tyler2@uw.edu
Department Profile

Tyler Sprague

Associate Professor, Architecture

Tyler S. Sprague PE., Ph.D. is an Associate Professor in the Department of Architecture, with an Adjunct appointment in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. He holds engineering degrees from the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Washington (UW) and worked professionally as a structural engineer before completing a Ph.D. in architectural history in the College of Built Environments at the UW.

Dr. Sprague’s research investigates the intersection of architecture and structural engineering, in both post-war modern architecture and the present. He has written on the rise of concrete skyscrapers in the Pacific Northwest, the engineering of the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair, and other topics. In 2019, he published Sculpture on a Grand Scale: Jack Christiansen’s Thin Shell Modernism (italicize, and link: https://uwapress.uw.edu/book/9780295745619/sculpture-on-a-grand-scale/) with the University of Washington Press. This text explores Christiansen’s prolific work in thin-shell concrete which culminated in the largest free-standing concrete dome in the world: the Seattle Kingdome.

He currently serves on the board of docomomo wewa (the regional chapter of the international preservation advocacy group), and the Construction History Society of America.

Publications

2018

Sprague, Tyler S. (2018). Jack Christiansen's Cylindrical Concrete Shells. Journal Of The International Association For Shell And Spatial Structures, 59(2), 131 - 140. View Publication

2015

Sprague, Tyler S. (2015). Products Of Place The Era Of Reinforced-concrete Skyscrapers In Seattle, 1921-1931. Pacific Northwest Quarterly, 106(3), 107 - 119. View Publication

2013

Sprague, Tyler S. (2013). Beauty, Versatility, Practicality: The Rise Of Hyperbolic Paraboloids In Post-war America (1950-1962). Construction History-international Journal Of The Construction History Society, 28(1), 165 - 184. View Publication

Chalana, Manish; Sprague, Tyler S. (2013). Beyond Le Corbusier And The Modernist City: Reframing Chandigarh's ‘world Heritage’ Legacy. Planning Perspectives, 28(2), 199 - 222. View Publication

2010

Sprague, Tyler. (2010). Eero Saarinen, Eduardo Catalano And The Influence Of Matthew Nowicki: A Challenge To Form And Function. Nexus Network Journal, 12(2), 249 - 258. View Publication