In 1969 Boyd was working closely with Yoshinobu Ashihara on the Space Tube section of the Australian Pavilion at Expo 70. Boyd has known Ashihara personally since at least since 1966, when the Japanese architect served as visiting professor at the University of New South Wales. Boyd also profiled Ashihara in New Directions in Japanese Architecture (1968). Boyd and Daryl Jackson first met in 1964 when Boyd visited Yale University, after which Jackson became a protege of the older architect; in his letter of introduction Boyd speaks highly of Jackson’s talents. A few months later, he again wrote to Ashihara to introduce Norma Redpath before her visit to Tokyo in 1969.

Norma Redpath (1928-2013) was an key member of the modernist sculptural movement in Melbourne - in his letter to Ashihara, Boyd describes her as Australia’s best. A year earlier, Boyd had commissioned a sculpture from Redpath for the Australian Pavilion at Expo 67 in Montreal.

In 1968, Boyd had a meeting with Peter Stewart, the American developer of Thanksgiving Square in downtown Dallas. He must have been impressed, as he wrote a letter of introduction to the very busy Kenzo Tange for Peter Stewart who was travelling on to Japan. Philip Johnson was eventually commissioned for the job, and Thanksgiving Square opened in 1976.