About

Lynn S. Beedle was the founder of the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, established in 1969 at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. He presented the Council’s mission to disseminate multi-disciplinary information on tall buildings and sustainable urban environments, to maximize the international interaction of professionals involved in creating the built environment, and to make the latest knowledge available to professionals in a useful form.

Dr. Beedle was born in Orland, CA. and graduated from University of California at Berkeley with a B.S. in civil engineering in 1941. In 1947, he joined Lehigh University as an instructor and five years later received his doctorate there in structural engineering. His groundbreaking studies on the properties of steel structures and his creation in 1969 of the Council helped the university become a center for civil and structural engineering research.

Serving as founding director of the Council from 1969 until his retirement in 2000, Dr. Beedle authored, co-authored and edited over 200 papers, articles and books, many of which achieved international recognition. A world traveler, Dr. Beedle presented over 600 lectures at conferences in over 40 countries. Throughout his career he received many local, national and international awards including American Society of Civil Engineers’s E. E. Howard Award, the Frank P. Brown Medal and the John Fritz Medal; was elected to the National Academy of Engineering; was an Honorary Member of the ASCE and the International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineers; and twice received Engineering News-Record’s Construction Engineering Award. In 1999 he was selected by ENR as one of “125 Top People” since 1874 that had contributed most to the construction industry, and in 2002 received ASCE’s OPAL Award for Lifetime Achievement in Management.

For Lynn's historical account of the founding and early history of the Council click here.

Lynn S. Beedle was the founder of the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, established in 1969 at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. He presented the Council’s mission to disseminate multi-disciplinary information on tall buildings and sustainable urban environments, to maximize the international interaction of professionals involved in creating the built environment, and to make the latest knowledge available to professionals in a useful form.

Dr. Beedle was born in Orland, CA. and graduated from University of California at Berkeley with a B.S. in civil engineering in 1941. In 1947, he joined Lehigh University as an instructor and five years later received his doctorate there in structural engineering. His groundbreaking studies on the properties of steel structures and his creation in 1969 of the Council helped the university become a center for civil and structural…

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