Thomas Leslie – författare

Born in Sondrio, Italy, in 1891, Pier Luigi Nervi was a pioneer in the engineering and architecture of reinforced concrete. His buildings showed how the use of reinforced concrete expanded the possibilities of form and structure. His methods, meanwhile, ingrained his structures with patterns that came directly out of his economical, manual construction processes. The results were buildings that matched awe-inspiring spans with surprisingly human scale. Beauty's Rigor offers a comprehensive overview of Nervi's long career. Drawing on the Nervi archives and a wealth of photographs and architectural drawings, Thomas Leslie explores celebrated buildings like Palazetto dello Sport built for the 1960 Rome Olympics, St. Mary's Cathedral in San Francisco, and the UNESCO headquarters in Paris. He also sheds new light on unbuilt projects such as the Pavilion of Italian Civilization for the Universal Exposition of Rome E42. What emerges is the first complete account of Nervi's contributions to modern architecture and his essential role in a revolution that realized concrete's potential to match grace with strength.

The UNESCO headquarters in Paris. The Pirelli skyscraper in Milan. The Palazetto dello Sport in Rome. The "soaring beauty" of Pier Luigi Nervi's visionary designs and buildings changed cityscapes in the twentieth century. His uncanny ingenuity with reinforced concrete, combined with a gift for practical problem solving, revolutionized the use of open internal space in structures like arenas and concert halls. Aesthetics and Technology in Building: The Twenty-First-Century Edition introduces Nervi's ideas about architecture and engineering to a new generation of students and admirers. More than 200 photographs, details, drawings, and plans show how Nervi put his ideas into practice. Expanding on the seminal 1961 Norton Lectures at Harvard, Nervi analyzes various functional and construction problems. He also explains how precast and cast-in-place concrete can answer demands for economy, technical and functional soundness, and aesthetic perfection. Throughout, he uses his major projects to show how these now-iconic buildings emerged from structural truths and far-sighted construction processes.This new edition features dozens of added images, a new introduction, and essays by Joseph Abram, Roberto Einaudi, Alberto Bologna, Gabriele Neri, and Hans-Christian Schink on Nervi's life, work, and legacy.

Winner of The Pattis Family Foundation Chicago Book Award, by The Pattis Family Foundation and the Newberry LibraryFrom skyline-defining icons to wonders of the world, the second period of the Chicago skyscraper transformed the way Chicagoans lived and worked. Thomas Leslie’s comprehensive look at the modern skyscraper era views the skyscraper idea, and the buildings themselves, within the broad expanse of city history. As construction emerged from the Great Depression, structural, mechanical, and cladding innovations evolved while continuing to influence designs. But the truly radical changes concerned the motivations that drove construction. While profit remained key in the Loop, developers elsewhere in Chicago worked with a Daley political regime that saw tall buildings as tools for a wholesale recasting of the city’s appearance, demography, and economy. Focusing on both the wider cityscape and specific buildings, Leslie reveals skyscrapers to be the physical results of negotiations between motivating and mechanical causes. Illustrated with more than 140 photographs, Chicago Skyscrapers, 1934–1986 tells the fascinating stories of the people, ideas, negotiations, decision-making, compromises, and strategies that changed the history of architecture and one of its showcase cities.

A detailed tour, inside and out, of Chicago's distinctive towers from an earlier ageFor more than a century, Chicago's skyline has included some of the world's most distinctive and inspiring buildings. This history of the Windy City's skyscrapers begins in the key period of reconstruction after the Great Fire of 1871 and concludes in 1934 with the onset of the Great Depression, which brought architectural progress to a standstill. During this time, such iconic landmarks as the Chicago Tribune Tower, the Wrigley Building, the Marshall Field and Company Building, the Chicago Stock Exchange, the Palmolive Building, the Masonic Temple, the City Opera, Merchandise Mart, and many others rose to impressive new heights, thanks to innovations in building methods and materials. Solid, earthbound edifices of iron, brick, and stone made way for towers of steel and plate glass, imparting a striking new look to Chicago's growing urban landscape.   Thomas Leslie reveals the daily struggles, technical breakthroughs, and negotiations that produced these magnificent buildings. He also considers how the city's infamous political climate contributed to its architecture, as building and zoning codes were often disputed by shifting networks of rivals, labor unions, professional organizations, and municipal bodies.   Featuring more than a hundred photographs and illustrations of the city's physically impressive and beautifully diverse architecture, Chicago Skyscrapers, 1871–1934 highlights an exceptionally dynamic, energetic period of architectural progress in Chicago.

