5
Jeff Osborne from Knoll International gave 
me an opportunity to develop some furniture 
designs and move back to New York after seven 
years in Europe. I was able to continue design 
consulting with Peter Rice at the same time while 
developing my own practice designing long-span 
fabric structures.
It was during a slowdown in consulting work 
that I met Israel Berger. Israel was leading a 
small curtain wall consulting team at the World 
Financial Center that specialized in inspections 
and testing of building envelopes and offered 
me a job. Although this did not fit my ideal job 
description at the time, I could see that he was 
on to something that would give me exposure 
to multiple large-scale architectural projects and 
their architects. It was our collaborations over 
the past thirty years that have made this book 
possible.
A significant impetus to the growth of Israel 
Berger and Associates (IBA) was the support 
of Cesar Pelli, architect of the World Financial 
Center and other large commercial projects as 
well as Dean of Yale’s School of Architecture. I 
became the building envelope design consultant 
for many of Cesar’s projects including the 
Petronas Towers, Hong Kong IFC 2, Segerstrom 
Arts Center, Minneapolis Central Library and 
many others. Sketches for these projects make 
up a large portion of this book.
I also have to thank the other 47 architectural 
firms whose work is reflected in this book. 
Many have been repeat customers for building 
envelope consulting services. Remarkably, one 
of these recently was Renzo Piano Building 
Workshop for the Columbia University’s 
Manhattanville campus. It was a pleasure to work 
with Renzo and his team at their offices in Paris, 
New York and Genoa forty years after he hired 
me in Paris.
Finally I want to thank Marc Weissbach, who has 
transformed IBA into Vidaris, a multidisciplinary 
A/E consulting firm specializing not only in 
Building Envelope Design but also including 
services in energy, testing and sustainability. I 
have been fortunate in my association with IBA 
and Vidaris as a principal over the last several 
decades as this collaboration has afforded me 
the opportunity to join their mission/business 
model as consultants supporting architects and 
helping to realize their visions.
Thanks to all who directly or indirectly made this 
book possible.

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