Ysrael Abraham Seinuk was a structural engineer who made it possible for many of New York City’s tallest new buildings to withstand wind, gravity and even earthquakes. Born in Havana, Cuba, the only child of Jaime and Sara Seinuk, his father had emigrated from Lithuania, Mr. Seinuk graduated from the University of Havana with a degree in civil engineering in 1954. Within six years he had designed a 700-room hotel in Havana. 

He was soon hired by what was then called Abrams, Hertzberg & Cantor. Ten years later he was promoted to partner and in 1992 was named chief executive of what became the Cantor Seinuk Group. Mr. Seinuk also founded Ysrael A. Seinuk P.C., in 1977, and eventually sold Cantor Seinuk to a British conglomerate. 

His brilliance was the design of high-rise buildings using reinforced concrete as the structural material. Among the many projects that he made structurally possible, were the 70-story Trump World Tower near the United Nations, the 48-story Condé Nast Building in Times Square, the 45-story Bear Stearns headquarters on Madison Avenue, at 46th Street, the 57-story Galleria on 57th Street near Park Avenue, the 51-story New York Palace Hotel on Madison Avenue at 50th Street (formerly the Helmsley Palace Hotel) and the 58-story Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue. Similarly designed projects in other countries include the O-14 office tower in Dubai,a 22- story commercial building, the Kaohsiung Port Terminal in Taiwan, and the Chapultepec Tower, an office building in the most severe seismic zone of Mexico City.

Mr. Seinuk taught structural engineering at New York’s Cooper Union from 1969-2010 and was ranked by Time Magazine as one of the 25 “Most Influential Hispanics in America.”  

Mr. Seinuk died on Sept. 14, 2010, in Manhattan. He was 78 and lived in Forest Hills, Queens.