A comment on my posting on the 24th, “A Swiss thread in Paris”, about a handsome Zwicky & Co. building on the Boulevard de Sébastopol in Paris:
The building was used as sales office for Zwicky [silk] sewing threads until 2000 and is still owned by the Zwicky Family.
This from one Peter Zwicky, from a Swiss e-mail address. Now, there are great many Peter Zwickys in Switzerland, a fair number just in the Zürich area alone — one of whom (cellist Peter, son of Conrad) I’ve mentioned in passing in postings on this blog. (Zürich is relevant because the headquarters of the Zwicky sewing thread company are in Wallisellen, in Canton Zürich not far (about 5.5 miles) from the city.) I thought this might be that Peter, but no, he’s an executive in the silk-thread Zwicky & Co.
In gathering information about Silk PZ (as opposed to Cello PZ), I came across another notable Züricher PZ, an earthquake specialist in a Zürich firm of consuting engineers — Earthquake PZ for short.
Then, as an unexpected bonus, it turns out that one of Silk PZ’s daughters is the Joëlle Zwicky (of IWC, the International Watch Company in Schaffhausen, Switzerland) that I posted about on 6/6/18, in “Swiss watchmakers”.
Silk PZ. Background: posters on the silk-thread company before the one on the 24th:
on 9/12/17, “Cat on a silken thread”: the Zwicky thread company and its new site (specializing in construction and real estate)
on 6/19/18, “A silk thread”: the company (founded in 1840) and its posters
On Silk PZ (information mostly from e-mail with him), Peter Ernst Zwicky: born 12/28/53, the son of Dieter Zwicky (1926-88), who was the owner and CEO of Zwicky & Co sewing threads for some years; married to Catherine R.S. Borgeat, with four daughters, including Joëlle, born in 1984.
(#1)
On his father’s death, PZ led the company until it merged its thread part with its German competitor Gütermann in 2000. He acted as CEO of the combined group until retiring two years ago. He also oversaw — and still does — the remaining part of the Zwicky company transformed into a real estate group (see my 9/12/17 posting).
(#2) A recent poster for the company (Nähseide ‘silk thread’)
Earthquake PZ. From the site of Basler & Hofmann, Consulting Engineers, in Zürich, about Senior Technical Consultant Peter Zwicky:
(#3)
When Peter Zwicky joined Basler & Hofmann in 1978 following his graduation from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich, he set off in a new direction right from the beginning. Earthquake engineering was just becoming established as a young discipline that was essential to safety in Switzerland, especially in the context of the new nuclear power plant buildings. Peter Zwicky led numerous analytical and metrological studies for major buildings and infrastructure projects, and also specialised in structural-dynamics problems as a test engineer for the Swiss Federal Nuclear Safety Inspectorate ENSI supervisory authority. At Basler & Hofmann, the experienced earthquake specialist is also an expert in the Safety and Security department.
Cello PZ. The youngest of this set of three, he’s been mentioned twice on this blog:
on 11/27/17, in “The two Salome Zwickys of Zürich”: mention of cellist Peter Zwicky, son of Conrad Z . and step-son of Salome Z.
on 12/9/17, in “Revisiting 15: Salome, Conrad, and more Zs: musical Zs — Conrad’s sons Stefan (a pianist. also pilot) and Peter (a cellist, also teacher of English and history), Salome and Conrad’s son Benjamin (a pianist, also a pilot)
Cello PZ in photos:
(#4) PZ on the cello
(#5) PZ with his sons (from his Facebook page)
(#6) PZ: motorcycles in a stunning mountain setting (from his Facebook page)
PZ is serious about his motorcycles and mountain bikes.
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