Geiger Engineers
Geiger Engineers is a structural engineering consulting firm located northwest of New York City. Founded in 1988 by David H. Geiger, the company has worked on large projects throughout the world. Building from a solid foundation in long span and tensile membrane structures, Geiger Engineers has branched out over the years into a range of specialties from designing sports facilities to providing engineering services for the entertainment industry.
Recent high-profile projects include the new retractable roof on the USTA's Arthur Ashe Stadium, the new roof for BC Place Stadium in Vancouver, Canada, and the Flushing Meadows Corona Park Pool and Rink in Queens, New York which won the national 2009 AISC Ideas2 Award for Innovative Design in Engineering and Architecture with Structural Steel.
In addition to providing a wide range of engineering services, Geiger Engineers continues to be involved in industry innovations. For example, in 2008 it was announced that the new Tensotherm composite fabric with Lumira aerogel would be used for the first time on the Dedmon Athletic Center’s new roof. “Working with Cabot and Geiger Engineers, we now have… long-wearing insulated light transmissive fabric system that…meets performance standards and… higher energy-efficiency.” More recently, Geiger has developed a nonlinear bearing for large movable structures such as retractable roofs. This nonlinear bearing is an improvement on the commonly used linear bearing in that it is able to combine rotation and translation in varying ways thereby giving structural designers greater flexibility.
History
In 1968 while an adjunct professor at Columbia University David Geiger 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.After Osaka, Geiger founded Geiger Berger Associates with Horst Berger and the firm 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, Calgary. 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 was dissolved. Geiger then founded Geiger Associates which was bought by KKBN in 1986. In 1988, the year before he died, David Geiger helped found Geiger Engineers with a group of former colleagues from Geiger Associates.
Notable Projects
Sports facilities and convention centers
- New Louis Armstrong Stadium, USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, Queens, New York, USA
- U.S. Bank Stadium - Snow Catchment Walls, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
- Flushing Meadows-Corona Park Pool and Rink, Queens, New York, USA
- TD Arena, College of Charleston, Charleston, South Carolina, USA
- Athletic and Wellness Center, SUNY at New Paltz, New Paltz, New York, USA
- Resch Center Arena, Green Bay, Wisconsin, USA
- Xcel Energy Center, St. Paul, Minnesota, USA
- PNC Arena, Raleigh, NC, USA
- Verizon Arena, Little Rock, Arkansas, USA
- Bon Secours Wellness Arena, Greenville, South Carolina, USA
- Icahn Stadium, Randall's Island, New York, New York, USA
- Myao Li Arena, Myao Li County, Taiwan, R.O.C.
Renovations and expansions
- Arthur Ashe Stadium, New Retractable Roof, USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, Queens, New York, USA
- BC Place Stadium Revitalization, New Roof, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
- Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome Roof Replacement, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
- Canada Harbour Place, Fabric Roof Replacement, British Columbia Trade & Convention Centre, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
- Dedmon Center Roof Replacement, Radford University, Radford, Virginia, USA
- Littlejohn Coliseum Renovation, Clemson University, Clemson, South Carolina, USA
- Purcell Pavilion at the Joyce Center, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana, USA
- USTA National Tennis Center, Stadium 3 Renovation, Queens, New York, USA
Entertainment and recreation projects
- Centerhung LED Scoreboard, Golden1 Center, Sacramento, California, USA
- Sami Family Amphitheater, Zoo Miami, Miami, Florida, USA
- Lyric Theater, modular stage apron, New York, New York, USA
- Marvel Experience, touring interactive show in air-inflated domes, various cities, USA
- NBC's Million Second Quiz, prime-time outdoor stage structure and set, New York, New York, USA
- 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
- , New York, New York, USA
- Stage Lifts, Le Rêve's "aqua" theater, Wynn Casino, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
- Aria Pool Deck Structures, Aria Resort & Casino, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
- Conference Table in the Sky, Butler Amusements, Fairfield, California, USA
- Large onstage tilting turntable for LA Opera, Los Angeles, California, USA
- Wrestlemania XXVI, Phoenix, Arizona, USA
- Wrestlemania XXIV, Orlando, Florida, USA
Tensile Membrane
- Honolulu Rail Transit, Station Canopies, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA
- Raleigh-Durham International Airport, Parking Structures, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
- Jacobs Pavilion, Nautica Entertainment Complex, Cleveland, Ohio, USA
- Florida Festival Seaworld, Orlando, Florida, USA
- Gran Telescopio Milimetrico Alfonso Serrano, Cupula Rotatario, Cerro La Negra, Puebla, Mexico
- Hajj Terminal at New Jeddah International Airport, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
- Ja-Yi Sports Gymnasium, Ja-Yi, Taiwan, R.O.C.
- Canada Harbour Place, Exhibit Hall Roof, British Columbia Trade & Convention Centre, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
- 2002 World Cup Main Stadium, Seoul, Korea
- Dean Smith Center, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA
Domes (primarily as Geiger Berger Associates)
- 1988 Summer Olympics venues in Seoul, Korea
- BC Place, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
- Carrier Dome, Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York, USA
- Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
- Talisman Centre, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
- RCA Dome, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA
- Redbird Arena, Normal, Illinois, USA
- UNI-Dome, Cedar Falls, Iowa, USA
- Silverdome, Pontiac, Michigan, USA
- Stephen C. O'Connell Center or the O'Dome, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, USA
- Tokyo Dome, Tokyo, Japan
- Tropicana Field, St. Petersburg, Florida, USA