Career
Robertson's engineering career began in 1952, when he graduated from the Berkeley school of civil engineering with a bachelor of science degree and joined Kaiser Engineering. In 1958 he joined the structural and civil engineering firm Worthington and Skilling.
As an "up-and-coming engineer", Robertson was contracted by Worthington, Skilling, Helle, and Jackson (WSHJ) to participate in the design of the World Trade Center Twin Towers (1966–1971), his first high rise construction. In 1973 Robertson was made a partner and WSHJ was renamed Skilling, Helle, Christiansen, Robertson. The firm split its operations in 1982 with Robertson renaming the East Coast office Leslie E. Robertson Associates R.L.L.P.
Robertson's firm participated in the development of a database of basic structural information for the towers of the World Trade Center (WTC1 and 2) for NIST and FEMA and to record the undocumented structural changes that had been made to the buildings after construction began.
Since the collapse of the World Trade Center, debate about the safety of rent-space-maximized designs have engaged the profession, but most would agree that the design of the World Trade Center actually withstood the impact of the plane with enough time to allow many thousands to evacuate safely.
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