罗伯特·西尔曼（Robert Silman）以修复生病的结构而闻名，他于7月31日去世。这位83年历史的结构工程师屈服于癌症，最初于1984年被诊断出。
Beyer Blinder Belle Belle Architects and Planners的创始合伙人John H. Beyer说：“鲍勃有能力通过将结构系统编织到历史性地标的历史性结构来创造奇迹。”Beyer补充说：“他对建筑和恢复都有显着的敏感性”，不惧怕“最低限度来使某事要工作”。
Robert A.M. Stern, founder-senior partner of the eponymous architect, calls Silman “a gentleman, a humanist, a preservationist to the core and a great engineer.”
Silman earned a bachelor of arts from Cornell University, followed by a bachelor’s and master’s of civil engineering from New York University. In 1957, he started working for Tishman Realty & Construction Co. Stints at engineers Severud Associates, Ove Arup & Partners and Ammann & Whitney followed, before he founded Robert Silman Associates in 1966. He led the firm through 2012, when he became its president emeritus. At the time of his death, Silman was on a summer break from his routine of four-day work weeks, building up the New York City-based firm's Boston office.
“He taught us to find joy in everything we do, serve clients through excellent engineering and nurture young professionals,” says Joseph F. Tortorella, president of the 165-person firm, now named Silman.
For Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater, Silman devised a post-tensioned-concrete-slab solution to sagging, caused by insufficient reinforcement of the 15-ft by 62-ft cantilevered portion of the landmarked house (ENR 3/25/2002 p. 17).
在发现了纽约市赖特标志性的所罗门·R·古根海姆博物馆的裂缝和移动的裂缝和移动之后，西尔曼的团队制定了一项监测计划来衡量运动。激光扫描建筑物的异常几何形状；并进行了无损测试和材料测试以确定构建。然后，该公司创建了主圆形圆形大型元素的有限元模型，并设计了结构维修，其中包括墙壁内部和顶部阻尼器内部的碳纤维加固。
为了修复赖特（Wright）在威斯康星州拉辛（Racine）附近的赖特（Wingspread）的分层屋顶的下垂Z型梁，西尔曼（Silman）转向帆船复合材料和飞机铝（Enr 8/18/1997p。76）。新利18备用
启发下一代
西尔曼致力于鼓舞下一代，尤其是通过教建筑专业的学生。自2014年以来，他在哈佛大学设计研究生院讲授。他还曾在哥伦比亚大学，耶鲁大学，纽约城市学院和康奈尔大学任教。从1973 - 85年间，他在纽约市建筑与城市研究所（IAUS）任教。
一位前学生在塞尔曼（Silman）在哥伦比亚的技术哲学课程中，反思了他的老师，后来成为合作者。纽约州卑尔根街工作室的校长杰克·菲利普斯（Jack Phillips）说：“在哥伦比亚，对我来说最重要的教训是他对整体方法的洞察力，工程，设计，社交（社交（社会考虑）和文化融合在一起，以实现非凡的事情。”
Nick Winton, a former student at IAUS and co-founder and partner of Anmahian Winton Architects in Cambridge, Mass., adds, "Bob was a mentor to me as a young architecture student. He taught us structures but he also inspired us with curiosity and respect for design that solved so many complex problems for so many great buildings, and architects, around the world. He was one of a kind."
Tortorella说，西尔曼（Silman）在他们变得司空见惯之前就参与了历史保存和可持续性。2004年，国际桥梁与结构工程师协会授予了他的安东·特德斯科（Anton Tedesko）奖章，以开拓结构工程的可持续性工作。2013年，国际保护技术协会授予了Silman的最高荣誉 - Harley J. McKee奖。2015年，国家历史保护信托基金会（National Historic Prestroveration）挑出了他的最高荣誉 - 路易斯·德·庞特·皇冠奖（Louis de Pont Crowninshield）奖。
Silman, who was involved in civic works as a volunteer and as a consultant, is credited with helping save the World Trade Center’s survivors’ staircase for an exhibit at the 9/11 museum in Lower Manhattan. In the face of skepticism, “Bob figured out how to remove the treads and risers” and then he designed a lifting cradle to set them into place, recalls Peg Breen, president of the New York Landmarks Conservancy, which gave him its Lucy G. Moses Preservation Leadership Award, in 2010.
布雷恩说：“鲍勃不仅是一位出色的工程师，而且他是您可以遇到的最可爱的人之一。”“你不仅像鲍勃，而且爱他。”
