World-famous Swiss architect and engineer Christian Menn-who in February was named as the design consultant for Buffalo's Peace Bridge project-was on campus recently to share with UB students and faculty his philosophies on bridge building in what could be the beginning of an ongoing dialogue between the academic community and individuals involved in the Peace Bridge project.

It is important for students to "get a taste of these issues as they're evolving and being addressed by these experts," said Vincent "Jake" Lamb, project manager of the binational integrated environmental review being conducted by the Buffalo and Fort Erie Public Bridge Authority. "Christian Menn is the start of it."

Menn was invited to join the Peace Bridge team by Lamb, who ranks him among the best available talent in the world. Lamb said the premier bridge builder recognized Buffalo's struggle toward a solution as a "great challenge" and agreed to participate. With Menn on board, Lamb said he wanted to share him with the academic world-not a far stretch for Menn, who is a professor at the University of Zurich.

Enter Bruce Jackson, SUNY Distinguished Professor and Samuel P. Capen Professor of American Culture in the Department of English, who has been covering the bridge controversy in the weekly publication Artvoice since it began. Lamb, familiar with Jackson in this capacity, spoke to the UB professor about bringing Menn to campus.

	Style usually is a result of structure, Swiss bridge designer and Peace Bridge consultant Christian Menn told UB faculty and students during a recent meeting.
	photo: Bruce Jackson

And the rest, as Lamb said, is history.

Jackson said he hopes Menn is the first in a series of prominent designers, engineers and environmentalists who will meet with UB students and faculty. Jackson said he and Lamb are working to bring renowned bridge builder Eugene Figg, also hired to consult on the Peace Bridge project, to campus.

"These are architects, designers and engineers you couldn't hire to speak because they're so busy working on major projects, so this a very good thing"-particularly for students, Jackson said.

"It lets them hear about past and current work from, and ask questions of, some of the world's major civil engineers, public-works architects and environmental analysts-all of whom will be engaged in the largest public works project in this region for decades," he said.

A markedly modest Menn-whose designs include the Reichenau Bridge spanning the Rhine River-addressed a gathering of students and faculty members from both the School of Architecture and Planning and the Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering on March 1.

With a thick accent and quiet demeanor, Menn talked about and showed slides of his work in Switzerland, and also spoke of his involvement as designer of Boston's Charles River "Big Dig" bridge project-a highly contentious proceeding akin to the Peace Bridge controversy. Menn's approach to the Boston bridge project-which suffered from what he referred to as "complicated boundary conditions"-was borne of the same consideration as his earlier work: that is, structure before style.

"The real art of bridge design is to have at the same time economy and aesthetics," he remarked, noting that style usually is a result of structure.

Andrei Reinhorn, professor of civil, structural and environmental engineering, said Menn's reputation of being at the "highest edge of the profession" bodes well for those at UB and in the community who aspire to those standards.

"Such an engineer for whom the engineering solution brings also an aesthetically unique, recognizable monument can provide Western New York with a personalized signature at the right cost with the proper impact on the community future," he said.

Jackson pointed out that the value of having someone of Menn's stature visit campus "goes both ways." "It is in the nature of exchanges like this that the students and faculty hearing these visitors talk and asking questions of them will, from time to time, suggest ideas that the visitors hadn't thought of or hadn't thought of in quite the same way."

Menn, perhaps best known for his concrete, cable-stayed bridge design, was emphatic in pointing out that "engineering is not only science, and architecture is not only art"-something that resonates deeply with UB faculty.

"He is not just someone who thinks about bridges, not just someone who designs them, but someone who builds them," Jackson said.

"The bottom line is that an aesthetic solution requires both good engineering and architectural skills," noted Reinhorn, adding that Menn's oft-repeated words serve as a "wake-up call" to the two disciplines.

"Perhaps it is time to convert our busy and crowded (academic) programs to include some of the approaches that make 'great engineers' and 'great architects,' not just engineers or architects," he said.

Kent Kleinman, professor and chair of the Department of Architecture, said Menn's visit speaks to the university as a natural venue for exchange.

"UB cannot claim to be a world-class institution unless it is connected to world-class ideas and practices," he said.