Minoru Yamasaki

Minoru Yamasaki (1912-1986), American architect, known for his designs combining aesthetic appeal with functional efficiency. Born in Seattle, Washington, he practiced in New York City and Detroit, Michigan. Yamasaki preferred delicate, refined materials such as wood and polished steel to the more conventional rough concrete and brick. Many of his buildings, such as the early Terminal Building (1956) at the airport in St. Louis, Missouri, were designed almost as sculptures in architecture. Several world tours exposed Yamasaki to a wide range of influences, and his buildings tended to exhibit a variety of ornamental detail. His United States Pavilion (1962) at the World's Fair in Seattle, for instance, featured a lacelike Gothic design reminiscent of Saint Mark's Square in Venice. The decorative quality of many of his designs makes Yamasaki a controversial architect, especially among critics who favor aesthetically severe buildings.

Yamasaki’s most famous structures are the twin towers of the World Trade Center, built from 1966 to 1973. The 110-story, steel and glass skyscrapers ranked as the world’s tallest buildings until the Sears Tower in Chicago, Illinois, surpassed them in 1974. The World Trade Center towers collapsed in 2001, after two airliners hijacked by terrorists struck the buildings.