About the Khan Series

Structural engineer Fazlur Rahman Khan (1929-1982) ushered in a renaissance of skyscraper construction during the second half of the 20th century. A pragmatic visionary, his efficient designs include Chicago's 100-story 875 N. Michigan (formerly John Hancock Center) and the 108-story Willis Tower (formerly Sears). Lehigh University endowed a chair in structural engineering and architecture and has established this lecture series in Khan’s honor. It is organized by Professor Dan M. Frangopol, the university’s first holder of the Fazlur Rahman Khan Endowed Chair, and sponsored by the Departments of Civil & Environmental Engineering, and Art, Architecture & Design. The 2020 Spring Series features three installments throughout the months of February, March, and April.

From Performance-Based Earthquake Engineering to Functional Recovery and Resilience
Gregory Deierlein, John A. Blume Professor in the School of Engineering, Stanford University

Performance-based earthquake engineering has matured over the past twenty years from a conceptual framework into a formal methodology that can enable quantitative assessment of the seismic risks to buildings and infrastructure. Enabled by advanced computational technologies, performance-based methods provide for more transparent design and decision making that takes advantage of the latest research in characterizing earthquake ground motion hazards, simulating structural behavior, and assessing earthquake damage and its consequences. Performance-based approaches are facilitating the design of innovative structures, and influencing building code requirements and public policies for earthquake safety. Continued developments to extend performance-based engineering to city-scale simulations provide emerging opportunities to engage urban planners, public officials, and other stakeholders in developing strategies to avoid and mitigate risks, and improve resilience to earthquakes and other natural hazards. Examples include new technologies to enable high-resolution earthquake scenario studies and earthquake policy initiatives in San Francisco and Los Angeles.

FAZLUR RAHMAN KHAN (1929–1982) One of the foremost structural engineers of the 20th century, Fazlur Khan epitomized both structural engineering achievement and creative collaborative effort between architect and engineer. His ideas for these sky-scraping towers offered more than economic construction and iconic architectural images; they gave people the opportunity to work and live “in the sky.” Fazlur Khan was always clear about the purpose of architecture. His characteristic statement to an editor in 1971, having just been selected Construction's Man of the Year by Engineering News-Record, is commemorated in a plaque at the Onterie Center in Chicago: “The technical man must not be lost in his own technology. He must be able to appreciate life; and life is art, drama, music, and most importantly, people.”

Location
Whitaker Lab 303, Lehigh University, 5 E. Packer Avenue, Bethlehem, PA

1 PDH will be awarded to eligible attendees for each lecture

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