Family and friends of the late Henry Austin Wood III gathered at City Hall yesterday to remember the curious and vivacious architect who created the iconic Boston building and left a lasting mark on the Hub through the numerous other landmarks he helped to build.
Wood, known among friends and relatives as a “force of nature” who charmed most with his eccentricity, died at his Boston home in the early morning hours of Jan. 27. He was 87.
“He was a relentless source of energy and humor,” said Daniel Wood, his youngest son. “He loved the absurd. He was ramshackle and warm … He made an impression on people.”
An architect with Kallmann, McKinnell & Wood Architects, Wood is credited with building Boston City Hall, the MBTA’s Back Bay Station, the John B. Hynes Veterans Memorial Convention Center, Boston Five Cent Savings Bank, the Edward Brooke Courthouse and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in Cambridge.
And though those projects will guide his legacy for decades to come, Wood is most remembered for his restoration of the Clingstone, a 23-room house on the rocks in Jamestown, R.I., that he and his then-wife Joan bought in 1960. The home, friends recalled, would become the setting for scores of priceless memories and countless raucous parties.
At the memorial service yesterday, Wood’s son Joshua Rose-Wood said his father “would like you to be a little bit outrageous. He would like it whatever it is to be free. He would like you to take risks … He would like all of us to have fun.”
Wood, who is survived by his sons, Paul of Jamaica Plain, Joshua of Roxbury and Daniel of Providence, served in the U.S. Army at the end of the Korean War and later studied architecture at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. He served as commissioner of the Boston Landmarks Commission from 1977 to 1986, and was a founding member of the South End Landmarks Commission.
Family friend Alex Rodriguez said: “There’s a hole in the universe with Henry gone, but I’m so proud of how he’s raised his family.”
