hotel La Concha, in San Juan, Puerto Rico. He was also considered to be an authority on structural failure, and, as a forensic engineer helped to investigate numerous building failures due to natural disasters such as earthquakes and human error in construction or design. Death Salvadori died in Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan, New York City on June 25, 1997 of natural causes, at the age of 90. He was at the time the James Renwick Professor Emeritus of Civil Engineering and Applied Science and Professor of Architecture Emeritus at Columbia. Awards and honors 1953: Wason Medal for Most Meritorious Paper, American Concrete Institute 1991: Pupin Medal, Columbia University, for outstanding service to the nation in architecture and engineering 1993: Hoover Medal, awarded jointly by five engineering societies, American Society of Civil Engineers 1993: Topaz Medallion for Excellence in Architectural Education. American Institute of Architects and Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture; the first engineer ever to receive this award 1996: National Honor Member of Chi Epsilon, the national civil engineering honor society, the 52nd civil engineer to be so honored 1997: Founders Award, National Academy of Engineering Honorary degrees: Columbia University (doctor of science, 1978), New School for Social Research (fine arts, 1991) Works Salvadori was the author of both well-respected textbooks on architectural structures and applied mathematics and books for the lay reader. Among the fifteen titles he wrote are Numerical Methods in Engineering (1953), Structural Design in Architecture (1967), Why Buildings Stand Up (1980), Why Buildings Fall Down (1992), and Why The Earth Quakes (1995). The last two were co-written with Matthys Levy. At least three of his books are classified as for children by the Library of Congress (LCSH). Building: the fight against gravity, illustrated by Saralinda Hooker and Christopher Ragus (Atheneum: Margaret K. McElderry Books, 1979), Earthquake Games: earthquakes and volcanoes explained by 32 games and experiments, Matthys Levy and Salvadori, illus. Christina C. Blatt (McElderry, 1997), Math Games for Middle School: challenges and skill-builders for students at every level, Salvadori and Joseph P. Wright (Chicago Review Press, 1998), Building: the fight against gravity won the annual Boston Globe–Horn Book Award for Nonfiction in 1980. Salvadori is also known for his translation of Leonardo da Vinci's notebooks into English, and of Emily Dickinson's poems into Italian. References External links Mario Salvadori, Architect, Engineer. By Kim Brockway The Salvadori Center: the educational non-profit he established to