Stephen M. Goldner, 84, architect and builder in Philly

Stephen M. Goldner, 84, of Society Hill, an architect and builder in Philadelphia for 60 years, died Saturday, Aug. 12, of complications from lymphoma at Penn Rittenhouse Hospice.

Although best known as the architect of the Dorchester on Rittenhouse Square and the Fairmount, a high-rise apartment building on Conshohocken State Road in Bala Cynwyd, Mr. Goldner designed many other residential buildings in the Philadelphia area.

In 1997, he helped spur the redevelopment of Society Hill by building six homes on property he owned with two partners near Mother Bethel A.M.E Church, at 419 S. Sixth St. He and his partners sold five of the houses for between $300,000 and $400,000. Mr. Goldner lived in the sixth.

He was an early believer in adaptive reuse of industrial buildings. One of these was the Atlantic Works, a former tool, typewriter, and medical supply factory at 2215 Arch St.

The project was begun by others, but in the early 1980s he completed conversion of the 125-year-old structure into the Westminster Arch apartments. The project, said the website hiddencityphila.org, "stands as an enduring example of visionary adaptive reuse."

When asked by the Inquirer in 1999 whether the redevelopment of Society Hill was pricing longtime residents out of the housing market, he said there was no effort to price anyone out of a home; the expense of renovating or building homes was responsible for the high cost of properties there. He also pointed to nearby moderately priced housing at Sixth and Lombard Streets as indicative of the area's openness to diversity.

"Properties in Philadelphia are developed just like they are anywhere else — based on market demand," he said.

Part of an architect's job in Philadelphia is to choose works of art to embellish public works. In 2008, Mr. Goldner commissioned a stainless-steel sculpture with interconnected poems titled "A Part/Apart" by sculptor and fabricator James Fuhrman that was installed on a brick wall at Seventh and Delancey Streets in Society Hill. The project was completed under the direction of the city's Redevelopment Authority and its Public Arts Program.

Born in Wynnefield, Mr. Goldner moved with his family to a house called "Rose Glen" in Bala Cynwyd.  Mr. Goldner graduated from Lower Merion High School in 1950 and from the University of Pennsylvania with both a bachelor's and a master's degree in architecture under a five-year study program.

In 1955, he won the university's student award for his design of the American Embassy in Jordan.

"He never talked about it," said daughter Meg Goldner Rabinowitz. "He was very humble."

In 1955, Mr. Goldner married Roberta Baer. They had four children before divorcing. In 1969, he married Barbara Israel, and the couple had two children.

Mr. Goldner was an avid tennis player. In 50 years, he almost never missed a weekly tennis match. He enjoyed constructing replicas of public buildings and monuments such as the Statue of Liberty using Legos. He loved puzzles and going to Philadelphia Orchestra concerts, his family said.

A fan of all things Philadelphia, "he would be so happy to know he passed in the center of the city he loved," his family said.

In addition to his daughter, first wife, and second wife of 47 years, he is survived by children Dan Goldner, Elizabeth Godfrey, Randy Goldner, Harold Goldner, and Merry Eisner-Heidorn; 14 grandchildren; and a brother.

Services and burial are private.

Donations may be made to Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center to support lymphoma research, c/o Jefferson Office of Institutional Advancement, 125 S. Ninth St., Suite 600, Philadelphia 19107.