Schlaich bergermann partner is a nationally and internationally active structural engineering and consulting firm with headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany and branch offices in Berlin, New York City, São Paulo, Shanghai and Paris. History The firm was founded in 1980 by Jörg Schlaich and Rudolf Bergermann. They both worked as engineers for the engineering firm Leonhardt, Andrä and Partner in Stuttgart in the 1960s and 1970s that was responsible for the design of the canopy roof structure in the 1972 Olympic grounds in Munich, which was viewed as an aesthetic and structural sensation at the time. Since 2002, Knut Göppert, Andreas Keil, Sven Plieninger, and Mike Schlaich are leading the firm, with the addition of Knut Stockhusen in 2015. The firm has achieved national and international renown through the design of light, minimal and innovative structures that combine structural design with architectural aesthetics. Work The main focuses of the office are the conception, planning and supervision of construction work for portions of structural engineering projects, such as membrane, glass, roof and facade structures, bridges and cable structures, towers, high rise buildings, and exhibition halls. Also included is peer reviewing for structural integrity and structural analysis. The firm also has its own department for the development of technologies of solar power generation and employs consulting engineers for renewable energies. The development and construction of a prototype solar up-draft power plant in Manzanares, Spain was achieved by the solar division of the office in 1982. Likewise, the Dish-Stirling modules for decentralized energy generation have been developed since the beginning of the 1980s. Since 2000 the firm has taken part in the planning and construction of parabolic trough power plants. This technology along with the structures developed by schlaich bergermann partner are currently being employed in a multitude of power plants around the world. A significant point in the history of the firm is the Vidyasagar Setu, commonly known as the Second Hooghly Bridge, in Calcutta, India. Local requirements for the construction of the bridge stipulated the utilization of local, not weldable steel, that was then installed by local manpower with much manual labor. Thus huge cross-sections, including the pylon heads, were assembled using millions of rivets and thick plates. For the soccer World Cup in Germany 2006, the Commerzbank-Arena Frankfurt am Main had to be renovated into a new, large-scale sports arena. This necessitated the construction of a mobile roof structure that could