Jeffrey Heller FAIA ’64, M.Arch ’67 FAIA presents at AIA San Francisco

At AIA San Francisco on November 15, 2019, in a sold-out presentation titled 181 Fremont | A Seismic Shift in Resilient Design Solutions | San Francisco, MIT alumnus Jeffrey Heller engaged attendees with his story and his building—Heller Manus Architects’ award-winning 800-foot-tall, mixed use, high-rise project next to the Transbay Terminal at 181 Fremont Street.

Architect Magazine’s (link below) featured multi-media report on Jeffrey Heller’s building professionally documents the remarkable series of innovations in seismic, wind, resilient, and sustainable design that have garnered 181 Fremont its accolades.  

From the perspective of a Course IV alumna, Jeffrey’s design and engineering excellence proved inspirational—but the aspirational moment for MITArchA came from hearing Jeffrey recount his creative process and career, in which the influence on his professional development by notable architects connected to MIT Architecture, became clear.  

Particular influences included: John Merrill ’21 and Louis Skidmore ’24, whose firm Skidmore, Owings, & Merrill in San Francisco gave Jeffrey his first job on the west coast;  I.M. Pei ’40, whose Bank of China building in Hong Kong inspired 181 Fremont’s structural exoskeleton, and Henrik H. Bull ’52, founder of Bull Field Volkmann Stockwell, who provided timely mentoring and friendship to Jeffrey and fellow young alumni in San Francisco.   

Learn more here: https://www.architectmagazine.com/design/181-fremont-san-francisco