http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/13/nyregion/john-belle-restoring-new-york-city-landmarks.html 2016-09-12 14:10:41 An Architect Who Built His Career on Resuscitating New York Landmarks John Belle, who died at 84, conveyed a genial joy in bringing back to life the masterworks of his predecessors, including Grand Central Terminal and the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory. === Grand Central Terminal Many hands were responsible. John Belle was the common denominator. Mr. Belle, the retired founding partner of With his death, the city has lost an architect who conveyed a genial joy in resuscitating the masterworks of his predecessors. That made him an appealingly modest figure in a room full of big architectural egos, since he was at his best when his own interventions were least obvious. New York has also lost a link to the intellectual crucible of the 1960s, when “Preservation is one of the highest forms of good citizenship,” Mr. Belle said on For her part, Ms. Jacobs held Beyer Blinder Belle in high regard. “They were looking at the fabric of the community,” she said in an interview John Belle was born on June 30, 1932, in Cardiff, Wales. His father, Arthur, was a clerk at a Lyons tea shop in Cardiff. His mother, Gladys, was a housewife. Mr. Belle received diplomas from the Portsmouth School of Architecture in England and the Architectural Association in London before moving to the United States in 1959. Once in America, Mr. Belle worked for Mr. Belle’s early work included community planning projects in Manhattan. With the addition of The firm attracted wide attention in 1990 with its When the Haupt Conservatory at the botanical garden in the Bronx was restored in 1997, Though critics have faulted Beyer Blinder Belle’s conservatism, it is worth recalling that the firm was associated in 1998 with the daring architect Penn Station was not where Mr. Belle was to win his greatest renown. That was at Grand Central. You almost “The building was divided into turf claimed by different drug dealers,” Mr. Belle and Maxinne R. Leighton wrote in “ In 1990, a design and engineering consortium led by Beyer Blinder Belle began work. Their strategic first strike was to demolish a billboard called the Kodak Colorama, which had blocked daylight into the main concourse for 40 years. “It was as if life were being breathed back into the building,” Mr. Belle and Ms. Leighton wrote. “Many commuters stopped in their tracks, speechless and amazed at the change that had so instantly brought back the majesty of the space.” Their astonishment increased as the concourse ceiling was cleaned by workers on a scaffold that was rolled slowly through the room over a nine-month period. The mud brown sky turned a startling teal, with stars, constellations and zodiac signs popping out in gold-leaf contrast. Besides restoring the past, Beyer Blinder Belle made fundamental changes, too, starting with the construction of an entirely new marble staircase to the east balcony. It echoed, but did not replicate, the ornate western staircase. Some preservationists hated the idea. But the firm prevailed before city and state preservation agencies after it uncovered a plan by the original architects, Warren & Wetmore, that showed a staircase to the east balcony. That proved, Mr. Belle and Ms. Leighton wrote, that the idea “was not an ego-driven ploy to have our personal imprint on the building, but that in fact our goal was to complete the original design.” Mr. Muschamp, the architecture critic, approved. “The new eastern staircase, which threatened to diminish the room’s amplitude, has the opposite effect of magnifying it,” he wrote in 1998, as the $425 million renovation neared completion. He continued, “Even more impressive is the uncovering of the ramps, located just behind the ticket windows, that lead down to the lower level and its fabled Oyster Bar.” “Beyer Blinder Belle’s greatest accomplishment,” Mr. Muschamp said, “has been to reveal that Grand Central is above all Mr. Belle’s first wife, Wendy Adams Belle, an artist and teacher, died in 1974. His second wife, Mr. Belle knew his work would never fully be done. “The act of restoring a building to its original state is only half the battle,” he and Ms. Leighton wrote. “The other half is to guard against its denigration throughout its future existence.”