Andy Beck was more than passionate about architecture. “He lived, ate and slept architecture,” said a longtime friend, Howard Drossman of Colorado Springs.
“He always had a camera around his neck so he could take pictures of buildings,” said Drossman, Colorado College professor of environmental studies. “And he didn’t take just one picture. It was two or three rolls per building.”
Beck was 56 when he died at Presbyterian/St. Luke’s Medical Center on March 28, after a battle of almost 14 years with leukemia.
Beck worked for 29 years with the Denver Service Center, the planning, design and construction project office of the National Park Service.
He was project supervisor for the Old Faithful Inn restoration project at Yellowstone National Park and project architect for the Fossil Butte National Monument visitor center outside Kemmerer, Wyo.
The hexagonal building “fits in with the sagebrush environment,” said David McGinnis, superintendent of the monument. “Every day, we get compliments on it.”
Beck designed the National Grasslands Visitor Center in Wall, S.D.
In his private time, he designed the restoration of buildings at Catamount Institute and Catamount Center in Woodland Park.
Beck didn’t charge for work at the institute and center, which focus on ecology, because he thought it would be unethical to charge for a private job while working for the government, Drossman said. Everything Beck did was aimed toward sustainable architecture, said Drossman, executive director of the Catamount Center.
Beck won prestigious awards for his work, including the federal design award from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Presidential Design Award, given for the Yellowstone project. The award was presented by President Clinton.
Beck’s other passion was studying World War II and collecting World War II memorabilia. He had four military vehicles, including three Jeeps, all of which he restored. He often gave speeches on architecture and on World War II.
Andrew Beck was born in the Brooklyn borough of New York City on Oct. 10, 1950, and went to Texas A&M University for his bachelor’s degree. He was captain of his college wrestling team.
He earned his master’s in architecture at the University of Colorado. He and Susan Marcus met in Colorado in 1987 and married in 1989.
Mutual friends had wanted to introduce the two, but they met each other, with no help, on a mountain bike trip.
“He was a hard-core cyclist,” said Marcus, and he took every imaginable piece of gear, even for a day ride.
In addition to his wife, Beck is survived by his daughter, Cade Marcus Beck of the family home in Boulder, and his mother, Roslyn Beck of Coconut Creek, Fla.
Staff writer Virginia Culver can be reached at 303-954-1223 or vculver@denverpost.com.
