Jaroslav Josef Polívka

Jaroslav Josef Polivka (20 April 1886 – 9 February 1960), Czech structural engineer who collaborated with Frank Lloyd Wright between 1946 and 1959.

Polivka became an expert in photo-elastic stress analysis, a technique that examines small-scale transparent models in polarized light.

In 1939 Polivka immigrated to the United States and took a position as research associate and lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley.

Polivka with his son Milos translated into English Eduardo Torroja’s ‘Philosophy of Structures’ book published in 1958.

They worked on a total of seven projects, two of which were built: the Johnson Wax Research Tower, 1946–1951 at Racine Wisconsin and the Guggenheim Museum, 1946–1959 in New York City for which Polivka managed to design out the gallery ramp perimeter columns initially required.