David H. 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.

[1] While an adjunct professor at Columbia University with a part-time engineering practice, Geiger designed the enclosure for the United States pavilion at Expo '70 in Osaka, Japan.

Davis Brody's winning design was a 30-story high air filled "pumpkin" atop the pavilion and they needed an engineer with the expertise to implement it.

To accommodate this severely reduced budget, he drastically cut the proposed height and used a low profile cable-restrained air-supported roof of his own invention,[1] employing a super-elliptical perimeter compression ring and diagonally-run pattern of cables which prevented fabric sag around the edges.

[3] They also went on to produce pioneering designs for a series of low-cost long-span cable, tensile membrane structures including the first tensegrity type dome for the Olympic Gymnastics Venue, Seoul, Korea (which had been inspired by the work of R. Buckminster Fuller[4]), first translucent insulated fabric roof at MNP Community & Sport Centre (originally the Lindsay Park Sports Centre), Calgary, Alberta, Canada, first “permanent” low profile air-supported fabric roof to cover a stadium at the Pontiac Silverdome in Pontiac, Michigan.