DETROIT - "Minoru Yamasaki's Search for Fusion: Tranquility and Delight" will be held from 7 to 8 p.m. Wednesday, May 25, 2011, in the Helen L. DeRoy Auditorium at Wayne State University. The lecture, hosted by WSU's Office of the Vice President for Research and the Yamasaki Lectures Committee, is free and open to the public.

Henry Guthard, a founding member of Yamasaki Associates Inc., will deliver the lecture. Guthart has four decades of experience as a design engineer, director of engineering, and director of projects management. He was appointed by Yamasaki to serve as business manager of the original New York World Trade Center project. He specializes in the graceful blending of structural, mechanical and electrical engineering systems into the architectural concepts of Yamasaki buildings worldwide.

Guthard's presentation will focus on the character of architect Minoru Yamasaki and his mission to develop a new American aesthetic; the influences which affected his designs; his triumphs and heartbreaks; his works at Wayne State University; and his ultimate rise to rank among the world's most celebrated twentieth-century modernists.

The lecture will be illustrated with photography by Balthazar Korab, an internationally renowned Detroit-based photographer who specializes in architectural and landscape photography.

This event is free; registration is requested. To register, visit http://events.wayne.edu/rsvp/yamasaki-lecture-minoru-yamasaki-s-search-for-fusion-tranquility-and-deligh.

Wayne State University is one of the nation's pre-eminent public research universities in an urban setting. Through its multidisciplinary approach to research and education, and its ongoing collaboration with government, industry and other institutions, the university seeks to enhance economic growth and improve the quality of life in the city of Detroit, state of Michigan and throughout the world. For more information about research at Wayne State University, visit http://www.research.wayne.edu.