Wilem William Frischmann, CBE

CBE

CBE and C.B.E. are abbreviations for "Commander of the Order of the British Empire", a grade in the Order of the British Empire.Other uses include:* Chemical and Biochemical Engineering...

, FICE

Institution of Civil Engineers

Founded on 2 January 1818, the Institution of Civil Engineers is an independent professional association, based in central London, representing civil engineering. Like its early membership, the majority of its current members are British engineers, but it also has members in more than 150...

, FIStructE

Institution of Structural Engineers

The Institution of Structural Engineers is a professional body for structural engineering based in the United Kingdom. It has 27,000 members in 105 countries. The Institution provides professional accreditation for structural engineers...

 is a leading engineer, the chairman of the internationally recognised firm of consulting engineers, Pell Frischmann

Pell Frischmann

Pell Frischmann is a multi-disciplinary engineering consultancy with an annual turnover approaching £50 million. Pell Frischmann employs over 1,150 staff worldwide with its head office located in London, 16 offices across the UK and international offices in India, the Middle East, Turkey and...

 and generally considered to be one of the foremost engineers of his generation due to his reputation gained on technically ground-breaking developments including Centre Point

Centre Point

Centre Point is a substantial concrete and glass office building in central London, England, occupying 101-103 New Oxford Street, WC1, close to St Giles Circus and almost directly above Tottenham Court Road tube station. The site was once occupied by a gallows...

, Nat West Tower (Tower 42

Tower 42

Tower 42 is the second tallest skyscraper in the City of London and the fifth tallest in London overall. The original name was the National Westminster Tower, having been built to house the National Westminster Bank's International Division. Seen from above, the tower closely resembles the NatWest...

) and Drapers Gardens.

Early life and education

Wilem Frischmann was born in Ungvar, Hungary in 1931. He survived the Holocaust

The Holocaust

The Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...

and came to England as a refugee at the age of 15. He attended the Hammersmith College of Art & Building and the Imperial College – University of London.

Working life

He joined C. J. Pell & Partners in 1958, becoming a partner in 1961, and the Chairman in 1968.

Centre Point, London

Centre Point is one of the best known landmarks in London. He championed an innovative use of high-quality pre-cast concrete in its design. The external columns have specifically designed joints to provide continuity in the structure to prevent progressive collapse and it was constructed without any external scaffolding. As well as being the tallest building built with prefabricated elements, Centre Point was the first building using large diameter piles in London Clay. He carried out extensive testing of the distribution of loads by friction and bearing to estimate the settlement of the building. The resulting paper earned the IStructE Research Diploma. In 2009 it won First Prize in the Mature Structures category at the Concrete Society Awards.

Tower 42 (formerly Nat West Tower), London

Frischmann was responsible for the design of this 52-storey landmark structure in London, the tallest building in London at
the time of its construction. The firm carried out natural frequency tests and modelled the potential for progressive collapse. After the IRA bomb attack, PF carried out the same tests and found that the structure hadn’t been significantly
damaged. The project won the European Award for Steels Structures from CECM Prix European De La Construction Metallique and the paper detailing the towers design won an ICE award.

Drapers Gardens, London

During the construction of this twenty-eight storey building, PF tested and proved that the solid steel mullions provided adequate fire resistance without any need for fire protection. A paper on the development won the Oscar Faber Bronze Medal awarded by the IStructE.

Aldersgate Street, London

He has helped bring the world of innovation which surrounds engineering to the public. PF were appointed to design the Aldersgate Street development in the centre of London, which has the deepest in London (14-storeys); and used a construction technique WWF had previously published a paper on. The techniques were covered in an article in The Sunday Times.

Ronan Point Collapse

Before the Ronan Point Collapse in 1968, Frischmann had already expressed his concern in the structural characteristics of non-continuous prefabricated buildings. After the event, he was appointed by the Treasury to write a report. He also appeared on David Frost’s television show, to demonstrate why Ronan Point had collapsed.

Collaborative Working

Before “collaborative working” became and industry buzzword, Frischmann was championing the benefits of cohesive teams and early contractor involvement, in his paper “Features in the design and construction of Drapers Gardens Development” he said:

“What is, in our opinion, worth noting is the fact that this building is the result of close cooperation of all parties under the leadership of the architect.”

A number of well recognized names in engineering and construction backed his opinion in a later discussion paper.

The Cross Channel Bridge

Frischmann has been a well publicised ambassador of engineering, not just in trade press but also the national press. He was vociferous in advocating the link across the channel and promoted a bridge solution rather than a tunnel, with the creation of a deep sea port for container vessels by extending the existing islands of Varne and Le Colbert. He appeared in the Observer Magazine and on the cover of the Sunday Telegraph Magazine in support of the link; as well as mentions in Construction News and The Times.

The Future of Tall Buildings

Frischmann is best known for his Tall Buildings, and wrote an important paper on the future of high-rise developments for vertical cities. The paper caught the public’s imagination and it was on the Tomorrows World program and covered twice in The Times +.