Design-Tech is an indispensable, holistic approach to architectural technology that shows you in hundreds of drawings and tables the why as well as the how of building science, providing you with a comprehensive overview. In this expanded edition, measurements and examples are listed in both metric and imperial units to reflect the global reality of architectural practice. The authors also address digital fabrication, construction documentation, ultra-high-rise structures, and zoning codes. And there's more in-depth coverage of structural design and greater emphasis on environmental forces. Numerous case studies demonstrate real-world design implications for each topic, so that you can integrate technical material with design sensibilities.Short chapters explain each topic from first principles in easy-to-reference formats, focusing on what you need to know both at the drawing board and in future discussions with engineers, contractors, and consultants. This new edition incorporates material from continuing curricular experimentation in the SCI-TECH sequence at Iowa State University, which has been recognized with awards and funding from the American Institute of Architects, the U.S. Green Building Council, and the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards.

Design-Tech is an indispensable, holistic approach to architectural technology that shows you in hundreds of drawings and tables the why as well as the how of building science, providing you with a comprehensive overview. In this expanded edition, measurements and examples are listed in both metric and imperial units to reflect the global reality of architectural practice. The authors also address digital fabrication, construction documentation, ultra-high-rise structures, and zoning codes. And there's more in-depth coverage of structural design and greater emphasis on environmental forces. Numerous case studies demonstrate real-world design implications for each topic, so that you can integrate technical material with design sensibilities.Short chapters explain each topic from first principles in easy-to-reference formats, focusing on what you need to know both at the drawing board and in future discussions with engineers, contractors, and consultants. This new edition incorporates material from continuing curricular experimentation in the SCI-TECH sequence at Iowa State University, which has been recognized with awards and funding from the American Institute of Architects, the U.S. Green Building Council, and the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards.

The third edition of Design-Tech provides an indispensable, holistic resource for integrating building technologies into critically designed, performance-based architectural projects. The book’s format follows the developmental stages of a typical architectural project; it provides a step-by-step process for addressing and integrating building sciences from first principles of human comfort, materials, structures, and environmental systems to advanced construction systems and measures of building performance. Short chapters incorporate easy-to-understand information with hundreds of useful illustrations, tables, and references that explain the why as well as the how of building science. The content focuses on what designers need to know in the studio to create sustainably designed, integrated buildings, and it prepares them for future discussions with engineers, contractors, and consultants.The updated format builds a coherent framework for integrated project design studio development, necessary for all contemporary accredited schools of architecture. Chapters build upon critical project information from schematics toward technical integration. New chapters emphasize performance-based design strategies including sustainable design values, critical schematic planning, enhanced building envelope design strategies, and advanced performance systems. Enhanced visualization of schematic design strategies helps explain sustainable design standards, code compliance, and structural schematics, and throughout, the third edition focuses on contemporary issues such as embodied carbon, heavy timber construction, life cycle costs, and long-term performance.This will be a must-read for all architecture students looking for an accessible guide to building science.

The third edition of Design-Tech provides an indispensable, holistic resource for integrating building technologies into critically designed, performance-based architectural projects. The book’s format follows the developmental stages of a typical architectural project; it provides a step-by-step process for addressing and integrating building sciences from first principles of human comfort, materials, structures, and environmental systems to advanced construction systems and measures of building performance. Short chapters incorporate easy-to-understand information with hundreds of useful illustrations, tables, and references that explain the why as well as the how of building science. The content focuses on what designers need to know in the studio to create sustainably designed, integrated buildings, and it prepares them for future discussions with engineers, contractors, and consultants.The updated format builds a coherent framework for integrated project design studio development, necessary for all contemporary accredited schools of architecture. Chapters build upon critical project information from schematics toward technical integration. New chapters emphasize performance-based design strategies including sustainable design values, critical schematic planning, enhanced building envelope design strategies, and advanced performance systems. Enhanced visualization of schematic design strategies helps explain sustainable design standards, code compliance, and structural schematics, and throughout, the third edition focuses on contemporary issues such as embodied carbon, heavy timber construction, life cycle costs, and long-term performance.This will be a must-read for all architecture students looking for an accessible guide to building science.