ASCE Distinguished Member Edward Cohen, who oversaw the creation of ASCE 7 and shared in ASCE’s 1987 Outstanding Civil Engineering Achievement award for restoration of the Statue of Liberty, has died at 96.
Cohen, P.E., NAE, Dist.M.ASCE, was CEO of Ammann & Whitney in New York City from 1977 through 1996, where he spent the majority of his career, rising from associate engineer starting in 1949. His multitude of high profile projects also included restoration work on the Verrazano Narrows Bridge, the Roebling Delaware Canal Bridge and the U.S. Capitol building.
He contributed to research achievements in bridge, structural, seismic, and hardened design, wind forces, dynamic analysis, ultimate strength and plastic design, restoration of bridges and aesthetics, guyed towers, and shell structures. He served on the member advisory board of the Journal of Resource Management and Technology and lectured on architecture.
With ASCE, Cohen served as first chair of the committee that created ASCE 7: Minimum Design Loads for Buildings and Other Structures, and chaired the former Reinforced Concrete Research Council. His activities included chair of the first ANSI Load Standards Committee, past president of the American Concrete Institute, and membership in the American Consulting Engineers Council, the Institute of Civil Engineers and the New York Academy of Sciences.
Cohen also served as a consultant to the Department of Defense, the Hudson Institute, Rand, and the World Bank, among others. In 1985 he was special adviser to the New York State Centennial Commission for the Statue of Liberty.
