2 days ago
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Paul Marantz, Lighting Designer of 9/11 Memorial and Studio 54, Dies at 87
Paul Marantz, a prominent architectural lighting designer who illuminated disco floors and skylines, libraries and chic hotels, train stations and concert halls, museums and embassies, died on May 26 at his home in Manhattan. He was 87.
The cause of death was complications of a stroke, his wife, Jane Marantz, said.
Mr. Marantz, who was known as the Prince of Darkness by industry wags, cast a wide net.
His projects, sometimes done in concert with his business partners, Charles Stone and the Tony Award-winning lightning designer Jules Fisher, included new buildings — the Sainsbury Wing of the National Gallery in London (1991), the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland (1995), the Getty Center in Los Angeles (1997), the Museum of Islamic Art in Qatar (2008), the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia (2012) — as well as many venerable old structures.
Mr. Marantz was involved, for example, in the renovations of Carnegie Hall (1987), Grand Central Terminal (1998), the Rose Main Reading Room of the New York Public Library (1998) and David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center (2022). He also did the lighting for New York nightclubs like Studio 54 (1977) and the Palladium (1985), and for the Times Square Ball at the center of the New Year's Eve countdown in Manhattan (1999).
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