Paul S. Byard, FAIA

Founding Partner

August 30, 1939 - July 15, 2008

Educated as a lawyer, Paul Byard’s path to architecture wound through the Urban Development Corporation where, as Assistant Counsel, he worked alongside the leading architects of the 1970s to improve the design of the City’s housing stock. His mid-career (and career-changing) return to graduate school was followed by partnership with James Stewart Polshek—his mentor at Columbia, with whom he collaborated on renovations to Carnegie Hall and the former U.S. Customs building on Bowling Green before joining Charles Platt to form Platt & Byard, progenitor of the current PBDW practice. Paul would return to Columbia as the director of the preservation program at GSAPP where his spirit of inquiry and enthusiasm for architecture continue to be honored by the annual Paul Spencer Byard lecture.

Paul directed PBDW’s restorations and new designs for Green-Wood Cemetery, the New-York Historical Society, Cooper Union, and The Appellate Court on Madison Square. His civic activities included the Vestry of Trinity Church, the Board of Green-Wood Cemetery, and the Architectural League, which he chaired for many years.

While he would have described himself as a committed modernist with an interest in preservation and a passion for form, Paul never lost the analytical skills developed in law school. His book, “The Architecture of Additions, Design and Regulation” (W. W. Norton 1998) set forth a rational basis for evaluating the success (or failure) of additions to historic structures. The book presented the first fully formed argument for additions as a separate, legitimate building type, and it continues to be the authoritative treatment of the subject.

Click here for Paul’s obituary.