[2] His father had thought for him a career as a stonemason but after the advice of a relative, his family supported his education as an architect.

[6] He sometimes visited the cemetery Père Lachaise where he made sketches of the monuments and also attended the coronation of Charles X.

Berri was also a member of Basel-Stadt's Grand Council and its construction commission, and in 1841, he became president of the Verein Schweizerischer Ingenieure und Architekten (SIA; Association of Swiss Engineers and Architects).

He obtained international fame as a neo-classical architect and became honorary doctor of two British architectural associations.

Between the stress he was under as both a builder and an artist, but possibly also due to the constraints of his provincial circumstances, Berri became depressed and killed himself in 1854.