August Komendant

August Eduard Komendant (October 2, 1906 – September 14, 1992) was an Estonian and American structural engineer and a pioneer in the field of prestressed concrete, which can be used to build stronger and more graceful structures than normal concrete. He was born in Estonia and educated in engineering in Germany. After World War II he immigrated to the United States, where he wrote several books on structural engineering and served as a professor of architecture at the University of Pennsylvania.

Komendant worked with architect Louis Kahn in a productive but contentious collaboration that lasted from 1956 until Kahn's death in 1974. His innovative work as Kahn's structural engineer helped Kahn create several architecturally significant buildings, including two that won the prestigious Twenty-five Year Award given by the American Institute of Architects. He also served as structural engineer for architect Moshe Safdie on the Habitat 67 project in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

At the Kimbell Art Museum, one of Louis Kahn's masterpieces, Komendant engineered long, vaulted gallery roofs that require support only at their four corners, minimizing obstruction within the museum.

Life

August E. Komendant was born in 1906 in Mäo Parish, Estonia. After his studies in engineering at the Technical Institute in Dresden, Germany, he returned to Estonia where he was responsible for several major bridges and other structures.

After Germany overran Estonia during World War II, Komendant was shipped back to Germany to work on war projects. He was interned by the U.S. Army in the latter stages of the war and was recruited by General George Patton to work for him. According to Komendant, when Patton ordered him to inspect a damaged bridge to see if it would support the weight of his tanks, Komendant used a brush and white paint to mark a wavy route across the bridge that tanks could safely follow and then rode across the bridge with Patton. After the war he was assigned to work for the U.S. Army rebuilding war-damaged bridges.

In 1950, Komendant immigrated to the U.S. and set up a consulting practice in Upper Montclair, New Jersey. In 1952, based on his experience with developing techniques for using pre-stressed concrete to rebuild war-damaged bridges, he published Prestressed Concrete Structures, a book that established him as an authority on the subject. Komendant was fond of explaining how pre-stressed concrete works by demonstrating that one can lift a row of books by squeezing them together so tightly that they act as a single strong unit. Similarly, steel cables or bars under high tension can be used to "squeeze" concrete, making it much stronger than it otherwise would be. This type of concrete can be used to build structures that are lighter, more graceful, and in a much greater variety of shapes than standard concrete.

Komendant was Professor of Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania from 1959 to 1974 Kahn was five years older than Komendant and, like him, had been born in Estonia. He had come to the conclusion that only structures made of reinforced concrete would allow him to achieve his goal of creating structures that would simultaneously provide support, shape spaces and furnish integral sculptural embellishment. This approach required the collaboration of a structural engineer who understood Kahn's architectural philosophy, one who could grasp the effect Kahn wanted to produce with a proposed design and suggest a suitable alternative if it was not practical from an engineering standpoint. Komendant, who was already known for his expertise with pre-stressed concrete, proved to be a creative thinker and a productive collaborator. According to Robert McCarter, one of Kahn's biographers, "Komendant would serve as Kahn's primary consultant on the majority of his commissions for the rest of his career".

Richards Medical Research Laboratories. The concrete structural elements that Komendant engineered appear in beige color here.

The first project they worked on together, the Richards Medical Research Laboratories, was a breakthrough project for Kahn, his first to receive widespread recognition.

Although each of them knew they achieved particularly outstanding results when they worked together, they did not always find it easy to do so. Komendant could work with exceptional speed while Kahn was notoriously slow, to Komendant's great frustration. Architectural historian Vincent Scully said the pioneering work by Kahn and Komendant on this project "was to affect for good the techniques of the whole concrete pre-casting industry from the factory to the site." The Architectural Record noted at the time that the precision achieved was "more typical of fine cabinetwork than of concrete construction."

Salk Institute for Biological Studies

A section of a laboratory building at the Salk Institute. Above each laboratory floor is a service floor to handle air ducts, piping, etc. The ladder-like structures that encase the service floors are Vierendeel trusses.

At the Salk Institute for Biological Studies (1959–1965) in La Jolla, CA, the need for mechanical services (air ducts, pipes, etc.) was so extensive that Kahn decided to create a separate service floor for them above each laboratory floor to make it easier to reconfigure individual laboratories in the future without disrupting neighboring spaces. He also designed each laboratory floor to be entirely free of internal support columns, making laboratory configuration easier. Komendant engineered the Vierendeel trusses that make this arrangement possible. These pre-stressed concrete trusses are about long, spanning the full width of each floor and extending from the bottom of each service floor to the top. They are supported by steel cables embedded in the concrete in a curve similar to that of cables supporting a suspension bridge. Their rectangular openings, which are high in the center and at the ends, allow maintenance workers to move easily through the thicket of pipes and ducts on the service floors. The trusses impose strictly vertical loads on their support columns, to which they are attached not rigidly but with a system of slip plates and tension cables to permit small movements during moderate earthquakes. Not entirely satisfied with the roof design he had developed, Kahn asked Komendant for suggestions. Komendant kept Kahn's general layout of the roof but redesigned it as a folded-plate structure of pre-stressed concrete that would require support only at its edges, eliminating the need for the massive concrete beams that Kahn had been planning to use as its support. Kahn adopted Komendant's design, although with modifications.

Olivetti-Underwood Factory

For the Olivetti-Underwood Factory (1966–1970) in Harrisburg, PA, the Olivetti company, a firm noted for its commitment to good design, hired Louis Kahn to design its factory building.

As he had done at the Salk Institute, Komendant personally trained the construction workers in techniques of concrete finishing. According to professor Leslie, Komendant "almost single-handedly assured the resulting concrete finishes, by far the best on a Kahn building and some of the finest in the world." In 1998 the AIA gave this building its Twenty-five Year Award. Called Habitat 67, the complex originally consisted of 354 prefabricated concrete containers of identical size that were assembled with a crane and locked together to create 158 apartments in 19 different sizes and configurations. The complex is about four blocks long and as much as eleven levels above the ground. Each apartment has a private terrace and garden area. The apartment complex has become one of the most coveted addresses in Montreal, attracting cultural and political leaders.

Publications and awards

Komendant was the author of several books, including:

Prestressed Concrete Structures, 1952 Contemporary Concrete Structures, 1972 18 years with Architect Louis I. Kahn, 1975 Practical Structural Analysis for Architectural Engineering, 1987

In his book 18 years with Architect Louis I. Kahn, Komendant reproduced a letter that Kahn had written to the American Institute of Architects (AIA) in 1973 recommending that Komendant be honored with the AIA's Allied Professions Medal. According to his obituary in the New York Times, in 1978 the AIA awarded Komendant a medal, the name of which is not specified in the obituary, for "inspiring or influencing the architectural profession".