Frank C. Adams, 63; architect renovated historic buildings

FRANK C. ADAMS

One foot planted firmly in the present, the other stepping gently into centuries past, Frank Cook Adams took stately, historic buildings in New England and helped breathe new life into them, adapting old brick, mortar, and stone for modern times.

As an architect, he worked on renovation projects including Old South Meeting House in Boston, Stevens Memorial Library in North Andover, and the Malden Public Library. Raised in Georgia with a last name that seemed to beckon from New England's history, he adopted Boston as his home.

"Boston captured his soul, truly," said his sister, Betsy Adams Dyches, of Columbia, S.C. "I was up here six weeks ago, and we were driving on Commonwealth Ave. And I said, 'Frank, this is truly one of the most beautiful cities I've ever seen.' He just gave me this look and said, 'Well, it surely has been good to me.' He just loved this city with a passion."

Mr. Adams, a preservation architect who had taught and advised students at Boston Architectural Center and helped oversee the renovation and expansion of about 15 libraries in the region, died in his Back Bay condo of kidney cancer on Saturday. He was 63 and also had a house in Salem.

Filling both homes with artwork, he provided friends and family with an aesthetic and educational experience each time they visited.

"He had an astute eye for art and he loved American art - he would collect the most wonderful paintings," said Bettina Norton of Beacon Hill, a longtime friend and retired graphic arts historian. "Both his house in Salem and his apartment don't have a free inch of wall space; they are covered by paintings and drawings. He loved things that were aesthetically beautiful. That was true of music, that was true of architecture, and that was true of painting."

His sister said his collection ranged "from abstracts to oils to very exact watercolors to sketches. He didn't have a favorite, he just loved beautiful art." And Mr. Adams did more than simply display each work he purchased.

"If he didn't know the artist, he researched the artist and often printed out a bio and placed it on the back of the painting," his sister said. "He could tell you where he got it - and we're talking hundreds of paintings. He could tell you where he got it, what the weather was like that day - it was a full-blown experience, and he made the experience richer by knowing what went into the production of the painting, as well as about the life of the artist."

Mr. Adams exhibited a similar precision while listening to concerts dozens of times each year at Symphony Hall, Tanglewood, and elsewhere. He was a member of the Harvard Music Association, a private charitable group, and had served as chairman of its awards committee.

"Frank started his love for classical music in high school," his sister said. "He was the kind of person who could never have sat and been a passive listener. It was not only a pleasurable enterprise, it was an academic enterprise."

Turning a sharp ear to the orchestra, Mr. Adams offered discerning opinions on, say, how a particular section was doing after a key player retired, "and he was always right," Norton said. "I can remember him coming down the stairs and he would say, 'Now wasn't that superb?' And if it wasn't, he would say, 'Hmm, I think the horn section needs work.' It was a sophisticated knowledge, which he shared with all of us."

Mr. Adams grew up in a town of about 1,200 that is now called Pine Mountain, Ga., where his father was vice president of Callaway Gardens, a resort that draws hundreds of thousands of tourists annually.

"We grew up resort kids, making snow cones, and Frank drove the miniature train and the kids drove him crazy," his sister said. "It was very idyllic, really, no locked doors. We didn't even have a key to the doors."

He graduated from Darlington School in Rome, Ga., and from Georgia Institute of Technology, where in 1967 he received an American Institute of Architects medal for excellence. Two years later he graduated from Columbia University with a master's in architecture and preservation.

Mr. Adams moved to Boston, where he worked for architectural firms that included Perry, Dean, Stahl and Rogers, and then Stahl Associates. For about four years he was an architect with Burt Hill Kosar Rittelmann Associates, and in recent years had formed Adams & Smith in Swampscott with Richard Smith.

"I think he was born with a drafting table," his sister said. "As long as I've known him, he has always wanted to be an architect."

While Mr. Adams lived far from his southern roots, he returned often for vacations and was devoted to his sister, to his niece, Kathryn Dyches Barthel, and to his mother, Ann Cook Adams, all of whom live in Columbia, S.C.

Each summer, even after he was diagnosed with cancer four years ago, "we went to Garden City Beach in South Carolina and rented a big ol' house," his sister said. "I can just see Frank going down the beach with his boogie board, heading out to the waves. It was just too hilarious. This was as recent as last year."

Because of his love of music, Mr. Adams wanted a memorial concert after he died, rather than a service, and asked that it be held at Old South Meeting House. For the concert, which will be held today at 5:30 p.m., he chose the Brahms Clarinet Quintet and the Debussy String Quartet.

Emily Curran, executive director of Old South Meeting House, said Mr. Adams "was a great architect to work with because he was very sensitive" to how the historic building had been used since before the Revolutionary War, and how it could be updated.

"One of the things that we looked at closely was how to use it more for performances of all kinds," she said of the renovation. "How do you ensure that a 1729 building, originally designed as a Puritan meeting house, can meet today's demands for performance and comfortably seating an audience? Today we have concerts year-round, which I think is a wonderful legacy of his involvement with the project."