Wilem Frischmann obituary

Structural engineer who worked with the architect Richard Seifert on striking modernist buildings

As a modern high-rise city, London had its skyline shaped through the acumen of the pioneering structural engineer Wilem Frischmann, who has died aged 95. Widely considered among the most influential engineers of his generation, he was best known for his work with the modernist architect Richard Seifert. The 34-storey slab of Centre Point at the east end of Oxford Street, and the City’s NatWest Tower (now Tower 42), at 600ft high, once Europe’s tallest building, were landmark structures, establishing Frischmann’s reputation for engineering innovation.

Conventional wisdom held that London’s soft clay soil could not support high-rise towers, but Frischmann proved otherwise, developing the use of large-diameter piled foundations that made such structures achievable. “I was told you can’t build tower blocks on clay, so I made a point of showing that you could,” he told the Observer in 2018. The method involved drilling a series of closely packed piled foundations to distribute the building load. Frischmann would inspect the holes himself, and once got stuck in one, being obliged to spend the night there until finally extracted.

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Source: Guardian Art & Design