Mark Sarkisian

Mark Sarkisian leads the firm-wide structural engineering practice at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) in San Francisco. Over his career, he has engineered more than 100 major projects worldwide, including the Jin Mao Tower in Shanghai, the Al Hamra Tower in Kuwait, and the U.S. Embassy in Beijing.

His work focuses on high-performance seismic design, environmentally responsible structures, and structural innovation. He holds sixteen U.S. and international patents for seismic mechanisms and sustainable building systems. In recognition of his contributions to the field, he was elected to the National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Construction, and received the Fazlur Rahman Khan Life-Cycle Civil Engineering Medal.

Sarkisian teaches integrated design studio courses across the country, encouraging collaboration between architects and engineers at institutions like UC Berkeley, Stanford, Cal Poly, and Pratt Institute. He is the author of Designing Tall Buildings: Structure as Architecture, now in its third edition.