Minoru Yamasaki was a well-known American architect. He was born in 1912 in Seattle, Washington. His parents came from Japan. Minoru went to college to study architecture. Every summer he worked in a fish factory to help pay for college. Often he worked from four o'lock in the morning until midnight. He slept in a room with 100 other men. Later in life, Yamasaki remembered these times and was always good to his workers.

　　Yamasaki sometimes dreamed about his work. Once he woke up at three o'lock in the morning. He remembered a building that was in his dream. He got up and started to draw. Yamasaki used a new design for the buildings. These buildings are now the Century Plaza Hotel and Tower in Los Angeles, California.

　　Yamasaki was different from other architects. His buildings give people a feeling of peace and happiness. Many of his designs have pools of water, flowers, and windows on the roof to let in light. He always designed buildings to please people. He wanted to give them a place away from the busy ways of modern life.

　　Yamasaki worked for several companies. But his success began when he started his own company. In 1956, he won the Architect's First Honor Award for his design of an airport in St. Louis, Missouri. He won two more awards over the next five years. In 1962, he designed the World Trade Center in New York. It is very famous.

　　In 1993, a bomb exploded in the World Trade Center. But the buildings did not fall down because they had a good design. Yamasaki had strong opinions about his buildings. They had to be built his way. He refused to change the design of his buildings, even if he lost a job.

　　Minoru Yamasaki died in 1986. He designed more than 300 buildings. People will enjoy the design and beauty of his buildings for a very long time.