Gilbert A. Rosenthal, architect, teacher, author

GIL ROSENTHAL had a simple message for his children: Leave the world a little better than you found it.

It was a rule that he lived by himself, as an architect who lent his skills to developing housing for the underprivileged, as well as other projects to benefit people in urban areas around the country.

"Providing quality of life to the underserved through architectural design was the driving passion of his professional life, and he was most fulfilled when collaborating with residents to design their communities," his family said.

Gilbert A. Rosenthal, a principal in the Philadelphia design firm of Wallace Roberts & Todd, a teacher and author, died June 27 after a 12-year battle with cancer. He was 58 and lived in Center City.

"Over a career spanning 35 years, Rosenthal's specialty was the revitalization of post-industrial cities, including poor urban neighborhoods and abandoned waterfronts, transforming them into viable mixed-income communities for which he won numerous awards," his family said.

"His legacy is the result of more than a billion dollars of public investment in the demolition of deteriorating public housing and its replacement with new homes affordable to former residents in more than 40 cities."

Gil won a Progressive Architecture Award, actually his second, for the redevelopment of the Richard Allen Homes public housing project, in North Philadelphia. Another local project was Waterfront Square, a condominium complex on reclaimed land along the Delaware River.

Other jobs included the Quadrangle, a continuing-care retirement community in Haverford, and Valley Creek Corporate Center, in Exton. The new student-housing projects that he designed at Ursinus College were built on reclaimed land.

He also designed the new Atlantic City Convention Center and Rail Terminal. At more than a million square feet, it is New Jersey's largest public project.

A native of Long Island, N.Y., Gil was the son of an architect, Leon Rosenthal, and Evelyn Rosenthal.

He received a bachelor's degree from Cornell University, and a master's from the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

He spent six years practicing in Pittsburgh and teaching at Carnegie-Mellon University before he was recruited by Wallace Roberts & Todd in 1983.

Gil was a prolific author of articles on architecture for various publications.

He also got to express his rich sense of humor in 2010 with the publication of Gil's Guide to Business Development, a book of quips and funny stories of how - and how not to - market professional services.

He taught and was guest lecturer at a number of institutions, including the Penn, Temple, Drexel, Harvard University's Kennedy School, Cornell and Carnegie-Mellon.

The transformation of the Robert Taylor Homes, on the south side of Chicago, led him to Denmark, where he was the guest of the Ministers of Housing and Integration, an international colloquium.

In remarks captured on video in Denmark, Gill stated, "If I have one primary message to give - it's the message I've been giving to my children since they were born:

'Your job is to leave the world a little better than you found it. Not a little more used up, not a little more paved or dangerous, but a little better.'"

In 1984, Gil married the Very Rev. Judith Sullivan, dean of the Philadelphia Episcopal Cathedral.

He also is survived by two daughters, Emily Wynne Rosenthal and Grace Sullivan Rosenthal.

Services: Memorial service led by Rabbi David Strauss, 1 p.m. July 8 at Philadelphia Episcopal Cathedral, 38th and Chestnut streets. Interment will be private.

Contributions may be made to the Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania, Attn. Karrie Borgelt, 3535 Market St., Suite 750, Philadelphia 19104. Funds will be directed to the Abramson Cancer Center.