Dear Robert,
Thank you very much for providing this very helpful context on the extraordinary challenges facing the work of designing and building transformative public places! Reflecting on the "lessons learned" from the Port Authority of NY and NJ is exactly what the Public Architecture committee is attempting to foreground and what better way to do this than to celebrate the work of one of very own recipients of the AIA National Award for Excellence in Public Architecture?
Please tell us more. Do you have any public documents that you can share, which outline the long arc of the process of development, and how you approached your work on the Transportation Hub concept so that it would survive it? I followed the process from the sidelines and what was published in the NY Times, since I left NY in 1998 for Amherst, MA. But I used to work at 1 World Trade Center and grieved deeply for the loss of so many people, emergency responders, and the trauma that New Yorkers and their greater community experienced for so many years afterwards, as well as for the loss of the towers themselves. And today I can also attest to the tremendous beauty and success of your effort, which gives me hope every time I visit NY. Thank you!
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Ludmilla Pavlova-Gillham FAIA
University of Massachusetts
Amherst MA
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Original Message:
Sent: 01-30-2026 03:10 PM
From: Robert Eisenstat, FAIA
Subject: John H. Beyer Obituary - serving the public and architecture
Ludmilla,
Although I have worked with many BBB staff over the years, I knew Jack Beyer only through the World Trade Center planning effort you mention. Jack was certainly the leader with BBB during that effort, and a true professional, but the six schemes that were presented at the critical Listening to the City event where they were first shared with the public were the result of a collaboration by BBB, Alex Garvin of LMDC with Peterson Littenberg, and Bob Davidson, Chief Architect with me as Principal Architect of the Port Authority of NY and NJ in-house architectural and planning design team. All the schemes were layered over the transportation master plan that Bob and I developed with our staff. Bob presented this plan at the event, which clearly indicated the potential for the World Trade Center to be incorporated into the Lower Manhattan Transportation network, and how it would connect to the surrounding neighborhoods. Most everyone at the Javits Center was nodding their heads up and down in concurrence.
For me, the BBB presentation was a "lesson learned" in the error of presenting material that could not be well-understood by the public. As I recall, there were no renderings of the public spaces that might result from these plans, so people looked at the birds-eye view of the Memorial Plaza concept and thought it looked like Albany. In any case the Ouroussoff article that you referred to mentioned the fact that an unidentified architectural sage told him that it would only be the Transportation Hub concept that would survive the development process. I'm proud to acknowledge the success of our effort!
Best,
Robert Eisenstat, FAIA, LEED AP
2022 Recipient of the AIA National Award for Excellence in Public Architecture
Original Message:
Sent: 1/29/2026 3:01:00 PM
From: Ludmilla Pavlova-Gillham, FAIA
Subject: John H. Beyer Obituary - serving the public and architecture
I have been exceptionally moved by the passing of John H. Beyer - "The last surviving founder of Beyer Blinder Belle, [who] helped safeguard New York City's past even as developers raced to push the city into the future" - as noted in the obituary published in the NY Times: John H. Beyer, 92, Dies; Architect Championed Historic Preservation - The New York Times . It encapsulates the extraordinary career of a man whom I met briefly while I was a graduate student at Columbia in the 1980's, and whose historic preservation work I admired greatly. The thing that made me pause and reflect while reading was a quote from a letter he wrote to the NY Times, and his definition of planning: Here is the full quote in context:
"Just months after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, the body charged with rebuilding at the World Trade Center site, hired Beyer Blinder Belle to develop a set of site plans. All three partners were attached to the project, but Mr. Beyer was the lead designer. He had been just a block away from the Twin Towers when the first plane struck, and he often spoke of the task of rebuilding as the most important thing his firm had ever done. The effort, resulting in six schemes, brought international scrutiny to a firm used to having a low profile. Although the architects had been asked to provide what amounted to technical guidance, critics attacked them as incapable of meeting the moment with an awe-inspiring design. In interviews and public statements, Mr. Beyer tried to explain the nuances of the firm's assignment, even as he maintained that the partners were open to critique.
'We ask only that the public understand what 'planning' means: the relationships among terrain, infrastructure, building mass, building use and open space," he and Mr. Belle wrote in a letter to The Times. "The six initial proposals were not architectural designs per se, but rather studies of these basic issues. Their value lay in prompting a lively discussion.'
The development corporation announced a new competition, drawing up a short list of world-renowned architects who submitted a brace of bold, if sometimes impractical, proposals. In 2003, Studio Daniel Libeskind was chosen as the winner. But Beyer Blinder Belle had the last laugh. As the development progressed during the 2000s, it became increasingly clear that whatever gloss Mr. Libeskind had brought to the site, the plan's basic form and functions followed the firm's guiding principles, as critics conceded."
Many of us work for public institutions and are well aware of the difficulties of making capital project decisions, and what it means to run through the gauntlet of political pressure, public scrutiny, and financial challenges that accompany public projects from early planning through financing, design, construction, and the long-term battle to maintain public facilities for generations to come. As an architect and campus planner, John Beyer's career and legacy offer me - and public architects everywhere - a high bar to follow.
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Ludmilla Pavlova-Gillham FAIA
University of Massachusetts
Amherst MA
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