Behind a Graceful Spire, Science, Art and Passion
By GLENN COLLINS
Published: December 30, 2003
Chester Higgins Jr./The New York Times
"We were able to meet on the common ground of geometry, just as geometry is the common ground between form and structure."
GUY NORDENSON
World Trade Center (NYC)-
Art-
Buildings (Structures)
N hard hat, Guy Nordenson was one of the structural engineers who clambered for months through the smoking rubble of the World Trade Center. Now, minus the headgear, in the hushed spaces of his office near ground zero, he holds forth about torque and taper, about Ezra Pound and T. S. Eliot. He speaks with considerable stillness and insistency, just as he does with his architecture students at Princeton.
An 18-inch model on his desk demonstrates his structural design for the Freedom Tower. The model, actually: the original paper-and-balsa-wood construction he presented to the architect David M. Childs in June, the twisted and tapered shape that evolved into the billion-dollar, 1,776-foot skyscraper whose design was unveiled on Dec. 19.
Mr. Nordenson's contribution has won praise from many. "The torque creates an opportunity to break up the wind, making the ground much more hospitable than the old trade center plaza used to be," said Kent L. Barwick, president of the Municipal Art Society.
Starting Sept. 14, 2001, Mr. Nordenson mobilized teams of engineers to advise on demolition and to assess the buildings next to the fallen towers. During the 12-hour days when he inventoried damage in the landmark building at 90 West Street, he never imagined he would help create the spire that would replace the towers.
By the end of the contentious Freedom Tower development process, "we were able to meet on the common ground of geometry," Mr. Nordenson said, "just as geometry is the common ground between form and structure."
Common ground and geometry are crucial to Mr. Nordenson, who celebrates collaboration and delights in mathematical explorations of abstraction. He is the kind of polymath who summons analogies to Paul Klee, John Cage and high-energy particle physics in describing the challenges of disaster-debris removal.
"Any profession is embedded in the culture," he said, an approach that is certainly French, as is his upbringing. Mr. Nordenson — born in Neuilly-sur-Seine in France 48 years ago — is an immigrant, as is Daniel Libeskind, the überarchitect who created the ground zero master plan. . Mr. Nordenson first came to New York at age 4 in 1959, shuttling between Europe and the United States until he became a regular pupil at the Lycée Française in Manhattan at 9.
He passed the rigorous exam for the French baccalaureate in mathematics, the ticket to an elite French school, but opted for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, followed by the University of California at Berkeley, where he earned a master's degree in structural engineering.
His father, Lars, a petrochemical engineer who was born in Sweden and lived in France, loved the theater so much that when he was working in New York, in 1950, he produced Ibsen's "An Enemy of the People" on Broadway. Arthur Miller adapted the book after it was translated from Norwegian by Lars Nordenson.
Since many saw Mr. Miller's version as an indictment of the House Unamerican Activities Committee, the production became a political dartboard and closed after 36 performances. "My father had put up everything, investing, and he lost everything," said Mr. Nordenson (Guy rhymes with "glee," as the French pronounce it).
During his M.I.T. days, Mr. Nordenson's mother, Charlotte, who knew Isamu Noguchi, helped him get a summer job at the sculptor's Long Island City studio, where he also met R. Buckminster Fuller, a Noguchi partner.
Two decades later, Mr. Nordenson helped found the Structural Engineers Association of New York. "Engineering art is an essential part of architecture, but it is generally true that these two disciplines talk past one another," said Henry N. Cobb of Pei Cobb Freed & Partners, who is a founding partner of the firm with I. M. Pei.
Mr. Cobb added: "Throughout history, great engineers have made great contributions to architecture, and Guy transcends engineering. He goes beyond the practical and participates in the conceptualization of things."
In an era when new technology and computer-assisted design are giving engineers the prominence of the brand-name architects they assist, Mr. Nordenson shrinks from the idea of becoming a star. His instinct for privacy is such that he initially preferred to offer a drawing in lieu of being photographed for this article.
ALTHOUGH Mr. Nordenson earned a degree in civil engineering from M.I.T., he was a comparative literature major, and his writings and conversations offer not only insights on architecture and design, but also disquisitions on Mandelbrot's theories of fractal geometry, the poetry of William Carlos Williams and the transformational grammar of Noam Chomsky.
A tenured associate professor in the School of Architecture at Princeton, Mr. Nordenson is also resident rainmaker at his design shop, Guy Nordenson and Associates, a 6-year-old consulting firm that employs 12. He was the structural engineer for Richard Meier's Church of the Year 2000 in Rome and Yoshio Taniguchi's planned Museum of Modern Art expansion in Manhattan.
Mr. Nordenson's office, in a classic building soaring above Fulton Street and Broadway, will most likely be razed to make way for a new transit center. Would he then move into the Freedom Tower? "I'd love to," he said, "but I'd never be able to afford it."
