“David Garrard Lowe, a writer and architectural historian whose passion for historic preservation — and in particular for the Beaux-Arts mansions, museums and towers of the Gilded Age — helped stem the tide of urban renewal that was leveling large swaths of American cities in the decades after World War II, died on Sept. 21 in Manhattan. He was 91.

“As a child in Chicago, Mr. Lowe marveled at how architects like Daniel Burnham and Louis Sullivan had refashioned his city in the late 19th century, outfitting its homes, department stores and public buildings in neo-Classical and Baroque splendor, a resplendent mishmash of styles referred to as Beaux-Arts.

“But by the 1960s, when he began writing about architecture, many of those buildings were falling victim to the wrecking ball, both in Chicago and in his adopted hometown, New York City.

“Everywhere he looked, architecture that spoke to the grandeur of urban life was coming down, replaced largely by anonymous modernist structures. He decided to act. Mr. Lowe spent years traveling back to Chicago, where in various archives he found photos and other historical materials about the many Beaux-Arts buildings around that city that had since been destroyed.

“The resulting book, ‘Lost Chicago,’ published in 1975, was intended to be a minor publication, with a print run of just 1,000 copies. But a glowing review in The Chicago Tribune made sure it caught the eye of countless readers who were only then becoming conscious of their vanishing architectural heritage. It ended up selling close to 100,000 copies over multiple editions.

“‘Lost Chicago’ is for me the most moving and important American ghost story ever told,” the novelist Kurt Vonnegut wrote to Mr. Lowe in 2004.

“Like Mr. Lowe, many Chicagoans decided enough was enough. The urban preservation movement, once a niche concern, was just then reaching the mainstream. ‘Lost Chicago,’ with its near-encyclopedic record of demolished buildings, became a foundational text.

“‘Lost Chicago’ inspired legions, generations of preservationists,” Ann Weaver, a preservationist in Chicago and a close friend, said in an interview.

“Other books followed, including ‘Chicago Interiors’ (1979),’Beaux-Arts New York’ (1998), ‘Art Deco New York’ (2004) and ‘Stanford White’s New York’ (1992) — which was edited by his friend and fellow preservation activist Jacqueline Onassis.

“Mr. Lowe quickly became a key fixture in the country’s architectural preservation movement, a proselytizer for beautiful buildings and a Cassandra warning about the price to be paid for destroying them.

“He lectured widely, both around the country and in Europe, where postwar development likewise threatened the urban fabric. He founded the Beaux-Arts Alliance, a New York-based advocacy group, in 1995, and he remained its president until his death.

“Mr. Lowe led protests against tear-downs, extensive renovations and the erasure of New York’s past. He wasn’t always successful, but his efforts did much to make city leaders, developers and the public aware of the cost of thoughtless progress.

“‘They were an incomparable heritage mindlessly squandered, pieces of gold minted by the fathers and thrown away by the sons,’ was how he described the destroyed buildings in both cities in an interview with Chicago magazine in 2013. ‘I could not save them in their concrete form, but I was determined that somehow I would preserve their spirit.’

“‘I sometimes feel that my Chicago is like an immense picture puzzle,’ he wrote in a revised and expanded edition published in 2010, ‘from which the pieces are removed one by one — the Chicago Stock Exchange, the Arts Club, the Northwestern Railway Station — until, at last, there will be nothing left of the city I knew.'” (Risen, The New York Times, 10/12/24)

David Lowe was a personal friend of Ward Miller, Preservation Chicago, and many within the Chicago preservation community. He was the recipient of a Preservation Chicago Honor Award which he was fond of mentioning. Lost Chicago has never been out of print. David was a great preservationist and will be missed!

Read the full obituary at The New York Times

• David Garrard Lowe, Defender of Historic Architecture, Dies at 91; For over 50 years, as a historian, lecturer and author, he fought to protect Beaux-Arts buildings in New York and Chicago from falling to the developer’s wrecking ball. For over 50 years, as a historian, lecturer and author, he fought to protect Beaux-Arts buildings in New York and Chicago from falling to the developer’s wrecking ball, Clay Risen, The New York Times, 10/12/24
• Remembering David Garrard Lowe, whose book ‘Lost Chicago’ helped the city find itself; Lowe’s 1975 book became a battle hymnal of the city’s nascent preservation movement, Chicago Sun-Times Editorial Board, 10/15/24