Paul
Weidlinger
Paul Weidlinger was born in Budapest, Hungary, on Dec. 22, 1914, and was educated at the Technical Institute in Brno, Czechoslovakia, and at the Swiss Polytechnic Institute. Following graduation in 1937 he apprenticed with both Moholy-Nagy and Le Corbusier. He left Europe in 1939 to work and teach in La Paz, Bolivia. He arrived in the United States in 1943 and started his own practice five years later.
Recognized as an innovative structural engineer, he attracted the attention of many major architects of the twentieth century. Some of his projects include the Reader’s Digest Building in Tokyo with Antonin Raymond, the Banque Lambert in Brussels with Gordon Bunshaft and the hyperbolic-faced St. Francis de Sales church in Michigan with his close friend, Marcel Breuer.
Weidlinger collaborated with artists such as Picasso, Dubuffet and Noguchi on large outdoor sculptures.
His interest in the dynamic response of structures inspired his development of methods to protect structures from the effects of blast loadings and earthquakes. He served as special consultant to the US State Department in the design of Embassies, and his firm was the first approached to analyze the structural failure of the World Trade Center after 9/11.
He was an adjunct professor at MIT and Harvard University, and was a member of the National Academy of Engineering, a fellow of ASCE and ACI and the recipient of the Brown Medal by the Franklin Institute, among other awards.
He first came to Wellfleet at the invitation of Breuer, who persuaded him to buy land from Jack Phillips near Breuer’s house. It is documented that Breuer, Gropius and Le Corbusier all gave him advice on the design of his summer house. Le Corbusier’s reportedly opined, "don’t pave the driveway."
Paul Weidlinger died in 1999, still pushing the boun-daries of engineering.
Paul Weidlinger was born in Budapest, Hungary, on Dec. 22, 1914, and was educated at the Technical Institute in Brno, Czechoslovakia, and at the Swiss Polytechnic Institute. Following graduation in 1937 he apprenticed with both Moholy-Nagy and Le Corbusier. He left Europe in 1939 to work and teach in La Paz, Bolivia. He arrived in the United States in 1943 and started his own practice five years later.
Recognized as an innovative structural engineer, he attracted the attention of many major architects of the twentieth century. Some of his projects include the Reader’s Digest Building in Tokyo with Antonin Raymond, the Banque Lambert in Brussels with Gordon Bunshaft and the hyperbolic-faced St. Francis de Sales church in Michigan with his close friend, Marcel Breuer.
Weidlinger collaborated with artists such as Picasso, Dubuffet and Noguchi on large outdoor sculptures.
His interest in the dynamic response of structures inspired his development of methods to protect structures from the effects of blast loadings and earthquakes. He served as special consultant to the US State Department in the design of Embassies, and his firm was the first approached to analyze the structural failure of the World Trade Center after 9/11.
He was an adjunct professor at MIT and Harvard University, and was a member of the National Academy of Engineering, a fellow of ASCE and ACI and the recipient of the Brown Medal by the Franklin Institute, among other awards.
He first came to Wellfleet at the invitation of Breuer, who persuaded him to buy land from Jack Phillips near Breuer’s house. It is documented that Breuer, Gropius and Le Corbusier all gave him advice on the design of his summer house. Le Corbusier’s reportedly opined, "don’t pave the driveway."
Paul Weidlinger died in 1999, still pushing the boun-daries of engineering.
Projects on
the Outer Cape
Weidlinger House, Wellfleet,
1953
Model by Ben Stracco, photo by Mark Walker
The South elevation, facing a pond, is easily read, indicating public and private zones.