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By GLENN COLLINS
Published: December 30, 2003
Chester Higgins Jr./The New York Times
"We were able to meet on the common ground of geometry, just as geometry is the common ground between form and structure."
GUY NORDENSON
World Trade Center (NYC)- Art- Buildings (Structures)
N hard hat, Guy Nordenson was one of the structural engineers who clambered for months through the smoking rubble of the World Trade Center. Now, minus the headgear, in the hushed spaces of his office near ground zero, he holds forth about torque and taper, about Ezra Pound and T. S. Eliot. He speaks with considerable stillness and insistency, just as he does with his architecture students at Princeton.
An 18-inch model on his desk demonstrates his structural design for the Freedom Tower. The model, actually: the original paper-and-balsa-wood construction he presented to the architect David M. Childs in June, the twisted and tapered shape that evolved into the billion-dollar, 1,776-foot skyscraper whose design was unveiled on Dec. 19.
Mr. Nordenson's contribution has won praise from many. "The torque creates an opportunity to break up the wind, making the ground much more hospitable than the old trade center plaza used to be," said Kent L. Barwick, president of the Municipal Art Society.
Starting Sept. 14, 2001, Mr. Nordenson mobilized teams of engineers to advise on demolition and to assess the buildings next to the fallen towers. During the 12-hour days when he inventoried damage in the landmark building at 90 West Street, he never imagined he would help create the spire that would replace the towers.
By the end of the contentious Freedom Tower development process, "we were able to meet on the common ground of geometry," Mr. Nordenson said, "just as geometry is the common ground between form and structure."
Common ground and geometry are crucial to Mr. Nordenson, who celebrates collaboration and delights in mathematical explorations of abstraction. He is the kind of polymath who summons analogies to Paul Klee, John Cage and high-energy particle physics in describing the challenges of disaster-debris removal.
"Any profession is embedded in the culture," he said, an approach that is certainly French, as is his upbringing. Mr. Nordenson — born in Neuilly-sur-Seine in France 48 years ago — is an immigrant, as is Daniel Libeskind, the überarchitect who created the ground zero master plan. . Mr. Nordenson first came to New York at age 4 in 1959, shuttling between Europe and the United States until he became a regular pupil at the Lycée Française in Manhattan at 9.
He passed the rigorous exam for the French baccalaureate in mathematics, the ticket to an elite French school, but opted for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, followed by the University of California at Berkeley, where he earned a master's degree in structural engineering.
His father, Lars, a petrochemical engineer who was born in Sweden and lived in France, loved the theater so much that when he was working in New York, in 1950, he produced Ibsen's "An Enemy of the People" on Broadway. Arthur Miller adapted the book after it was translated from Norwegian by Lars Nordenson.
Since many saw Mr. Miller's version as an indictment of the House Unamerican Activities Committee, the production became a political dartboard and closed after 36 performances. "My father had put up everything, investing, and he lost everything," said Mr. Nordenson (Guy rhymes with "glee," as the French pronounce it).
During his M.I.T. days, Mr. Nordenson's mother, Charlotte, who knew Isamu Noguchi, helped him get a summer job at the sculptor's Long Island City studio, where he also met R. Buckminster Fuller, a Noguchi partner.
Two decades later, Mr. Nordenson helped found the Structural Engineers Association of New York. "Engineering art is an essential part of architecture, but it is generally true that these two disciplines talk past one another," said Henry N. Cobb of Pei Cobb Freed & Partners, who is a founding partner of the firm with I. M. Pei.
Mr. Cobb added: "Throughout history, great engineers have made great contributions to architecture, and Guy transcends engineering. He goes beyond the practical and participates in the conceptualization of things."
In an era when new technology and computer-assisted design are giving engineers the prominence of the brand-name architects they assist, Mr. Nordenson shrinks from the idea of becoming a star. His instinct for privacy is such that he initially preferred to offer a drawing in lieu of being photographed for this article.
ALTHOUGH Mr. Nordenson earned a degree in civil engineering from M.I.T., he was a comparative literature major, and his writings and conversations offer not only insights on architecture and design, but also disquisitions on Mandelbrot's theories of fractal geometry, the poetry of William Carlos Williams and the transformational grammar of Noam Chomsky.
A tenured associate professor in the School of Architecture at Princeton, Mr. Nordenson is also resident rainmaker at his design shop, Guy Nordenson and Associates, a 6-year-old consulting firm that employs 12. He was the structural engineer for Richard Meier's Church of the Year 2000 in Rome and Yoshio Taniguchi's planned Museum of Modern Art expansion in Manhattan.
Mr. Nordenson's office, in a classic building soaring above Fulton Street and Broadway, will most likely be razed to make way for a new transit center. Would he then move into the Freedom Tower? "I'd love to," he said, "but I'd never be able to afford it."
- bill 12-30-2003 6:34 pm