1912 - 1986
Minouru Yamasaki was an American architect from Seattle who lived from 1912 to 1986. Yamasaki worked for prominent architectural firms in New York City from 1937 until 1949, when he formed his own company. In 1951 he designed the Lambert–St. Louis Municipal Air Terminal, an impressive concrete groin-vault construction. In his design (1954) for the U.S. consulate general in Kobe, Japan, Yamasaki adapted elements of the Japanese aesthetic. His interest in ornament and sculptural form is revealed in buildings for the American Concrete Institute, the Reynolds Metal Company, and the McGregor Memorial Community Conference Center, Wayne Univ., all in Detroit. Yamasaki's design for the U.S. science pavilion at the Seattle Exposition, 1962, is famed for its soaring arches and Gothic tracery. His other major works include the Plaza Hotel, Los Angeles (1966), and the Eastern Airlines Unit Terminal, Boston (1968). He was a chief designer of the vast World Trade Center complex, New York City.
World Trade Center, building complex in lower Manhattan, New York City, consisting of seven buildings and a shopping concourse. It is the world's largest commercial complex, with many businesses, government agencies, and international trade organizations. Most prominent are the 110-story rectangular twin towers, one rising to 1,362 ft (415 m) and the other to 1,368 ft (417 m). Designed by Minoru Yamasaki and Emery Roth, the towers and concourse portion of the center were completed in 1973 at a cost of $750 million. A massive terrorist car-bomb explosion damaged portions of the complex in 1993, killing six people and causing more than $300 million in damages. In 1995, Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman and nine other militant Muslims (Sudanese, Egyptian, American, and Jordanian citizens) were convicted of conspiracy and other charges related to the bombing. In 1998 the so-called mastermind, Ramzi Yousef, also was convicted of the bombing and sentenced to life plus 240 years in prison.