Jaroslav Josef Polivka (20 April 1886 – 9 February 1960), Czech structural engineer who collaborated with

Frank Lloyd Wright Frank Lloyd Wright (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key role in the architectural movements o ...

between 1946 and 1959. Jaroslav Josef Polivka a.k.a. J. J. Polivka Civil Engineer was born in

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...

in 1886. He received his undergraduate degree in

structural engineering Structural engineering is a sub-discipline of civil engineering in which structural engineers are trained to design the 'bones and muscles' that create the form and shape of man-made structures. Structural engineers also must understand and cal ...

at the College of Technology in

in 1909. He then studied at the

Federal Polytechnic Institute (colloquially) , former_name = eidgenössische polytechnische Schule , image = ETHZ.JPG , image_size = , established = , type = Public , budget = CHF 1.896 billion (2021) , rector = Günther Dissertori , president = Joël Mesot , a ...

in Zurich, Switzerland and at the

Institute of Technology, where he earned a doctoral degree in 1917. After serving in

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, he opened his own architectural and engineering office in

and developed his skills in stress analysis of reinforced concrete, pre-stressed reinforced concrete and steel structures. Polivka became an expert in photo-elastic stress analysis, a technique that examines small-scale transparent models in polarized light. In

Polivka worked together with avant-garde Czech architect Josef Havlíček on the Habich Building (1927–28) and Chicago Building (1927–28). Polivka designed the structural frame of the Czech Pavilion at the

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International Exhibition of 1937 collaborating with renown Czech architect,

Jaromír Krejcar (25 July 1895, Hundsheim, Austria – 5 October 1950, London) was a Czech functionalistic architect, student of Jan Kotěra and member of Devětsil. He collaborated with Czech structural engineer, Dr. Jaroslav Josef Polivka on the internation ...

and Czech engineer René Wiesner. Two years later, he worked with Czech architect Kamil Roškot to design another Czech Pavilion at the 1939 New York World's Fair. In 1939 Polivka immigrated to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

and took a position as research associate and lecturer at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

. In 1941, he and Victor di Suvero co-invented a structural design technique that received a patent for improvements in structures. Polivka with his son Milos translated into English Eduardo Torroja’s ‘Philosophy of Structures’ book published in 1958. Podolsky most

In 1946 Polivka began to work with

collaborating on several major projects until Wright's death in 1959. For Wright's projects Polivka performed stress analyses and investigations of specific building materials. They worked on a total of seven projects, two of which were built: the Johnson Wax Research Tower, 1946–1951 at

Racine Jean-Baptiste Racine ( , ) (; 22 December 163921 April 1699) was a French dramatist, one of the three great playwrights of 17th-century France, along with Molière and Corneille as well as an important literary figure in the Western traditi ...

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and the

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, 1946–1959 in

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for which Polivka managed to design out the gallery ramp perimeter columns initially required.Jaroslav J. Polivka, 'What it's Like to Work with Wright' in Their other well-known design proposal was the reinforced concrete Butterfly Bridge (proposed at a world record span of 1000-ft )at the

Southern Crossing The Southern Crossing is a tramping track in New Zealand's Tararua Range. The track is approximately long and typically takes two to three days to complete. It begins in Ōtaki Forks in the west, and continues over Mount Hector finishing in ...

of the San Francisco Bay (1949–52). Polivka performed the

photoelasticity Photoelasticity describes changes in the optical properties of a material under mechanical deformation. It is a property of all dielectric media and is often used to experimentally determine the stress distribution in a material, where it gives ...

for the Podolsko Bridge is an arch bridge that spans the Vltava between Podolsko and Temešvár in Písek District, Czech Republic. At the time of its completion in 1943, it was the longest arch bridge in Czechoslovakia. He died in

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and E ...

References

* * * *"Contractor Meets Close Design Tolerances in Building Long-Span Concrete Arch Bridge" J. J. Polivka, ''Civil Engineering'', ASCE

American Society of Civil Engineers American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

January 1949

External links

Polivka archives
at

University at Buffalo, The State University of New York The State University of New York at Buffalo, commonly called the University at Buffalo (UB) and sometimes called SUNY Buffalo, is a public research university with campuses in Buffalo and Amherst, New York. The university was founded in 1846 ...

University of California Berkeley
{{DEFAULTSORT:Polivka, Jaroslav Josef Structural engineers Engineers from Prague 1886 births 1960 deaths Frank Lloyd Wright ETH Zurich alumni UC Berkeley College of Engineering faculty Czechoslovak engineers Austro-Hungarian expatriates in Switzerland Czechoslovak emigrants to the United States