ANDREW DONALDSON

DONALDSON--Andrew

Weber, Jersey City, NJ, architect, artist, athlete, loving and beloved family man and friend, died July 27, 2017. He was 49. Andrew practiced architecture in Manhattan for more than 20 years at such leading global firms as Robert A.M. Stern, HOK, and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, where he contributed to the design of the Freedom Tower, now called One World Trade Center. He most recently worked at HLW International. Andrew was an accomplished painter who studied art in France and Italy. His urban scenes, rural landscapes, portraits, and still lifes conveyed an interest in color, line, form, and volume that informed his work as an architect. He was a gregarious man with an easy wit whose infectious smile seemed as big as his six-foot, two-inch frame. He embraced his passions for music, food, cycling, golfing, and skiing with the unbridled enthusiasm of a big-hearted kid. His love of life was most fully expressed as a husband, father, and uncle. At playgrounds, birthday parties, and holiday celebrations, long after other parents had collapsed into chairs, he would be laughing loudly, swinging his young daughters in circles and lifting nephews and nieces into the air. Andrew was born and raised in New Orleans. He completed his undergraduate studies at Connecticut College, where he was a member of track and cross-country teams. He received a master's degree in architecture from Tulane University. He is survived by his wife of nine years Marybeth Bufka Donaldson; daughters Audrey and Claire Donaldson; parents Weber and Elizabeth Donaldson; sister Amy Donaldson and her husband Michael Selz; sister-in-law Kristin Ruiz and her husband Carlos; brother-in-law Dale Bufka Jr. and his wife Mellisa; father-in-law Dale Bufka Sr.; and his nieces and nephews, Benjamin, Christopher, Milla, Stella, Maddox, Caitlin and Caleb.