Trustee
Fazlur Khan Medal Winner 2004
Chicago, USA
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
William F. Baker is the Structural and Civil Engineering Partner for the Chicago and London offices of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. Since joining the firm in 1981, Bill’s scope of engineering projects has extended from designing structural systems for supertall buildings, to smaller, specialized structures. He was elected an SOM partner in 1996.
Throughout his distinguished career, Bill has dedicated himself to structural innovation - most notably in the design of tall buildings within the urban landscape. In 1999, his next-generation, stayed-mast structural system for the proposed 7 South Dearborn, a 2,000 foot tall, 118-story tower built on only one acre, incorporated structural engineering advances that demonstrated how modern wind engineering and materials can be used to achieve slender towers of unprecedented height. Bill would later continue such innovation by developing the “buttressed core” structural system for the Burj Dubai, a system which, in conjunction with sophisticated wind engineering, makes it possible to construct skyscrapers of extreme elevation. Set for completion in 2009, the Burj Dubai will rank as the world’s tallest manmade structure. Bill continues to push the boundaries of form and science with its neighbor, the twisting, 73-story Infinity Tower. Additionally, his contributions to the Nanjing Greenland Financial Center (the seventh tallest building in the world) and the developing Lotte Super Tower secure his international reputation as a structural innovator.
Closer to home, Baker has left his mark on Chicago by spearheading the structural design of the AT&T Corporate Center and the 92-story Trump International Hotel and Tower. At 1,361 ft tall, Trump stands as the second tallest building in North America, after the Sears Tower, and will be the second tallest concrete building in the world behind the Burj Dubai.
In addition to working at SOM, Bill is committed to research and education. His knowledgeable expertise is frequently solicited by institutions of higher learning, as well as numerous professional organizations. Bill is the 2008 recipient of the Council’s prestigious Fazlur Rahman Khan medal, a fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and is on the Specifications Committee of the American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC). He frequently lectures on a variety of structural engineering topics within the U.S. and abroad.