Nationality French Name Maurice Koechlin | Role Structural engineer | |
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Full Name Maurice Koechlin Significant projects Garabit ViaductEiffel Tower Significant awards Officer of the Legion d'Honneur Spouse Emma Rossier (m. 1886–1946) Children Helene Koechlin, Pierre Koechlin, Jeanne Koechlin, Blanche Koechlin, Henri Koechlin, Maurice Koechlin Parents Anne Marie Elisabeth Anais Beuck, Jean Frederic Koechlin Siblings Rene Albert Koechlin, Georges Auguste Koechlin Similar People Emile Nouguier, Stephen Sauvestre, Gustave Eiffel, Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, Richard Morris Hunt | ||
Maurice Koechlin, ingénieur mulhousien
Maurice Koechlin (8 March 1856 – 14 January 1946) was a Franco-Swiss structural engineer from the Koechlin family.
Contents
- Maurice Koechlin ingnieur mulhousien
- Eiffel Tower Tourist Destination France History and Origin
- Life
- Major designs
- Honours and legacy
- Descendants
- References
Eiffel Tower / Tourist Destination France - History and Origin
Life
A member of the renowned Alsatian Koechlin family, he was born in Buhl, Haut-Rhin, the son of Jean Koechlin and his wife Anne Marie (Anaïs), née Beuck. He was the first cousin once removed of André Koechlin, and the great-grandfather of actress Kalki Koechlin.
When France lost the Franco-Prussian war to Prussia in 1870/1871 the Koechlin family as a whole decided to become citizens of Switzerland and thus dropped French citizenship. After the defeat of the German Empire in 1918, however, the Koechlin family again applied for French citizenship.
Maurice studied at the lycée in Mulhouse, then between 1873 and 1877 civil engineering at the Polytechnikum Zürich under Carl Culmann. In 1876 he became a citizen of Zurich ("Zürcher Bürger") Between 1877 and 1879 he worked for the French railway company "Chemin de Fer de l'Est".
Much of his work was done for Gustave Eiffel's "Compagnie des établissements Eiffel", which Koechlin joined in 1879. In 1886 Maurice married Emma Rossier (1867-1965). They had six children: three sons and three daughters. Maurice and Emma were lifelong members of the Plymouth Brethren.
In 1887 he started work on his plans for the "Tour de 300 mètres" in Paris, along with his younger brother Henri Koechlin and civil engineer Émile Nouguier. Maurice Koechlin became the Managing Director of Eiffel's company when Eiffel retired from the engineering profession in 1893. The company was renamed "Société de construction de Levallois-Perret".
Maurice Koechlin died in 1946 in Veytaux, Switzerland in a house built by himself in 1900.
Major designs
Major structural designs include:
Honours and legacy
Though named after a project of Gustave Eiffel, the Eiffel Tower – symbol of Paris – has its structural concept and form from the responsible chief engineer Maurice Koechlin. Koechlin was an engineer of outstanding ingenuity and well versed in the structural techniques of his time. He possessed therefore the best qualifications for evolving such technically innovative conceptions for which Eiffel and his firm were renowned.