Fred Severud
Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. Fred Severud (June 8, 1899 - June 11, 1990) was a Norwegian-American structural engineer, whose projects included the St. Louis Gateway Arch, Seagram Building and Madison Square Garden.. [1]
Contents
Background
Fred Severud was born Fridtjov Nikolai Sæverud in Bergen, Norway. He was the son of Herman Sæverud (1861–1931) and Cecilie Tvedt (1869–1956). His father was a businessman and owner of a margarine factory in Bergen. His parents encouraged their children to attend college.[2] Severud had two brothers and nine sisters. One brother, Harald Sæverud, gained recognition as a modern classical composer. Another brother, Bjarne, would be active within the Norwegian Resistance during the Occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany during World War II.
Severud attended the Bergen Cathedral School and later studied at the Norwegian Institute of Technology. In 1923, Severud emigrated to the United States, entering through Ellis Island. Shortly thereafter, Severud started work for an engineering company, where he was rapidly promoted.[3]
Career
In 1928 he founded an engineering consultancy in Manhattan called Severud-Elstad-Krueger Associates, renamed twenty years later as Severud-Perrone-Sturm-Bandel, and now known as Severud Associates.[4] He also lectured and was the author of several books and articles on architectural and engineering subjects. [5]
Severud utilized the experience he gained in his early years of designing successful housing projects and, along with Joseph Abel, wrote one of the industry’s first comprehensive books, Apartment Houses, on how to best design, build and operate apartment ventures. A few years later, as one of the few structural engineers in the world to have analyzed the forces from – and the effects of – atomic bombs, he also wrote a textbook on protection from nuclear explosions called The Bomb, Survival and You.
Frei Otto, the German architect and engineer famous for membrane and tensile structures such as the Olympic Stadium in Munich, visited his office in 1951 during the construction of the Raleigh Livestock Arena, and Edmund (Ted) Happold worked for a couple of years in his office.[6]
Selected projects
- Dorton Arena, Raleigh, N.C. (1953) (architect Matthew Nowicki)
- Place Ville Marie, Montreal (1962) (architect I M Pei)
- Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin (House of the Cultures of the World) (1957) (architect Hugh Stubbins)
- David S. Ingalls Hockey Rink at Yale University (1959) (architect Eero Saarinen)[7]
- Toronto City Hall (opened 1965) (architect Viljo Revell)
- St Louis Gateway Arch, (completed 1965) (architect Eero Saarinen)[8]
Selected works
- The Bomb, Survival, and You: Protection for people, buildings, equipment (1954)
- Apartment Houses (1947)
Honors
A fellow in the ASCE, Severud was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 1968. Severud received numerous personal engineering awards for being an industry pacesetter, among them the Ernest Howard Award and the Franklin P. Brown Medal. The American Institute of Architects presented him with its prestigious Honorary Associate Member award for his lifetime of contributions to structural design.
Personal life
On Sept. 11, 1923 he married Signe Hansen, whom he had known at the Norwegian Institute of Technology. They would have four children–Fred, Jr., Inger, Laila and Sonja. Severud left engineering behind on his retirement in 1973, just before his 74th birthday. Thereafter, he focused his time on voluntary work as one of Jehovah's Witnesses. He died at his home in Miami, Florida at the age of 91 from Alzheimer's disease.
See also
References
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Engineering Legends: Great American Civil Engineers, Richard Weingardt, ASCE Press, 2005
- ↑ Memorial Tributes: National Academy of Engineering, Volume 5 (1992), National Academy of Engineering (NAE), article by Anton Tedesko]
- ↑ Memorial Tributes: National Academy of Engineering, Volume 5 (1992), National Academy of Engineering (NAE), article by Anton Tedesko
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ The evolution of designs: biological analogy in architecture and the applied arts, Philip Steadman, revised edition, Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2008
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Other sources
- da Sousa Cruz, Paulo J., ed. (2013) Structures and Architecture: New concepts, applications and challenges (CRC Press) ISBN 9781482224610
- Campbell, Tracy (2013) The Gateway Arch: A Biography (Yale University Press) ISBN 9780300169492
- Lemire, Elise; Benjamin Flowers (2012) Skyscraper: The Politics and Power of Building New York City in the Twentieth Century (University of Pennsylvania Press) ISBN 9780812202601
- Weingardt, Richard G. (2005) Engineering Legends: Great American Civil Engineers (American Society of Civil Engineers) ISBN 9780784408018
