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Thomas S. Marvel, an architect specializing in modernist designs in the Caribbean, died at age 80 on Tuesday at his home in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The cause of death was prostate cancer, according to his son Jonathan.
Born on March 15, 1935, in Newburgh, New York, Marvel grew up in Washingtonville. He earned a bachelor's degree from Dartmouth College in 1956 and attended the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University. In 1958, he left Harvard to work with R. Buckminster Fuller, his uncle by marriage. After working on housing projects in Iran and Puerto Rico, Marvel returned to Harvard and completed his master's degree in architecture in 1962.
Marvel moved to Puerto Rico in 1959 after a three-month assignment with the International Basic Economy Corporation, a company established by Nelson A. Rockefeller to develop low-cost housing in developing countries. He utilized local materials, such as cement from local limestone, and designed buildings suited to the tropical environment. His architectural approach included natural ventilation, natural lighting, and the incorporation of gardens.
His projects include the American embassies in Costa Rica and Guatemala, the United States Court House and Federal Building in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, a Carmelite convent in Trujillo Alto, the municipal building and theater in Bayamón, and several buildings for the University of Puerto Rico campuses.
In 1990, Marvel received the Henry Klumb Award from the Society of Architects and Landscape Architects of Puerto Rico. He co-authored “The Architecture of the Parish Churches of Puerto Rico” with María Luisa Moreno and “Antonin Nechodoma, 1877-1928: The Prairie School in the Caribbean.”