Maurice Koechlin (March 8, 1856 - January 14, 1946) was a French-Swiss structural engineer.

Contents 1 Life 2 Honours and legacy 3 Bibliography 4 External links

[edit] Life

Born in Buhl, Haut-Rhin, he studied at the lycée in Mulhouse then at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology under Carl Culmann.

Much of his work was in the service of Gustave Eiffel and his major structural designs were:

• Garabit viaduct, (1880-1884);
• Armature for the Statue of Liberty - in collaboration with Frédéric Bartholdi, (1884); and
• Eiffel Tower, (1887-1889).

Married to Emma Rossier in 1886, they had six children. Maurice and Emma were life long members of the Plymouth Brethren. He died in Veytaux, Switzerland.

[edit] Honours and legacy

• Officer of the Légion d'honneur.

Though named after a project of Gustave Eiffel, the Eiffel Tower – symbol of Paris – has its structural concept and form from the responsible chief engineer Maurice Koechlin. Koechlin was an engineer of outstanding ingenuity and well versed in the structural techniques of his time. He possessed therefore the best qualifications for evolving such technically innovative conceptions for which Eiffel and his firm were renowned.

– Trautz (2002)

[edit] Bibliography

• Koechlin, S. (2007a). "Maurice Koechlin" (in French). Site de la famile Koechlin. http://www.koechlin.net/ancetres/maurice.htm. Retrieved 2007-08-13. 
• — (2007b). "Maurice Koechlin et la Tour Eiffel" (in French). Site de la famile Koechlin. http://www.koechlin.net/bk/01_10/bk01_05.htm. Retrieved 2007-08-13. 
• Picon, A. (1997). L'art de l'ingénieur. Paris: Éditions du Centre Georges Pompidou. pp. 253. ISBN 2-85850-911-5. 
• Trautz, M. (2002). "Maurice Koechlin (1856-1946)PDF". Deutsche Bauzeitung 136{4}: 105-111.  (), in German
• Walbrach, K. F. (2006). "Ohne ihn gäbe es keinen Eiffelturm: Maurice Koechlin (1856-1946)". Bautechnik 83(4): April. , in German

[edit] External links

• "Maurice Koechlin". Nicolas Janberg's Structurae. http://fr.structurae.de/persons/data/index.cfm?ID=d000286. Retrieved 2007-08-13.