Alumni Profile: Brian Falconer, E'88, G'90
Brian Falconer, E’88, G’90, has taken his talents in structural engineering all over the country. With experience on projects like museums, concert venues and train stations, Falconer's passion for design and engineering was first realized at KU.
Born in Chicago to a father who was a minister, Falconer moved often while growing up. After living in Indiana and St. Louis, he eventually came to Kansas where he studied architectural engineering. After KU, Falconer received his master’s in structural engineering from the University of Texas before moving to New York for work.
Falconer works as a principal for Severud Associates, a firm in New York City of about 60 people, which has specialized in structural engineering for buildings since it opened in 1928.
Falconer calls Severud a “boutique firm,” which means that they get to work on a lot of special projects. Severud is known for designing structures such as the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Madison Square Garden in New York City, and more recently the Las Vegas Sphere, the giant spherical concert arena, for which Falconer was the engineer of record.
“I’ve done projects in California, Arizona, Florida, Texas, and throughout the northeast, not just in New York,” Falconer said. “I’ve been lucky in that regard.”
Falconer has worked on a variety of large-scale projects, like the expansion of Moynihan Train Hall, and the train station at the World Trade Center with architect Santiago Calatrava.
“I’ve done quite a few dinosaur skeletons,” Falconer said, having worked on many natural history museums, as well as the most recent expansion of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.
One of Falconer’s most recent projects, the redevelopment of PENN2, was built on the original site of Penn Station in New York City. Falconer won a national award from the American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC) for his role as structural engineer in the project.
“It’s actually, in my career, the fifth or sixth time I’ve won that award,” he said.
The site of Penn Station, located between 7th and 8th avenues and 31st and 33rd streets, is now only underground. Originally built in 1910, as the demand for train transportation decreased, the building above Penn Station was sold and torn down in 1963 to build the Madison Square Garden arena, along with Two Pennsylvania Plaza, which was recently redeveloped into PENN2.
The demolition of Penn Station was highly controversial in the 1960s and holds historical significance to this day.
“There was tremendous protest by the public,” Falconer said. “No buildings were preserved in the United States until Penn Station was ripped down. That was the catalyst that started landmark preservation in the United States.”
Five years out of school in 1995, Falconer was asked to take a look at an addition over the station, where they were dropping columns through the existing station to support it. This process had become a third of the total cost of the project and also had a negative impact on the schedule.
When Falconer observed the site, he suggested that they reload and reuse the original columns and footings that were left below grade.
“They said, ‘Great! You just saved us 17 million dollars!’” He said, with a laugh.
Almost 30 years in the making, the redeveloped PENN2 finally opened in 2022.
“They count on me to figure out something strange that no one else is thinking about, to make something either more manageable or feasible.” Falconer said.
While proud of his accomplishments, Falconer recognizes the burden attached to such a high-stakes career.
“That level of commitment to things in your life has you get more done. If you’re willing to work a 16-hour day, you’re going to get a lot more done than if you’re always trying to stop it at eight,” he said. “In our industry, there is in many ways no substitution for that.”
Pressure can come from all sides, especially the public, to whom Falconer must attest that his engineered designs are safe.
“There’s a lot of pressure from the outside, both for speed and money and construction costs. That can be really demanding,” Falconer said with a smile. “My wife told me once, ‘Days you do some engineering you’re much happier. Obviously, that’s the part I enjoy.”
Since variety is part of the job, Falconer is happy with where he is in his career.
“I just want to keep doing more of the same,” Falconer said, “because the same is always different.”
Before college, long before his career in structural engineering took off, Falconer considered doing contracting in St. Louis, where his family was living at the time, which was influenced by renovating buildings with his father growing up.
His parents, who had visited KU one summer for a Presbyterian program, encouraged him to consider the university, and upon visiting for himself, Falconer decided to attend.
During his freshman year, when he was still undeclared, he was in his dorm library with a friend who had an architectural engineering textbook out.
“I asked if I could look at his textbook, and I thought, ‘Oh! Architecture and engineering, wow!’” Falconer said with a laugh.
Something clicked then for Falconer, who had previously only considered becoming an architect or an engineer exclusively.
“The very next day, I went down to the architectural engineering department, I transferred into the department, and rearranged my schedule for the next semester. So, everything changed in 24 hours that led me to where I am now,” Falconner said.
His first three years of the architectural engineering program were spent in the School of Architecture, but Falconer knew that his greatest strengths were in engineering.
“I was always good at math and science, so I had that influence,” Falconer said. “And I was good at art.”
For a while, Falconer thought that he might go into construction management, but he ultimately chose structural engineering, where he could still have a bit of creative freedom.
“As engineers, we represent the environment with math. It’s kind of artistic, because you’re making an image or likeness of something with math,” Falconer said. “I take math, and I figure out how big I have to make a beam, column, or slab so that it can carry all the loads it’s supposed to. If I change something about how things are put together, it changes what it can be, but it’s based on manipulating everything with math.”
At KU, Falconer was very involved in various engineering societies, such as Tau Beta Pi. He also remembers spending long hours in the architecture studios that were required in the program at the time.
Falconer especially remembers something he started with friends called the Engineering Olympics, where all the engineering departments competed against each other.
“Some of it was sports like softball and basketball, and some of it was three-legged races and Twinkie eating contests. It raised money for the special Olympics,” he said.
Falconer’s undergrad experience wasn’t just shaped by his peers, but also by mentors that he found in his professors.
“I had some good mentors along the way, both at Kansas and Texas, and they helped me figure out where I might want to work and what I want to do with my career,” Falconer said.
He received encouragement from professors in the department that stuck with him, such as Dr. Ronald Helms, who was the department chair of the architectural engineering department at the time.
Other professors, like Dr. Bezaleel Benjamin, introduced Falconer to concepts of structures related to buildings. Dr. Steve McCabe was an advisor to Falconer and recommended that he look at the University of Texas for graduate school.
While Falconer’s achievements are his own, his mentors at KU helped him begin to find his footing that would lead to the soaring trajectory of his career.
“Finding some good mentors while you’re in school that will help you parse out what’s right for you is important,” Falconer advised.
Photos provided by Brian Falconer.