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John Portman, whose atrium hotels brought sparkle to cities, dies at 93

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John Portman, the Atlanta architect and developer whose hotels introduced soaring atriums into the fabric of American life and helped revitalize downtowns around the nation, died Friday at 93.

Portman’s first major success, the 22-story Hyatt Regency Atlanta of 1967, was built with Chicago’s Pritzker family, the owners of the Hyatt chain.

The hotel’s innovative plan, which clustered guest rooms around a central atrium and featured exposed elevators outlined in glittery lights, was widely imitated for its neck-craning spatial drama.

Its progeny ranged from the Hyatt Regency O’Hare in Rosemont to other Hyatts that stretched from San Francisco to New York City.

“Everyone became a country bumpkin when they walked into the Hyatt,” former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young recalled in “John Portman: A Life of Building,” a 2012 documentary. “You had to say: ‘Oh, my God, what is this?’ ”

“People poured in to see the hotel,” Chicago’s Cindy Pritzker, wife of the late Hyatt chief, Jay Pritzker, wrote in an email Saturday.

Portman also had success developing mixed-use complexes, such as Atlanta’s Peachtree Center, a multi-block development that included office towers, shops, restaurants and hotels.

And he designed Detroit’s Renaissance Center, as well as projects in China and Singapore. A convention hotel in Schaumburg by his firm opened in 2006.

Acknowledging Portman’s impact, the late Chicago Tribune architecture critic Paul Gapp once called him “the most influential living American architect.”

“Countless other architects have copied him but the music isn’t the same,” Gapp wrote.

Portman’s critics said the inward focus of his atrium hotels deadened the streets around them. But he characterized his atriums as a people-friendly antidote to urban congestion.

Portman also was a source of controversy because he often acted as developer of his projects as well as their architect. Some members of the architectural profession charged that the two roles were in conflict because a developer focused on profit can undermine an architect’s obligation to shape buildings that serve society.

But Portman argued that the joint roles gave him and his firm, John Portman & Associates, more control over his designs, which, he said, sought to serve basic human needs.

Born in Walhalla, S.C., Portman moved with his family to Atlanta as a boy. He served in the Navy during World War II and studied architecture at Georgia Institute of Technology.

Survivors include his wife, Joan Newton Portman; four sons and one daughter; three sisters; 19 grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.

Blair Kamin is the Tribune’s architecture critic.

bkamin@chicagotribune.com