列夫·泽特林（Lev Zetlin）博士是一位俄罗斯出生的，具有魅力的创意结构工程师，他在纽约市的实践中与非常聪明，年轻，受过良好教育的工程师包围着自己。一旦他喜欢你，他要做的第一件事就是给你马基雅维利的《王子》，以与他阅读和讨论。1962年，Zetlin的初创公司为1964年纽约世界博览会（New York World's Fair）签订了14份合同，这是一家拥有10人的公司的令人难以置信的成就。

随着世界公平项目的开始，我加入了Lev Zetlin Associates（LZA），从而使我受益匪浅。新利18备用网址在那些年里，我还攻读硕士学位，并可以进入纽约大学的计算机综合体。LZA上没有其他人知道计算机，但是我知道有限元建模，我得到了所有涉及理论和分析技能的特殊任务。这种经验使我能够迅速升入公司的行列。

在早期的LZA, every Friday at about two o'clock, Zetlin would call us into his office to tell us that we had to work on the weekend to complete a project by Monday morning. We called it the "Friday afternoon crisis." We all got used to it. At least we were paid overtime and made more money, which helped a starving graduate student.

LZA的管理方法之一是将年轻员工推入游泳池的深处，鼓励他们采取主动行动并在受控风险中工作。我加入的大多数关键人员都在20多岁的早期至20多岁，来自曼哈顿学院。Vincent Desimone实质上是到1964年的办公室，最好的结构工程师是James Chaplin。卓别林年龄较大，并且具有在预计时代减少结构的不可思议的能力。我们最终设计了世界上的公平亭子，其中至少五个具有从未有过的结构系统。

THORNTON

I had one additional challenge: During the second of two separate stints with LZA, I worked on a series of hangars in Los Angeles and San Francisco for American Airlines' new Boeing 747 aircraft. We needed a person to sign and seal the structural drawings-Zetlin himself was not licensed in California, which requires a special exam. When asked how this would be solved, Zetlin told American Airlines not to worry: I was going out to take the test in two weeks. Talk about pressure.

As for strategy, our team would always propose three schemes for every project: the wild and crazy, the small step forward for mankind and the plain vanilla. Rarely did the wild-and-crazy scheme get selected, but that was the one the architects always loved and the one that left a lasting impression that we were a very creative team. We usually ended up doing something between the wild-and-crazy and the small-step-forward schemes.

I was still naive about many things and hadn't travelled much. When architect Jim Rossant and I flew to Los Angeles to look at the airlines' existing hangars, we arrived at 11 a.m., but all the aircraft were flying. Having nothing to do for a while, Jim and I took a bus 17 miles to the Santa Monica cliffs, walked down the stairway, rolled up our pants legs and waded into the cold water of the Pacific.

机库项目可能是我结构工程生活中最具创造力的时期之一。一旦设计工作开始认真，为了实现足够大的747喷射的无障碍空间，我们就设计了巨大的海湾机库。他们在双曲线抛物线（HADAR）配置中使用轻型金属甲板网的巨大悬臂，这是Zetlin在1960年代初期研究的实际应用。这两个机库今天仍在使用。当我们开始设计工作时，我28岁，完成了32岁。在我的职业生涯中，在理查德·托马塞蒂（Richard Tomasetti）和我购买了公司之后，我会设计当时是世界上最高的建筑物。但是在我看来，机库项目是最优雅的N

查尔斯·H·桑顿, a founder of Thornton Tomasetti PC, designed some of the tallest buildings in the world. This excerpt is from his memoir, "Charles Thornton: A Life of Elegant Solutions," the proceeds from which will support the ACE Mentor Foundation, which Thornton founded in 1995.

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