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Minoru Yamasaki was born to Japanese immigrant parents
in Seattle in 1912 and was a graduate of
Garfield High School.
In 1929, he enrolled at the University of Washington,
where he studied architecture.
He paid for his tuition by working at Alaska
salmon canneries during the summer.
After receiving his bachelor's
degree, he enrolled at New York
University for his master's degree
and began practicing with the firms responsible
for the Empire State Building and Rockefeller Center.
Living in New York during World War II
also spared him and his family,
who had moved there with him
from the forced incarceration of Japanese Americans
on the West Coast.
In 1945, Yamazaki secured a position
at the firm of Smith, Hinchman & Grylls in Detroit,
where he designed campus buildings
and plazas for Detroit's Wayne State University,
as well as the terminals for Lambert St Louis Airport
in St Louis and Dhahran International Airport
in Saudi Arabia.
In 1959, Yamasaki established his own practice
in Troy, Michigan,
and the following year he helped to design
Seattle's Washington Building,
now Puget Sound Plaza,
as an associate of Naramore,
Bain, Brady and Johanson.
His work with NBBJ continued on with the creation
of the United States
Science Pavilion for the 1962 World's Fair.
This elegant “Cathedral of Science” featured many
design elements that Yamasaki would come to use quite often
such as gothic arches, narrow vertical windows,
and open plazas graced with fountains.
These features were also quite prominent in his design
for Seattle's IBM building, which was completed in 1964.
It was also at this time
that Yamasaki began work on the building
for which he is known best,
the World Trade Center in New York City.
His design was unveiled in 1964 and featured
two massive towers set within a vast open plaza.
Construction began in 1966
and the first tower was topped out in 1970.
Meanwhile, Yamasaki continued to work on other buildings,
including Seattle's Rainier Tower,
his final project in the Pacific Northwest.
This distinctive building rises 40 stories atop
a fluted pedestal,
not unlike a rectangular pencil driven into the ground.
Minoru Yamasaki died in 1986 at the age of 73,
and was therefore not around in 2001 to see the World
Trade Center reduced to rubble during the September 11th
terrorist attacks.
But his legacy in Seattle lives on with buildings
that are looked upon and admired to this day.