Guy Nordenson is a structural engineer and professor of structural engineering and architecture at Princeton University School of Architecture. He attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, graduating with a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering in 1977, followed by a Masters of Science in Structural Engineering and Structural Mechanics from the University of California at Berkeley in 1978. After graduating from UC Berkeley he worked at Forell/Elsesser Engineers in San Francisco and Weidlinger Associates in New York City, before establishing the New York office of Ove Arup & Partners in 1987 where he was a director until leaving in 1997 to begin his own structural engineering practice, Guy Nordenson and Associates. Nordenson is also a professor at the Princeton University School of Architecture and is a Faculty Associate at the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment, the University Center for Human Values, the Princeton Environmental Institute, and the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.
Climate Adaptation and Flood Research
In 2007 Nordenson and his collaborators were awarded the Latrobe Prize by the AIA College of Fellows for their proposal “On the Water” a plan that presents ideas for future waterfront development along the New York and New Jersey Upper Bay. Nordenson said of the prize “ is a chance to bring architects, engineers, and others together to think about the possibility of using the challenges associated with climate change as a way to rethink the character of the waterfront, in particular the New York Upper Bay, but also by extension other similar regions around the country.” In 2010 the research was published in book form as On the Water | Palisade Bay by Hatje Cantz and also served as the inspiration for the MoMA's Rising Currents: Projects for New York’s Waterfront that same year. Nordenson remains active in climate adaptation research, and after Hurricane Sandy was appointed to the NYS 2100 Commission by Governor Cuomo. Nordenson is also the Project Director of Structures of Coastal Resilience a Rockefeller Foundation-supported project dedicated to studying and proposing resilient designs for urban coastal environments in the North Atlantic region. With Princeton University he has participated in the 2018 Northeastern Legislative Climate and Energy Summit, where he discussed innovative approaches to making coastal communities more resilient to a changing climate and took part in the Princeton University's "Ideas Lab" panel and workshop on climate change at the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Projects
Guy Nordenson was the structural engineer for the Museum of Modern Art expansion in New York, the Jubilee Church in Rome, the Simmons Residence Hall at MIT in Massachusetts, and numerous other projects including:
Televisa Cafeterias, San Angel and Chapultepec, Mexico City MEXICO
Rachofsky House and Art Gallery, Dallas TX
Weatherstone Riding Ring, Sharon CT
Selected publications
Structures of Coastal Resilience, with Catherine Seavitt Nordenson and Julia Chapman, Island Press, Washington DC, 2018
Reading Structures: 39 Projects and Built Works, Lars Müller Publishers, Zurich, 2016
Patterns and Structure: Selected Writings 1972–2008, Lars Müller Publishers, Baden, 2010
On the Water | Palisade Bay, with Catherine Seavitt and Adam Yarinsky, Hatje Cantz Verlag/MoMA Publications, Berlin, 2010
Seven Structural Engineers – The Felix Candela Lectures in Structural Engineering, editor, MoMA Publications, New York NY, 2008
Tall Buildings, editor with Terrance Riley, MoMA Publications, New York NY, 2003
WTC Emergency – Damage Assessment of Buildings Structural Engineers Association of NY Inspection of September and October 2001, Volume A Summary Report, and B-F on DVD, SEAoNY, New York NY, 2003
