Dr. FR Khan - Bangali by heart
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Dr. FR Khan, the famed Bangladesh-born engineer-architect, is the designer of the 110-story Sears Tower (now Willis Tower) in Chicago, the tallest building in the United States. Various people have described him as “the Einstein of structural engineering”, “the father of the modern skyscraper,” and “the greatest structural engineer of the twentieth century”.
He is also the designer of the 100-story John Hancock Center in Chicago and the Hajj Terminal at the King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah. Thanks to his innovative concepts of “framed tube,” “braced tube” and “bundled tube” structural systems, it has now become possible to build buildings over 100 stories.
However, not many people are familiar with the other side of Dr. Khan. Even though he became an American citizen and spent almost his entire career in the US, he remained a ‘Bangali’ at heart all his life. He made significant contributions to the Liberation War by creating public awareness in the US and raising funds for the Bengali refugees in India.
Dr. Khan was very fond of Rabindra Sangeet. He could also sing songs of Tagore pretty well. In this photograph he is seen (centre) singing a Tagore song together with Fariha Matin (left) at this author’s home in Jeddah in 1982. Architect Sultan M Khan (right), also an accomplished artiste, is playing the harmonium. Dr. Khan died in March 1982 at the relatively young age of 52 during a visit to Jeddah.
The writer is an academic.
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yarhossain here from brahmanbaria ramrail i love brahmanbaria i love ramrail i love bangladesh ilove bangladesh people i love bangladesh culture i love you yar.hossain@yahoo.com or yarelectro@gmail.com hi how areyou brahmanbaria people i hope fine i am yarhossain from brahmanbaria ramrail bangladesh yes power cricse should be solved 2012 i think it will do bal party govt bnp can.t do it this al party did some good need more careful about jamat islami and bnp i love bal party so much more my father also too my all family also fr khan he bron in ramrail my village really so happy brahmanbaria bangladesh
really so happy fr khan big men but he si in ramrail brahmanbaria bangladesh
thanks fr khan
hi how areyou doing yarhossain here from brahmanbaria bangladesh ramrail bangladesh yarhossain here iam bron in ramrail my father name is nazimul hoque abu my grandfather name is abdul gafur monsi chirmen ramrail up fr bron in ramrail bangladesh really happy he bron in ramrail bangladesh
FR Khan is a simle of success, everythings is possible to us as bengali nation all over the world. Great of you Mr. Khan.
Mr. Khan is a pride like our Dr. Yunus but little has been done for him back in Bangladesh to show respect to him. Not even a space has been dedicated to him in BUET.
The pictures of our leaders on this page is appreciable but Zia no way deserves a place before our 4 other national leaders. He is one of the sector commanders and we respect him for this contribution but in no way is his contribution greater than other 4 national leaders who were in politics all their live struggling for our rights. The role of Zia after independence is highly debatable and he is considered as one who betrayed the nation by being one of the conspirators to kill Banagbandhu and other leaders. He rewarded the killers, protected them, established the rajakars, war criminals into state power and politics, killed thousands of freedom fighters, damaged the spirit of our liberation struggle, destroyed the unity of our nation and created BNP with an aim to make Bangladesh a second edition of Pakistan. I would request the publisher to take away Zia’s picture from among our respected national leaders.