Nationality American | Name Marshall Strabala Role Architect | |
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Alma mater Harvard UniversityUniversity of California at Los Angeles Awards Chicago Architecture Club’s Burnham Prize, 1996;AIA Chicago Chapter Grand Projects Award;Affiliated Fellow (1997), American Academy in Rome Structures Similar People George J Efstathiou, William F Baker, Adrian Smith, Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan | ||
Organization 2DEFINE Architecture | ||
Shanghai tower construction update with chief architect marshall strabala
Jay Marshall Strabala is an American architect who has participated in the design of skyscrapers and other buildings. Since 2010, Strabala has been the principal of his own architectural firm, 2DEFINE, having previously been employed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill and Gensler.
Contents
- Shanghai tower construction update with chief architect marshall strabala
- Marshall strabala chief architect of the shanghai tower
- Education
- Skidmore Owings and Merrill
- Gensler
- Formation of new firm
- SOM
- Local involvement
- References
Marshall strabala chief architect of the shanghai tower
Education
Strabala received his bachelor of arts in design from the University of California, Los Angeles. In 1988, Strabala graduated with a Master of Architecture from Harvard Graduate School of Design.
Skidmore, Owings and Merrill
After graduating with his master's degree, Strabala worked at Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (SOM) in Chicago, Illinois, for 19 years. He ultimately was made an associate partner in charge of design.
While at SOM, Strabala served as the studio head under lead architect Adrian Smith in working on the design of Burj Khalifa (Dubai, 2009), which is the tallest building in the world. Strabala also worked under Smith as one of the two studio heads over the course of the project in designing the 450 m. tall Nanjing Greenland Financial Center (Nanjing, China, 2010). Also while at SOM, Strabala participated in the design of the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre (Hong Kong, 1997).
Strabala left SOM in 2006. In a 2007 interview, Adrian Smith said that Strabala was one of several architects up for partner at SOM who did not make it, in what Smith described as "a power move by the New York office."
Gensler
After leaving SOM, Strabala joined the Houston, Texas, office of the architectural firm Gensler in 2006. Strabala has been reported to have led the design of the 128-story Shanghai Tower while at Gensler and to have completed the "bulk of the design work". Gensler, however, claims that the tower is not Strabala's design. According to Gensler in a lawsuit it later dropped, "Gensler, not (Strabala), is the source of the architectural and design services rendered in designing the Shanghai Tower."
Strabala also has been credited for leading Gensler's efforts in designing Hess Tower (Houston, 2010) and the Houston Ballet Center for Dance (2011). However, Gensler has claimed that "'Gensler, not (Strabala), is the source of the architectural and design services rendered in designing Hess Tower'", and that Strabala was but "'one of many members of that Gensler team'" that designed the Houston Ballet Center for Dance.
Strabala left Gensler in 2010.
Formation of new firm
After leaving Gensler, Strabala started his own architectural firm, 2DEFINE Architecture, with offices in Shanghai, Seoul, and Chicago. According to Strabala, he "continues to be involved in the Shanghai Tower project at the behest of the client".
In 2012, Strabala and 2DEFINE were assigned to work on the design of the Yingkou Convention and Exposition Center in Yingkou, China, projected to cost $68 million. The project's architect of record and national partner will be the Dalian Urban Planning and Design Institute.
Gensler
In June 2011, Gensler, sued Strabala alleging in a complaint that after founding his own firm Strabala publicly misrepresented his role in several projects while "'intentionally minimizing or entirely omitting the nature of Gensler's contribution.'" Gensler claimed that Strabala's actions violated the Lanham Act and various state laws. In February 2012, Judge Ronald A. Guzman of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois dismissed Gensler's complaint on procedural grounds before trial, ruling that the allegations Gensler made against Strabala do not constitute a violation of the Lanham Act or related state law. Gensler appealed the dismissal.
In August 2014, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit vacated the District Court's dismissal of the lawsuit and remanded the case back to the District Court therefore reviving the lawsuit. In April 2015, Gensler dropped the suit.
SOM
The day after Gensler sued Strabala, SOM sued Strabala in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York alleging that he was "falsely claiming credit for work that originated with the company, including the designs for three of the 10 tallest buildings in the world." Among SOM's allegations was "that most of Strabala's work on Burj Khalifa, for example, 'occurred in the construction-document phase' following design completion." The case was transferred to the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in June 2012.
In December 2012, SOM and Strabala reached a binding settlement agreement and the case was dismissed under its terms. Neither party may discuss the lawsuit per the agreement.
Local involvement
In 1999, Strabala, speaking as a private citizen as part of a community group, testified before the Chicago City Council Zoning Committee against a high-rise development at 840 Lake Shore Drive in Chicago, Illinois. Strabala lived nearby and was concerned that the high-rise would be "out of scale with the neighborhood". Despite opponents' efforts, and that the project would "flout existing law", the Zoning Committee amended the ordinance allowing the project to proceed.