Giorgio Cavaglieri, 95, Preservation Architect

Giorgio Cavaglieri, FAIA, one of New York City’s foremost preservation architects and an advocate and pioneer in the field of architectural preservation for more than four decades, died May 15 at the age of 95. Perhaps best-known for his restoration in the 1960s of the Jefferson Market Branch of the New York Public Library in Greenwich Village, he applied the same care and now-standard preservation practices to his many adaptive reuse projects that helped shaped the architectural preservation movement in New York City.

Cavaglieri also designed the Delacorte Theater in Central Park and converted the Astor Library at 425 Lafayette Street into the Joseph Papp Public Theater. New York Times architecture critic Ada Louise Huxtable called it “the miracle on Lafayette Street.”

Italian roots
Born in Venice, Cavaglieri graduated with honors in engineering and architecture from Milan Politecnico. He designed buildings and airfields for the Italian government. He had his own architecture practice until 1938 when the Fascist regime confiscated his property and made laws to strip Italian Jews of citizenship. He came to New York City in 1939, then joined the U.S. Army and traveled in Europe, testing bridges and adapting barracks. He won a Bronze Star for his efforts.

Upon his return to the U.S., he opened his own firm. Cavaglieri transformed the Jefferson Market Library, once a Victorian Gothic courthouse, in the 1960s. It is considered by many to be the first successful preservation of a historic building in New York City.
“He taught people to see buildings, so long neglected and very complex, with florid, decorative touches, and appreciate them for the remarkable structures they are,” recalls Hugh Hardy, FAIA. Yet, notes Hardy, Cavaglieri did not merely copy the style but “transformed them with contemporary touches. He was interested in not just recreating detail, but reinterpreting it.”

The New York Times describes the process through which Cavaglieri “refreshed” the Jefferson Market Library. “He began with four years of preliminary study, then integrated modern library facilities such as air-conditioning, elevators, and furniture into the turreted Victorian fantasy.” The Times obituary also notes: “He carefully differentiated old details and new ones. He took countless photographs to ensure accuracy in replacing a stained-glass window and carved black walnut doors. But features he designed as new—rather than copied—were contemporary in material and style. The new entrance to the old circular stair tower, for instance, was through a sleek glass door set into the old carved limestone. The most striking addition was a stark catwalk above the main reading room.”

New York preservationist
Hardy, a member of the board of the Municipal Art Society, says he saw Cavaglieri’s “passion for the city at close range. He was full of enthusiasm and vigor about making a great city and creating landmark architecture.” Cavaglieri was president of the society in 1963 and was a past president of AIA New York, among many other leadership positions in community and professional organizations. As president of the Municipal Arts Society, it is noted in the Times, he helped lead the fight against the proposed drastic alteration of Grand Central Terminal.

Many appreciations note the fact that Cavaglieri worked well into his 90s. Noted in the Times obituary was a fall at age 93 “when he badly injured his right arm” and “then learned to paint watercolors with his left hand, fulfilling his first ambition to be a painter.” Hardy likened the Italian gentleman to a master builder. “He was very fond of detailed work. He liked doing it all.”

—Tracy Ostroff