Google has paid tribute to the late SOM structural engineer Fazlur Khan with a Google Doodle on his 88th birthday. The illustration, featured on Google’s homepage around the world, depicts Khan with the John Hancock Center—an icon of Chicago and one of his signature achievements.
Fazlur Khan, a Bangladeshi-American, is widely regarded as one of the greatest structural engineers in modern history. A former partner at SOM, Khan’s work defined the structurally expressive design of Willis Tower, the tallest building in the world from 1973 until 1998, and the John Hancock Center, one of the world’s first mixed-use skyscrapers. Khan pioneered the “bundled tube” structural system used for Willis Tower, which would later influence SOM’s supertall towers around the world, including the Burj Khalifa.
Google’s tribute to Fazlur Khan is covered in many media outlets, including Time, Architectural Record, Chicago Tribune, The Architect’s Newspaper, and Curbed.