used at the apexes to reduce wind sway in a
triangular-braced building. It was also the first time multilayer
viscoelastic dampers were attached to the braces of a high-rise
building to reduce wind-induced accelerations.
For the Washington State Convention and Trade Center
(1988), John conceived of economical, yet creative ways for the
building to span 12 lanes of freeway and three city streets. To
accomplish this, he used braced, multichord trusses, which
required more than 2,500 different structural-steel connection
details.
One of the last projects I worked on with John was Seattle’s
Two Union Square (1989), at the time, the most economical
building of its height ever built. In this building, he pioneered
the use of steel tubes filled with a record-breaking high-strength
concrete of 20,000 psi as interior columns. Using this technique,
which has since become standard in the industry, we were able
to provide 10 corner offices on each typical rental floor. By
developing hyper-efficient viscoelastic dampers, he reduced
the number of necessary dampers to only 16 for the entire 56-
story building.
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Throughout his career, John received formal recognition
from many leading organizations in his field, as well as from
the city of Seattle. In 1965, he was the first structural engineer
ever to be elected a member of NAE. The following year, ENR
named him Construction Man of the Year. My own profession
awarded him the American Institute of Architects (AIA)
prestigious Allied Professions Medal, as well as an honorary
membership in the AIA Seattle chapter. John was named
Engineer of the Year three times—by the Consulting Engineers
Council of Washington (now ACEC), by the Structural Engineers
Association of Washington, and by the Washington Society of
Professional Engineers. He also shared an American Iron and
Steel Institute Design in Steel Award with Minoru Yamasaki
and Perry Johanson. John owned 13 patents related to railcar
suspension. Seattle Mayor Norm Rice declared June 3, 1994,
John Skilling Day.
In addition to his membership in NAE, John was affiliated
with many organizations including American Society of Civil
Engineers (Fellow); American Concrete Institute (ACI); ACI
Committee on Shell Construction; American Institute of Steel
Construction; International Association for Bridge and
Structural Engineering; International Association for Shell and
Spatial Structures; National Research Council Building Research
Advisory Board; Seismic Design Committee, National Academy
of Engineering; Society of American Military Engineers; and
Structural Engineers Association of Washington.
John was the most positive, solution-oriented engineer I have
ever met. No matter how difficult the problem, he always
thought that somehow an effective design solution could be
worked out. I believe he was a genius. It was amazing to watch
him play with forms in the most lyrical and poetic ways and
reduce construction costs at the same time. He was also a
teacher; he understood the complexities of structural engineering
so well that he made things seem simple, even for us architects
with whom he collaborated so well.
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JOHN B. SKILLING
John was a fun, upbeat man. He was the kind of person who
needed only a flip chart and some markers to make his pitch to
the World Trade Center Commission. He was the kind of man
who, as the story goes, twisted his own leg back around after
a skiing accident. He was proud of his family—his wife of many
years, Mary Jane Skilling, who was his perfect counterpart and
the rock from which he flew, his children, his profession, and
his firm. He was always intensely competitive and had
incredible drive, but he was never too busy to stop and explain
his concepts to the rest of us in words—and diagrams—so we
could understand.
Like his tall buildings that are always in motion, John never
seemed to slow down. His brilliance, along with his energy,
enthusiasm, and innovation provided momentum for everyone
of us who was fortunate enough to work with him.
His daughter, Ann, remembers him:
As a husband and father, John brought his enthusiasm
to everything that he did. Whether it was building a
miniature railroad for his children, researching recipes to
create an elaborate Chinese dinner, or playing tennis and
golf, he always gave a hundred percent. He was also fond
of puzzles and games of all kinds, which we frequently
played together as a family.
His professional creativity often found a place at home.
Most fathers would have built a model airplane with their
sons; ours chose to build a full size color TV. To John,
there was never a problem that could not be solved and
never a reason to be pessimistic about anything life had
to offer. His life positive attitude guided our family life.
Survivors include his wife Mary Jane, daughters Susan and
Ann, son Bill, and siblings Virginia, Donald, Bill, and Helen.
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