Architect Portman shaped skylines from Atlanta to San Francisco to N.Y.

ATLANTA» John C. Portman, an architect and developer known for his postmodernist designs that helped reshaped cities such as Atlanta and New York, died Friday. He was 93.

Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed offered condolences to Portman’s family and said the architect’s love for Atlanta “is well-known and unrivaled.”

Portman’s revolutionary designs redefined urban landscapes, sometimes with controversy. The New York Times reported that some of his buildings were criticized as concrete islands and self-contained cities within cities.

The Atlanta JournalConstitution reported that no single architect shaped Atlanta’s skyline like Portman. He gave the city the cylindrical Westin Peachtree Plaza hotel as well as the AmericasMart, an array of buildings downtown.

He also left his mark from San Francisco to Shanghai and helped revitalize Times Square with his famed New York Marriott Marquis.

“Anyone can build a building and put rooms in it,” he told The New York Times in 2011. “But we should put human beings at the head of our thought processes. You want to hopefully spark their enthusiasm. Like riding in a glass elevator: Everyone talks on a glass elevator. You get on a closed-in elevator, everyone looks down at their shoes. A glass elevator lets people’s spirits expand. Architecture should be a symphony.”