It’s no surprise that structural engineer Silvian Marcus names Johann Sebastian Bach as his favorite composer, with the latter well known for a complex oeuvre that boggles the mind, from solo keyboard preludes for “The Well Tempered Clavier” to the fully orchestrated “Brandenburg Concertos.” In his famed fugues, the Baroque musician created multiple voices—up to five music staff lines played by one pianist.

当与马库斯谈论一个特定的项目或他的传奇事业时，这导致了他作为2021年纽约传统奖获得者的选择时，他将不可避免地将设计和建造与音乐和舞蹈进行比较，所有项目团队成员都在演奏自己的角色。新利luck

与工程在诗歌“我发现相似之处d even music. In general, there’s music in a building—as the weight and wind forces grow from the top down, it’s a sort of crescendo in a classical symphony,” Marcus says. “This music makes a structure work better, exist better, easier to build and gives a better usage—an unwritten poem.”

And when talking about his own oeuvre, the director of building structures for WSP USA goes over a vast, seemingly disparate overview of work.

There’s the slew of super-slender buildings of recent years, most notably the 1,396-ft-tall 432 Park Ave., with its 1:15 slenderness ratio of footprint to height measurements. To prevent it from swaying in a brisk breeze, which could scare or annoy occupants, he says he created “five empty floors” that let wind pass through the building, “like poking holes through a sail,” and also added a 1,300-ton damper on top that acts “like a shock absorber” and reduces the building’s acceleration.

The engineer also has worked on impressive projects beyond New York and New Jersey, including the International Tennis Center in Florida; the Maritime Tower in Dubai; and, in his native Israel, the Grand Canyon Shopping Center in Haifa and the Levinstein Tower in Tel Aviv.

But it’s interesting to see where the structural engineering stalwart, who declines to give his age but notes his American career started after immigrating to the U.S. in 1969, when “we subleased an apartment on W. 66th St. just a block from the Metropolitan Opera.” Marcus soon got a job with a now-defunct firm for $175 a week, and in 1972 joined the Office of Irwin G. Cantor.

早期肖像学

The Galleria on 57 Street, on which Marcus was project manager while at that firm—which eventually became the Cantor-Seinuk Group before being acquired by WSP—was the tallest residential building at the time. Notably, from an engineering standpoint, half of its columns were transferred in different locations to facilitate various layouts.

Stewart Rawlings Mott, son of a General Motors co-founder, had planned to live in the Galleria’s 16,000-sq-ft penthouse, where he hoped to grow potatoes and other vegetables as well as raise livestock “and see how they will survive in a tall building,” Marcus recalls. The heir never moved in, but the building, completed in 1976, kicked off 57th Street’s transformation into Billionaires Row.

马库斯随后的大型项目是住宅区的另一侧：莫里斯尼亚房屋，这是布朗克斯市的一个负担得起的住房综合体，其中包括1970年代在哈林铁路上建造的三个住宅塔楼。马库斯深情地回忆说：“那是提到我的名字的第一批文章之一，他们在曲目之间拍了我的照片。”

While known for his skyscrapers, Marcus also took charge of WSP’s work at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, which he says “was the government’s desire to show the world ‘we are there and we are acting,’” and promising that life in the area “will come back.”

Nearby, he also worked on the 7 WTC office high-rise and the former Beekman Tower, now known as 8 Spruce Street, which was designed by Frank Gehry and features an “undulating facade” that looks like ripples flowing down the 76-story residential tower. “It’s extremely dynamic,” he says of the design, and “very sculptural.” But he had to make sure it would be “relatively easy to build” and that those inside would “not be obstructed by walls and columns.”

56伦纳德（Leonard）是所谓的jenga大楼，阳台上有阳台，或者奇怪的悬臂同样是雕塑，他也参与了该项目。

This is where Marcus starts comparing engineering with the performing arts. “When I start working with an architect, I look to create the concept of following” that person’s vision, he says, “but in a way that the structure will flow with it. It’s a dance between the architect and the engineer. “The steps have to be the same,” Marcus explains. “If one dancer moves outside the rhythm of the music, the dance won’t work.”

