Pier Luigi Nervi (Sondrio, June 21st 1891 – Rome, January 9th 1979) was both designer and constructor, and he blended the art and science of building using reinforced concrete. In the majority of his projects Nervi remained faithful to conventional reinforced concrete – a material that can be easily molded and is resistant to both compression and tension – while limiting the use of prestressed concrete.
Nervi based his work on sound design and construction experience and on an intelligent intuitiveness, with a permanent intense attention to the relationships between structure and shape. This creates a kind of general expressivity in which every part of the structure is designed precisely according to the internal forces to which it is subject, and the role it plays is clearly demonstrated in the overall project.
Pier Luigi Nervi under the Viaduct of Corso Francia, Rome, ca. 1960, photo Oscar Savio
Nervi’s first magnificent works were a stadium built in Florence in 1930 and a series of hangars with an area of 4,000 sqm each, built between 1935 and 1940. After the war Nervi designs and builds some of his most relevant works for industrial and civil buildings (the Pirelli skyscraper in Milan with Gio Ponti, the Papal Audience Hall in the Vatican), exhibition halls and sport structures, in particular in connection with the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome.
Since the fifties Nervi becomes the most important Italian designer at the international level with works in Europe (the Unesco headquarters in Paris), North and South America (the George Washington bus terminal in New York, St. Mary Cathedral in San Francisco, the Stock Exchange Tower in Montreal, the Italian Embassy in Brasilia, etc.), and in Australia (Australia Tower in Sidney). In 2010 on the thirtieth anniversary of his death, Pier Luigi Nervi is celebrated with an international itinerant exhibition (Bruxelles, Venice, Rome, Turin). Source by pierluiginervi.org.
Pier Luigi Nervi under the Viaduct of Corso Francia, Rome, ca. 1960, photo Oscar Savio 
Stadium in Florence (1930) 
Pirelli skyscraper in Milan with Gio Ponti 
Unesco headquarters in Paris (1950) in collaborating with Marcel Breuer and Bernard Zehrfuss 
Paul VI Audience Hall, Vatican City (1971) 
Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Assumption, San Francisco, California (1967) in collaborating with Pietro Belluschi