Thomas Leslie is an award-winning architectural historian and Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, available for lectures, keynotes, symposia, and panel discussions. His work spans the history of Chicago architecture, the integration of technology and design, and the careers of major figures, including Louis I. Kahn and Pier Luigi Nervi. He has spoken at universities, museums, architecture schools, and professional organizations across the United States and internationally.
Contact Thomas Leslie to inquire about availability.
Available Talks and Lectures
Chicago Skyscrapers, 1871–1934: Technology, Entrepreneurship, and the Making of a City
From the ashes of the Great Fire to the onset of the Great Depression, Chicago produced some of the most technically ambitious and visually striking buildings in the world. This talk examines how structural innovation, real estate speculation, political maneuvering, and civic ambition combined to create an unprecedented urban landscape — and why Chicago’s early towers still define our understanding of what a skyscraper can be.
Chicago Skyscrapers, 1934–1986: How Technology, Politics, Finance, and Race Remade the Skyline
This lecture draws on Leslie’s second Chicago skyscraper volume (recipient of the Pattis Family Foundation Chicago Book Award), to explore how tall buildings became instruments of urban policy in the postwar city. Tracing the interplay of structural innovation, Daley-era politics, and the city’s racial geography, the talk reveals how architecture both reflected and reshaped Chicago’s neighborhoods, economy, and identity.
Beauty’s Rigor: Patterns of Production in the Work of Pier Luigi Nervi
Pier Luigi Nervi (1891–1979) was one of the twentieth century’s most innovative builder-engineers, whose reinforced concrete structures combined awe-inspiring scale with an almost handmade delicacy. This talk explores the technical processes behind Nervi’s most celebrated works — the Torino Esposizione, Rome’s Palazzetto dello Sport, St. Mary’s Cathedral in San Francisco, the UNESCO headquarters in Paris — and shows how his construction methods generated the extraordinary visual patterns that distinguish his buildings.
Concrete City: Chicago’s Role in Concrete High-Rise Construction
Chicago built seven record-setting concrete skyscrapers between 1957 and 1995, reflecting a century of innovation, collaboration, and achievement by the city’s building industry. How the city became a global center for concrete science and technology reveals connections between Chicago’s business and academic communities. Previously unpublished material on patents, testing, and building histories shows how three generations of researchers, contractors, and designers were able to continuously raise the bar for concrete construction in Chicago, and to export this knowledge globally.
Crossroads of the Air: Chicago’s Airport Architecture, 1920–2000
Chicago’s three major airports — Municipal/Midway, O’Hare, and Meigs Field — were shaped less by singular architectural vision than by legislation, bond issues, and backroom negotiations between airlines, city planners, and politicians. This talk traces the intertwined histories of these enormous infrastructure projects, showing how technology, finance, politics, and urban growth combined to produce buildings and landscapes that serve as fossil records of the city’s complicated twentieth-century history — and how their contested stories extend far beyond the drawing board.
Selected Recent Engagements
Casino Club, Chicago, IL
Structural Engineer’s Association of Illinois
The Skyscraper Museum, New York, NY
University of Illinois, Chicago
Construction History Society (UK), Queens College, Cambridge University
National Building Arts Center
University of Chicago “Physics and Contemporary Architecture” Lecture Series
The Racquet Club, Chicago
Brussels Academy StadtsSalons Urbains series
AIA Chicago
Alliance Française de Chicago, Chicago, IL
Chicago Architecture Center