World Trade Center Architect Made His Home in Troy

Former Troy resident Minoru Yamasaki is best known as the architect of the World Trade Center in New York City. Born in Seattle and later relocated to the Detroit area, Yamasaki started his own architect firm in 1959 in Troy. The influential designer also made his home in Troy, where his firm designed the two tower Columbia Center on Big Beaver Road.

Yamasaki distinguished himself as one of the premier architects of the 20th century with his signature style -- tall narrow windows, gothic inspired arches and open ground level areas.

The New York Times in 1986 stated that Yamasaki "ralied against the glass cubes and boses that were transforming the skyline of American cities and called instead for romantic, decorative buildings that would both soothe and delight the human spirit."

Yamasaki is said to have transformed his own style of design in the mid 1950s, after a near fatal attack of ulcers in 1954 brought on by overwork and a deep sensitivity to racism he felt he experienced in his early life.

Beginning his work on the World Trade Center in 1962, Yamasaki was still finishing work on the project with he began work on in Bloomfield Hills, according to Jan Durecki, director of the Rabbi Leo M. Franklin Archives at the temple.

Durecki said Yamasaki's research of Judaism led him to be enamored with the religion and ultimately to the final design concept of the temple. He designed the soaring temple to represent the meeting tents of the ancient Israelites.

The two hundred panels, created by steel cables dissecting the concrete walls, symbolize the number of times per day Jews are to thank God. While Yamasaki moved to Bloomfield Hills before his death in 1986, his firm remained in Troy until its closure in 2009.

Other buildings Yamasaki designed in several other buildings in the Detroit area, including four buildings on the campus of Wayne State University, The Michigan Consolidated Gas Company building and the in Bloomfield Hills. Yamasaki's firm also designed the the two towers of the Columbia Center on Big Beaver Road in Troy.

This article is part of Patch's Touched By Terror: Patch Remembers 9/11 With 911 Snapshots.

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