Robert Silman – the structural engineer who saved the cantilevered Fallingwater designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1935 in Mill Run, Pa. – has died at the age of 83, writes David Dunlap for The New York Times.

Silman was the founder and president emeritus of Silman engineering firm. Throughout his career, he focused on protecting and saving the work of other engineers and architects.

“Any time we faced any intractable problem in trying to save a building, we called Bob,” said Peg Breen, president of the New York Landmarks Conservancy.

Among his best-known projects are the Ellis Island Museum of Immigration, the Carnegie Hall restoration and expansion, and the preservation of the World Trade Center’s Survivors’ Stairs.

But his national reputation was earned southeast of Pittsburgh, where Wright designed Fallingwater, one of the most breathtaking houses of the last century. When it was in structural trouble in 1991, Lynda S. Waggoner, director emerita of Fallingwater, called Silman.

Silman saved the home’s cantilevered reinforced concrete balconies with an “elegant” solution, making him famous nationwide.

Read more about Robert Silman The New York Times by clicking here.