不仅是项目队友共同跳舞。在E.第35街的美国铜，两座建筑物在中期通过悬架桥连接起来，看起来像是奇怪的角度倾斜。马库斯说，他想出了一种方法来“倾斜柱子 - 放在建筑物的形状上”。这样，“他们会一起跳舞，而不是互相对抗。”

在与与马库斯（Marcus）合作的人交谈后，他所有关于表演艺术和引人注目的演讲的讨论更加有意义。

洛克菲勒集团（Rockefeller Group）设计与建筑高级副总裁蒂莫西·弗林（Timothy Flynn）说：“他是我的建筑叔叔 - 我更性感，衣冠楚楚的叔叔。”弗林（Flynn）与马库斯（Marcus）合作，而前者此前曾被开发商海因斯（Hines）在53 West 53上雇用，该公寓塔楼建于现代艺术博物馆（MOMA）上，该塔获得了2020年纽约年度最佳项目奖。新利luck

Flynn explains: “We might be having a big meeting, trying to solve something. Then here comes Sylvian, in a cool leather jacket and sunglasses.” Hezi Mena, a WSP senior vice president, also recalls how they’d arrive “fashionably” late to meetings, and as they entered, “all eyes” would be “focused on Silvian, always dressed well” complete with a pocket handkerchief.

Substance With Style

Still, Mena emphasizes that style never overshadows substance for Marcus. “Whenever Silvian spoke, people went silent and listened,” he says. According to Mena, Marcus “always had an insight about something,” like offering a “holistic approach” to an engineering challenge. No matter the client or the project, Marcus says his goal is to please architects and developers equally.

他说：“他们提出了建立美学，最大使用和预算的想法。”“The engineer, who is in the shadow of the architect, has to create and make sure that whatever the architectural vision is, it is transformed into reality,” and within the developer’s expected cost, he says—and an engineer is “placed in the middle.”

受训者和同事说，马库斯（Marcus）可以很好地管理每个人的期望。梅纳说：“西尔维安（Silvian）的第一条规则永远不要对客户的要求说'否'。

Another senior vice president at the firm, Susan Erdelyi Hamos, explains how Marcus achieves these goals.

“To this day, he always requires his engineering staff to develop as many solutions as practically possible,” she says, and then he would assess them all before presenting shortlisted options to clients. Hamos adds that “I have heard, from numerous architects who have worked with Silvian, that … he has never said that any of their design ideas is impossible to implement.”

Ahmad Rahimian, WSP’s executive vice president and USA director of building structures who Marcus hired at Cantor and has worked with him ever since, says the awardee “brings a level of respect and gravitas.” According to Rahimian, “typically, he holds a front seat at the table with the architects and developers while the concepts are taking shape, which creates a true collaborative environment.” Lest that sound staid, Rahimian adds that “one of the pleasures of working with Silvian is that you won’t have a dull moment,” and he praises Marcus’ “quick wit.”

Flynn doesn’t mince words in his praise for Marcus’ engineering prowess. “I consider him one of the most talented structural minds” of the past four or five decades, he says.

Marcus readily shares what’s in and on that mind. In 2016, the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, a nonprofit organization that studies how to design more sustainable and healthy cities, asked him to present “The New Supers: Super-Slender Towers of New York” at the group’s annual convention. Rick Rome, WSP president of U.S. property and buildings, recalls that the presentation offered by Marcus “was so popular that it resulted in a standing room only crowd.”

Flynn emphasizes that “the guy’s still at it.” Marcus says his latest work, a 1,000-ft-tall building on Fifth Avenue, is so new that he can’t divulge more. Another new project is 111 W. 57 St., which Marcus explains is 59 ft wide and more than 1,400 ft tall, giving it a slenderness ratio of 1:25, and “I believe a world record” of slimness.

The building is in a photograph he snaps during ENR’s phone interview, part of a spectacular view from Central Park West that shows many of his projects. Within the skyline are 111 W. 57 St., 53 West 53 (the tower atop MoMA) and 432 Park Ave. After taking it in, Marcus says: “It’s a beautiful profession at the end of the day.”