The two architects won the contract to design the 1939-40 New York World's Fair; and in 1939 engineer John O. Merrill joined the firm as partner. The name was changed to Skidmore, Owings &amp; Merrill and the firm's operations were decentralized. Owings's initial responsibilities centered on the Chicago office. Skidmore worked in New York. Owings and Skidmore had learned the hard way that they just couldn't get along together. The partners' dysfunctional relationship could have doomed the firm, but SOM flourished, despite, or maybe because of, simmering distrust.