Nicholas Forell
structural engineer
Nicholas F. Forell (1923 – February 19, 1998) was a structural engineer and a leading authority in the development of modern earthquake safety design. He was a founder and former president of the San Francisco firm Forell/Elsesser Engineers.
Early life
Nicholas was born in Züllichau, Germany, in 1923. In 1941, he immigrated to the United States and began living in New York City.
Military service
After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Nicholas joined the United States Army in 1942, and was assigned to the Signal Corps (United States Army)' Heavy Construction Battalion operating with British troops in Myanmar.
Education
Following the war, Nicholas was offered admission to the engineering program at Brown University, and he graduated in 1949. Shortly after graduation, he moved to San Francisco to begin his career at Sverdrup & Parcel.
Notable projects
Pacific Gas & Electric Headquarters seismic retrofit
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art structural design
Berkeley Civic Center seismic retrofit
Utah State Capitol historic seismic retrofits
W. M. Keck Observatory structural design
Published works
"Developments in earthquake design codes", 1981
"Mexico earthquakes : Oaxaca - November 29, 1978, Guerrero", 1979
Personal life
Married to Carol Forell.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Nicholas Forell” as structural engineer. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as structural engineer. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 3, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q20737728. The first chronological checks are 1923, 1998, 1941 and 1942.
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This entry incorporates text from “Nicholas Forell” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.