"This book brings together for the first time the work of four Swiss engineers and their teachers who form the most impressive group of structural artists in the twentieth century: Wilhelm Ritter (1847-1906), Robert Maillart (1872-1940), Othmar Ammann (1879-1965), Pierre Lardy (1902-1956), Heinz Isler (b. 1926), and Christian Menn (b. 1927).".

"David P. Billington, who pioneered the integration of the liberal arts into engineering education, argues that it is important to consider these men as artists, for aesthetics played a major role in their design philosophy. He explains that their shared approach to design was influenced significantly while they attended the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich; Maillart and Ammann studed with Ritter there, and Isler and Menn studed under Lardy.

Billington focuses on the engineers' artistic approach to the design and construction of bridges and thin shell roofs, and he discusses their impressive individual contributions to structural engineering.".

"Generously illustrated, this book features reproductions of many original drawings as well as archival material, paintings, three-dimensional models, and newly commissioned photographs. Included in this study are many of the designers' most widely recognized and acclaimed projects, including the George Washington, Bayonne, Bronx-Whitestone, and Verrazano Narrows bridges by Ammann; the recently constructed Leonard P.

Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge over the Charles River in Boston, the widest cable-stayed bridge in the United States, completed by Menn in 2002; the Schwandbach, Salginatobel, and Vessy bridges in Switzerland by Maillart, and Isler's graceful Heimberg Tennis Center and Grotzingen Outdoor Theater."--BOOK JACKET.