ROBIN M. BURNS ’66

ROBIN M. BURNS, 70, an architect in New York City, died Feb. 5, 2015. A member of Kappa Nu Kappa, he received his degree cum laude and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. After receiving his master’s degree from the Columbia University School of Architecture, he worked for New York City agencies for four decades to improve the design of public buildings. Among those who survive are his wife, Rena Grossfield, his daughter, two grandchildren, and his brother.

Rena writes, “Robin graduated from Columbia School of Architecture and spent most of his career working for various agencies in the City of New York, including City Planning, the Office of Downtown Brooklyn Development, the Department of General Services and the Department of Design and Construction (DDC). He served as chief architect of the Parks Department, overseeing the buildings in the city’s 200-plus parks. In the mid-’80s, he left public service to head the real estate development arm of the South Street Seaport Museum, at the time when the Rouse Corporation was transforming the Seaport area into one of its “festival marketplaces” akin to its projects in Boston and Baltimore. In his final years back with the city at DDC, he was senior project manager for the new multi-building police academy going up in Queens and the city’s new backup 911 emergency call center.

“Besides me, Robin left behind his daughter Jenny Burns and her husband, Geoff Sanoff, our two grandsons, Alexei (8) and Jesse (6), his brother Bruce, and his former wife and our dear friend Judy Burns and her wife Pat Magnuson. As I wrote in The New York Times obituary, he was a good man, taken too soon. Donations may be made to Learning Ally, where Robin was a longtime volunteer reader, 545 5th Avenue, NY, NY 10017; or to support Dr. Eileen O’Reilly’s pancreatic cancer research at Memorial Sloan-Kettering: mskcc.convio.net/goto/Robin_Burns.” Rena may be reached at rgrossfield at gmail.com.