Horst Berger (1928-2019)Gretchen (Gay) Smart Berger
friendsjournal.org was a structural

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...

and designer known for his work with lightweight

tensile architecture A tensile structure is a construction of elements carrying only tension and no compression or bending. The term ''tensile'' should not be confused with tensegrity, which is a structural form with both tension and compression elements. Tensile st ...

. After receiving a degree in Civil Engineering in 1954 from Stuttgart University in

Stuttgart, Germany Stuttgart (; Swabian German, Swabian: ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fe ...

, he began working in 1955 at the Bridge and Special Structures Department of Wayss and Freitag in

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...

. In 1960, he joined Severud Associates in New York city and worked on projects such as the St. Louis Arch, Madison Square Garden, and Toronto City Hall. After forming Geiger Berger Associates in 1968 with air supported roof inventor

David Geiger David H. Geiger (1935 – October 3, 1989) was an American engineer who invented the air-supported fabric roof system that at the time of his death was in use at almost half the domed stadiums in the world. Geiger was born in Philadelphia, Pennsy ...

, the firm gained international recognition for its incorporation of lightweight

fabric structure A fabric structure is a structure made of fabric, with or without a structural frame. The technology provides end users a variety of aesthetic free-form building designs. Custom-made structures are engineered and fabricated to meet worldwide struc ...

s into permanent architectural designs. During his time at Geiger Berger Associates, Horst Berger had the challenge of engineering the roof designed by architect

Fazlur Rahman Khan Fazlur Rahman Khan ( bn, ফজলুর রহমান খান, ''Fozlur Rôhman Khan''; 3 April 1929 – 27 March 1982) was a Bangladeshi-American structural engineer and architect, who initiated important structural systems for skyscrape ...

Skidmore, Owings and Merrill Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) is an American architectural, urban planning and engineering firm. It was founded in 1936 by Louis Skidmore and Nathaniel A. Owings, Nathaniel Owings in Chicago, Illinois. In 1939, they were joined by engineer Jo ...

for the Haj Terminal at the Jeddah Airport. This tensile fabric structure consists of 210 roof units contained in ten modules that are supported on steel pylons. In 1990 Horst Berger was asked to create a tensile fabric roof for the

Denver International Airport Denver International Airport , locally known as DIA, is an international airport in the Western United States, primarily serving metropolitan Denver, Colorado, as well as the greater Front Range Urban Corridor. At , it is the largest airport in ...

. Challenges of snow loading and attaching the rigid walls to the fabric roof made it one of Berger’s toughest projects. The unique design with the roofing structure gave the terminal a more spacious layout. Berger, H. (1996). Light Structures, Structures of Light - the art and engineering of tensile architecture. Boston: Birkhauser

In 1990 he became a professor at the School of Architecture of the

City College of New York The City College of the City University of New York (also known as the City College of New York, or simply City College or CCNY) is a public university within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York City. Founded in 1847, Cit ...

. While studying and working in New York, Berger married an American woman Gretchen (Gay) Smart. They had four children, Ralf, Susie, Paul and Barbara; Barbara died in 2011, aged 53.

Principal Works Include

*Hajj terminal, King Abdul Aziz International Airport, Jeddah,

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...

*King Fahd International Stadium, Riyadh,

*Seaworld Pavilion,

San Diego, California San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United States ...

*San Diego Convention Center,

*Wimbledon Tennis Arena,

Wimbledon, London Wimbledon () is a district and town of Southwest London, England, southwest of the centre of London at Charing Cross; it is the main commercial centre of the London Borough of Merton. Wimbledon had a population of 68,187 in 2011 which includes ...

, United Kingdom *Great Hall, Alexandra,

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, United Kingdom *Shoreline Amphitheater, Mountain View, California *Whale Pool Enclosure for the

New York Aquarium The New York Aquarium is the oldest continually operating aquarium in the United States, located on the Riegelmann Boardwalk in Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York City. It was founded at Castle Garden in Battery Park, Manhattan in 1896, and moved ...

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

, Colorado *Eilat Performing Arts Center, Elat,

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

*Metrodome, Minneapolis

Principal Works Include

References

See also