Pelli?s Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, were the tallest buildings in the world from 1998 to 2004. | Shutterstock

?I want to capture the nobility of the tall buildings so that they can share in being sacred elements,? he once said César Pelli?architect of glassy skyscrapers like Kuala Lumpur?s Petronas Towers and San Francisco?s Salesforce Tower?died on July 19. He was 92.
To many architects, a skyscraper is the ultimate dream commission. To Pelli, it was a calling. ?I want to capture the nobility of the tall buildings so that they can share in being sacred elements,? he said in a 2017 interview.
Pelli likened his skyscrapers to the architectural equivalent of Mount Everest: pathways between heaven and earth. And many of them?which often shared a similar visual language of gridded glass facades?appear to do just that. The elegant taper of the 1,070-foot-tall Salesforce Tower is the second tallest building west of the Mississippi; the 1,483-foot-tall Petronas Towers were the tallest buildings in the world from 1998 to 2004 and remain the tallest twin towers in the world; at 50 stories, One Canada Square, in London, is the U.K.?s second tallest building.
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César Pelli.

Born in northern Argentina in 1926, Pelli studied architecture at the National University of Tucumán before moving to the United States to study at the University of Illinois. He worked on staff at Eero Saarinen?s firm for 10 years, contributing ...