David Finci was born in 1931 in Sarajevo and died in 2017 in Sonoma, California. He spent most of his life in New York, where he spent most of his professional career. He moved to California when he was already retired. He arrived in New York at the age of 35, in mid-1966, as a young architect and assistant professor at the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Sarajevo. There were only a few, but important, accomplishments behind him in Yugoslavia.
Coming to New York was provisional at first since it was a one-year scholarship: "The Faculty Council granted me a year off to practice at a large architectural firm, Eggers and Higgins, where I worked as a principal designer on various projects including a sports center, a school complex, a mental health center and a hospital." That year, however, turned into a life-long destiny. At the end of the year, David Eggers, one of the owners and partners, sends a letter to the Faculty of Architecture in Sarajevo asking the authorities to extend Finn's stay at his firm. Finci thus became a Design Principal at the Eggers Group from 1966 to 1994 and from 1994 to 2003 at the Hillier Group. The Eggers and Higgins became the Eggers Group in 1976 and later merged into the Hillier Group. So Finci actually spent his American career at the same company. In Yugoslavia he no longer worked professionally.
The New York years and work in a large architectural office were also marked by considerable production. He quickly accomplished major projects such as the campus of Nassau Community College in New York and the University of Medicine and Dentistry in Newark. He also built a number of sports facilities and built them for prestigious facilities, such as the West Point American Military Academy or the University of Columbia. He especially designed sports arenas and swimming pools.
In addition to his projects in Croatia, his oeuvre highlights projects for the Marshall University Sports Hall in Huntington, West Virginia, the Morris College Basin in Randolph, New Jersey, and the non-completed Indiana University Skating Rink in Bloomington.
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