In the Press

Well-Oiled Machine

What’s sustained SOM through nearly eight decades isn’t the spirit of its progenitors, but its ability to attract an extraordinary roster of talent — a succession of prominent engineers and designers who’ve guided it through the changing currents of the architecture world. From the 1950s, when design partner Gordon Bunshaft first brought the International Style to New York with his scheme for Lever House, to the 1970s, when engineer Fazlur Rahman Kahn’s Sears Tower snatched the title of world’s tallest building, SOM’s assorted animating geniuses have shaped not only the face of the firm, but the development of architecture in our time.