Hyman Myers, longtime award-winning architect and prolific historic preservationist, has died at 81

Hyman Myers, 81, of Merion Station, longtime award-winning architect at Vitetta Architects & Engineers, prolific historic preservationist, Philadelphia scholar, lecturer, and teacher at the University of Pennsylvania, died Monday, Oct. 17, of respiratory failure at Lankenau Medical Center.

A passionate expert on all things Victorian, especially Philadelphia architect Frank Furness, Mr. Myers took part in more than 350 renovations of historic sites and beloved buildings around the United States. Over more than four decades, he restored dozens of properties on the National Register of Historic Places and many national, state, and local landmarks.

A deep thinker who championed big ideas, he told the Daily News in 1988 that one of his favorite quotes was Daniel Burnham’s “Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir men’s blood and probably will not themselves be realized.”

In Philadelphia, he labored on City Hall, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Academy of Music, Bellevue Stratford Hotel, Independence Hall, and other notable sites. He restored the Pennsylvania State Capitol in Harrisburg, and, especially adept at museum planning and design, refurbished the Philadelphia Museum of Art, National Gallery of Art in Washington, and Cleveland Museum of Art.

His celebrated makeover of City Hall began in the 1980s and lasted nearly 30 years, and he explained his exuberance for the project to the Daily News in 1988. “In the name of progress, listen to history,” he said. “Restore that elegance and supplement that original majesty with new and grand ideas that will make her once again the focus and symbol of Philadelphia’s dream for the 21st century.”

Eloquent and tireless, he lectured about preservation around the country, served in leadership roles on many committees, boards, and commissions, and was inducted into the American Institute of Architects college of fellows in 2005. Among his other honors were the 1992 Preservationist of the Year Award from Preservation Pennsylvania and lifetime achievement awards from the Preservation Alliance of Greater Philadelphia and the Philadelphia chapter of the American Institute of Architects.

“He was a font of architectural knowledge as well as a wonderful colleague to all fortunate enough to have known him,” colleagues at Penn and Vitetta said in a tribute. A remembrance on the AIA Philadelphia chapter website notes his “great creativity, design excellence, hands-on involvement, strong leadership, and the highest level of client satisfaction.”

Affable as well as accomplished, Mr. Myers was featured prominently in the documentary series Philadelphia: The Great Experiment and in 2000 cohosted the TV show A Walk Up Broad Street during which he commented on the many churches, hotels, libraries, and halls that dot the historic 12-mile stretch from South Philadelphia’s Navy Yard to Cheltenham Avenue in East Oak Lane.

He was known to squeeze into tight spaces and punch holes in walls to find original elements, rummage through dark basements and attics in search of Victorian relics, and collect discarded treasures along the highway. He retired from Vitetta in 2008 but continued to work as a preservation consultant and instructor in Penn’s graduate program in historic preservation.

“Americans don’t realize that buildings are a natural resource,” he told the Daily News in 1984. “They throw them away like Dixie cups.”

Born Feb. 26, 1941, in Philadelphia, Mr. Myers grew up in West Oak Lane and graduated from Central High School in 1959. At Penn, he earned a bachelor’s degree in architectural engineering in 1963 and a master’s degree in architecture in 1965. He spent time in the Peace Corps and joined Vitetta in the 1970s.

He met Sandra Kittner in the library at Penn’s Furness Building, now the Anne and Jerome Fisher Fine Arts Library, and they married in 1966, and had son Benjamin, living for decades in Merion Station.

Mr. Myers collected Victorian furniture, interior decorations, and architecture publications, and donated many of them to museums and cultural institutions. He roamed around flea markets and antique shops, read Sherlock Holmes stories, watched reruns of The Honeymooners, and listened to Broadway show music.

“There was a happy quality about him,” said his niece, June Bell. His sister, Sheila Bell, said he was one of a kind.

He liked to play mischievous practical jokes, made it home for dinner almost every night, and was an exceptional ice skater as a young man. “He was a playful provocateur and also an ethical and exceptionally dedicated professional,” his son said.

“He was kind and generous with his time,” his wife said. “He was a mensch.”

In addition to his wife, son, sister, and niece, Mr. Myers is survived by other relatives.

Services were Oct. 23.

Donations in his name may be made to the Victorian Society in America, 24 Wilkins Ave., Haddonfield, N.J. 08033, and the Jewish National Fund, 78 Randall Ave., Rockville Centre, N.Y. 11570.