DAVID P. BILLINGTON (1927-2018)

BY MARIA E. MOREYRA GARLOCK, SIGRID ADRIAENSSENS, IGNACIO PAYÁ-ZAFORTEZA, DAVID P. BILLINGTON JR., SARAH BILLINGTON, MARK SARKISIAN, AND JEROME F. HAJJAR

DAVID PERKINS BILLINGTON, Gordon Y.S. Wu Professor of Engineering Emeritus at Princeton University, died on March 25, 2018, at the age of 90. Professor Billington joined the civil engineering faculty at Princeton in 1960, after working for the engineering design firm of Roberts and Schaefer in New York City from 1952-60 and teaching part-time at Princeton starting in 1958. He retired in 2010.

He was born June 1, 1927, in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, to Nelson and Jane (Coolbaugh) Billington. After service in the U.S. Navy, Billington began his studies at Princeton University in 1946. He enrolled in a program called “Basic Engineering,” which allowed him to take more courses in the humanities than was usual for engineers. After graduation in 1950, he received a Fulbright scholarship that enabled him to spend two years in Belgium, where he studied civil engineering. In his second year, he studied with Professor Gustave Magnel, a major figure in the development of prestressed concrete. While abroad, Billington met and married Phyllis Bergquist, also a Fulbright scholar who was studying piano and harpsichord in Belgium.

Soon into his academic career, Billington wrote Thin Shell Concrete Structures (McGraw-Hill, 1965; rev. ed. 1982). The book outlines approaches for solving equilibrium for various thin-shell forms — with and without bending stresses — that established him as an authority on thin-shell structures. His scholarship, work as a consultant, and leadership as chairman of the ACI-ASCE Joint Committee on Concrete Shell Design & Construction (1973-79) helped define standards and means for designing thin-shell concrete structures around the world.

In his early years on the faculty at Princeton, Billington taught a structural engineering class to students of architecture, who asked him why structures could not be studied through examples of beautiful works, such as the bridges of Robert Maillart (1872-1940). Billington found the idea of teaching through elegant examples (rather than abstract line drawings) very appealing, and he soon discovered that Maillart’s works were brilliant works of engineering as well as elegant in design. A lifelong interest in Maillart led to a full biography, Robert Maillart: Builder, Designer, and Artist (Cambridge University Press, 1997). Billington’s research branched out into the study of other structural engineers whose works embodied similar ideals, including Christian Menn, Heinz Isler, Fazlur Khan (NAE 1973), and Felix Candela. This scholarship would define a new field: structural art.

As a first step, Billington and his colleague Robert Mark, a professor of architecture at Princeton, began to analyze the humanistic side of civil engineering through conferences that brought together leading designers whose works exemplified the integration of elegance into engineering structure. Then, in 1974, Billington began teaching the slide-lecture course “Structures and the Urban Environment.” Affectionately called “Bridges” by Princeton students, it has been taught continuously since then (now taught by Professor Maria Garlock), and it remains now, as it was then, one of the most popular courses at Princeton.

“Structures and the Urban Environment” traces the development of outstanding structures that arose with the Industrial Revolution and the introduction of new materials — industrialized iron, then structural steel, then reinforced concrete, and finally prestressed concrete. The course includes detailed studies of structures (bridges, vaults, buildings) and highlights almost two dozen engineers. In each case a talented engineer was responsible for the form — and these forms illustrated engineering principles. Each designer sought to integrate elegance and efficiency rather than superimpose one on the other. Integration of efficiency, economy, and elegance became the central tenet of structural art. The case study examples illustrate how the best technical design leaves room for ethical and aesthetic choice. Thus, the creativity of the engineer is emphasized along with the technical content.

The course makes use of Billington’s scholarship on “structural artists” and their most important works. His pioneering book, The Tower and the Bridge: The New Art of Structural Engineering (Princeton University Press, 1983), summarizes this scholarship and forms the foundation for the course. The book has been translated into Japanese, Spanish, and German and is a classic in the literature on the philosophy of structures. Billington also brought this approach to the wider profession as chairman of the ASCE Committee on Aesthetics in Design of Structures (1978-85).

In the same format and spirit as “Structures and the Urban Environment,” Billington began to teach another slide-lecture course in 1985, now known as “Engineering in the Modern World,” which centers on the transformation of American society by the four traditional branches of engineering — civil, mechanical, electrical, and chemical. The course analyzes the great innovations of the 19th and 20th centuries, including the steam engine and railway, the telegraph and telephone, Edison’s power network, the steel bridge, the refining of oil, the automobile and the airplane, and electronics from the radio to the microchip. “Engineering in the Modern World” was soon co-taught with Professor Michael Littman, who continues teaching it today.

These two courses, “Structures and the Urban Environment” and “Engineering in the Modern World,” are taught to engineering and non-engineering students learning together. Since the 1990s, about 20% of Princeton undergraduate students have enrolled in at least one of these courses. Billington believed that the key to engaging students was to show how engineering integrated the study of nature, society, and art, the traditional concerns of the liberal arts. Through examples he showed how the best engineers make design choices that work within nature and its laws, are economical and socially useful, and within these constraints express the humanistic and aesthetic vision of the individual engineer. He believed that showing this interconnection between liberal arts and engineering is a crucial step in the education of all students because it makes them aware, early in their careers, of how engineering ideas and works require an understanding of science, politics, culture, and the personality of individual designers. In support of this work, he received grants from all three national endowments: the National Science Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

In addition to the two courses and several books — designed for a general audience — Billington curated eight art museum exhibitions, most of which traveled to various museums, including several abroad. Professors Billington and Mark also founded the Architecture and Engineering Certificate Program at Princeton, which combines the curriculum of the two schools. In 1992, he received the George Winter Prize from the American Society of Civil Engineers, a distinctive honor given to individuals who address matters both “technical and social, for art as well as science, for soul as well as intellect.”

Through his books, papers, art exhibitions, and lectures, Billington inspired a remarkable range of people — engineers, architects, a broad range of students, and the general public — and he contributed to creating a better understanding of engineering and engineers. With his death, the world lost one of its most inspiring, passionate, and innovative civil engineering professors.

Professor Billington was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1986 and his contributions to scholarship and teaching earned him many other honors and awards, among them several honorary degrees: in humane letters from Union College (1990), in engineering from Notre Dame University (1997), and in science from Grinnell College (1990) and Princeton University (2015). He was an honorary member of the American Concrete Institute and the International Association of Shell and Spatial Structures, and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences (1998). For his work as a teacher and mentor, in 1999 he was named one of the top five educators in civil engineering since 1874 by the Engineering News-Record.

David Billington was married to Phyllis Bergquist (1927-2016) for 65 years. They are survived by their children: David Billington Jr., Elizabeth (Donald) Fox, Jane (Johnson) Flucker, Philip Billington, Stephen (Miriam) Billington, and Sarah Billington (Peter Feenstra); and 11 grandchildren.