The story
History
In 1968 while David Geiger was an adjunct professor at Columbia University with a part-time practice, he was contacted by Davis-Brody, a New York architectural firm. With their design of a 30-story tall, air-supported fabric structure, Davis-Brody had won the design competition for the U.S. exhibition hall at Expo '70 in Osaka, Japan. They needed a structural engineer with the expertise to implement their design and they turned to Dr. Geiger. In order to meet the lower than expected budget passed by Congress, Geiger changed the design and invented the low profile cable-restrained air-supported roof. The success of the Osaka Pavilion led to a surge in the design and construction of air-supported roofs.
During the Osaka project, Horst Berger joined Geiger and their firm became Geiger Berger Associates which remained central to the new-found interest in utilizing air-supported roofs. Eight stadia were built with air-supported roofs in the U.S. during the 1970s and early 1980s with Geiger Berger Associates as the structural engineers for all of them.
As important as the air-supported roof projects, was Geiger Berger's work in pioneering long-span cable, tensile membrane, and tensegrity structures. Among the notable structures engineered by Geiger Berger are the tensile membrane Hajj Terminal which in 2010 won the AIA 25-Year Award; the first tensegrity type dome which was built for the Olympic Gymnastics Venue in Seoul, Korea; and the world's first translucent insulated fabric roof for the Talisman Centre (now the MNP Community & Sport Centre), in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. In addition, Geiger Berger was involved in the development of structural fabric materials such as Teflon PTFE coated fiberglass.
By the early 1980s, the partnership between David Geiger and Horst Berger began to break apart and in 1983 Geiger Berger Associates again became Geiger Associates upon the departure of Berger. Geiger Associates was bought by KKBN in 1986. In 1988, the year before he died, David Geiger and his associates Kris Hamilton, David Chen, Paul Gossen, David Campbell, and Mike Liao founded Geiger Engineers with a group of other former colleagues from Geiger Associates.
Entertainment and recreation projects
Brooklyn Mirage, outdoor live music venue, Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
Metropolitan Museum of Art, About Time: Fashion and Duration Installation, New York, New York, U.S.
MGM National Harbor, Seasonal Decor Installations, Oxon Hill, Maryland, U.S.
Centerhung LED Scoreboard (Main Videoboard), Golden1 Center, Sacramento, California, U.S.
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Sami Family Amphitheater, Zoo Miami, Miami, Florida, U.S.
Lyric Theater, modular stage apron, New York, New York, U.S.
Marvel Experience, touring interactive show in air-inflated domes, various cities, U.S.
NBC's Million Second Quiz, prime-time outdoor stage structure and set, New York, New York, U.S.
150th Cinco de Mayo Celebration outdoor stage and set, Puebla, Puebla, Mexico
Halo for 2011 Pan American Games Opening Ceremonies, Omnilife Stadium, Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico
Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, New York, New York, U.S.
Stage Lifts, Le Rêve's "aqua" theater, Wynn Casino, Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S.
Aria Pool Deck Structures, Aria Resort & Casino, Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S.
Conference Table in the Sky, Butler Amusements, Fairfield, California, U.S.
Large onstage tilting turntable for LA Opera, Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Wrestlemania XXVI, Phoenix, Arizona, U.S.
Wrestlemania XXIV, Orlando, Florida, U.S.
From Wikipedia’s article on Geiger Engineers, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3