As most students are probably well aware, the subjects of math and science can seem remote from daily life.
Haven’t most teenagers or middleschoolers questioned at one time or another what practical application calculus, physics, algebra or chemistry will ever have in their lives?
For Robert Selsam, an executive at the real estate investment trust Boston Properties, that was always one of the most compelling aspects about the Salvadori Center, a nonprofit education organization.
The center comes into classrooms and presents students with structural engineering and architectural problems to solve, showing them the key role that some of those otherwise dreaded school subjects play in the design of bridges, tunnels and even gleaming new skyscrapers.
Selsam, who was chairman of the Salvadori Center for seven years, remembers the gratification of watching students latch onto learning when challenged with calculating the square footage of a building, or the load that a bridge can bear or how to draw a blueprint to scale. Their enthusiasm is something Selsam has no trouble relating to; he has had a distinguished career in construction and development.
At Boston Properties, one of the city’s largest landlords, Selsam is manager of the company’s New York office and has played a role in some of its most important and complex projects. He helped oversee the development of the million square foot office towers Five Times Square and Times Square Tower in the early 2000s. More recently he has been involved in building 250 West 55th Street, a state of the art, high-end skyscraper that the company is planning along Eighth Avenue.
Selsam also was the driving force behind a new lobby for 601 Lexington Avenue, the landmark slant-roofed office property that used to be known as the Citigroup Center. For the project, Selsam hired the building’s original architect, the firm KlingStubbins, to design the space, which entailed building a whole new entranceway into the property from Lexington Avenue.
“At the Salvadori Center, we try to make lesson plans that kids can relate to, that make them want to learn math and science and solve problems,” Selsam said. “Sometimes the best learning is when students are so involved in a subject or a project that they don’t even realize they’re learning and that’s the kind of activities we’re trying to create.”
Earlier this year, Selsam stepped down as chair of the center, but will remain active in the organization on its board of directors.
“I just felt it was time,” Selsam said. “Organizations shouldn’t become synonymous with their leaders and their missions are bigger than their chairmen."
Selsam got involved in the Salvadori Center over a decade ago and actually knew Mario Salvadori, the structural engineer who founded the organization, when he was attending Columbia University, where Salvadori was a legendary professor.
“I never had him as a student in the late 60s, but he was larger than life and you couldn’t miss him,” Selsam said.
After graduating from Columbia, Selsam worked for the City Planning Commission for eight years and then the MTA, where he oversaw a number of projects such as the gut overhaul of the Grand Central subway station to improve its layout and capacity.
Selsam moved to Boston Properties and was introduced to the Salvadori Center by a friend, Charles Thornton, one of the founders of the structural engineering firm Thornton Tomasetti.
“We were sailing in Long Island Sound and I told Charles that I had always wanted to sail in the Caribbean and he happened to say that he was going with a group and that I could join them if I would do one thing,” Selsam said. “He was on the board of the Salvadori Center and said that he wanted me to get involved in the organization because it would be something I would be interested in and was helping students.”
Greg Kelly, a president at the civil engineering and infrastructure firm Parson’s Brinckerhoff will succeed Selsam as chairman of the center.
“I know Greg will do well in the position because his enthusiasm reminds me of my own.”