David Gembala — Reviewing Plans On Site

This photograph shows David Gembala reviewing construction plans on a project site. It is the drawing-set image in this library — the step where a lightweight insulating concrete roof is designed correctly, before a cubic yard of it is placed.

For David Gembala, the plans are where slope, drainage, insulation value, and wind uplift resistance are reconciled against one another and against the code. A commercial roofing executive and co-inventor on three US patents, he reads a roof detail the way an operator reads it — for what will be hard to build and easy to get wrong in the field.

That is the throughline of this whole reference: the roof is decided on paper and on the deck, not chosen from a catalog. This photograph is the one that shows that work directly.