Sergius Ivan Chermayeff (1900) Architect

Ivan Chermayeff was an architect born in Russia and later worked in England. From 1946 to 1951 he was director of the Institute of Design in Chicago. He designed many office and exhibition buildings.

Most famous realizations
Office and factory buildings for Gilbey's in Camden Town.
B.B.C Studio.
De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill-on-Sea (1935) togheter with Eric Mendelsohn.

William Le Baron Jenny (1823-1907) Architect

William was an American architect and was a founder of the new American architecture. He was one of the first who applied steel frames in buildings. Just as the French engineer Gustave Eiffel (designer of the Eiffel Tower and the Statue of Liberty), who also lived in that period. William had many students and followers. His architectural direction is known as the 'Chicago School'.

Known projects
Home Insurance Building in Chicago (1884-1886).
Tacoma Building in Chicago (1889).
Brewster Building in Chicago,
Apartment buildings and skycrapers in Queens Plaza North, Long Island City, Queens, New York (1890).

Abrams D. A.

This was an American professor, researcher and director of the research laboratory for building in Chicago. He performed pioneering work in the field of compositions for mortar. He found the concepts fineness modulus and water-cement ratio.

He also invented the 'cone of Abrams' from which you can determine how tightly or how tight the freshly made concrete mix is right. In other words, with this conical surface, he was able to measure the plasticity of the concrete mix.

Further he did screening tests and other proofs.

Among the fineness modulus means
All mineral mixtures with a similar modulus of fineness require the same amount of mixing water in order to obtain a certain plasticity (fluidity), if the cement content per cubic meter of concrete is the same and the aggregates are similar.

By adding additives, with a certain quantity of cement to be incorporated, a mixture can be found with such a fineness modulus, the less water that is required to achieve a certain degree of plasticity than any other blend. This mixture has then the ideal fineness modulus.