Matthys Levy is the designer of many iconic buildings and other structures throughout the world, and author of several books. His previous books include the best-selling classic Why Buildings Fall Down , which established his public reputation for expertise on the causes of major structural failures, including the collapse of the World Trade Center towers on 9/11. He also wrote (or in some cases co-authored) Structual Designs in Architecture, Why the Earth Quakes, Why the Wind Blows, Earthquake Games, and Engineering in the City. Building Eden is Levy's first novel, a thriller with subject matter he is intimately familiar with, the design and construction of major buildings in New York City, and the many things that can go wrong. New York structures he has designed and supervised include the Javits Convention Center, the Rose Center for Earth and Space at the American Museum of Natural History, and the Marriott Marquis Hotel. He emphasizes that the book and all of his characters are ficticious, and that any similarity to prominent people in the news "is purely coincidental." Levy currently resides in Burlington, Vermont.