Herbert Oppenheimer, a friend of the late Giorgio Cavaglieri, the architect whose design transformed a derelict Village courthouse into the beloved Jefferson Market Library in 1967 was one of the architect’s many admirers who paid tribute to him on Oct. 18 at the New York Public Theater on Lafayette St. — another one of Cavaglieri’s preservation and adaptive re-use projects. A poster of Cavaglieri, who served as president in 1963 of the Municipal Art Society, is behind Oppenheimer. Cavaglieri, who died in May at the age of 95, was born in Venice, studied architecture in Milan and designed airfields in the early 1930s for Mussolini. He emigrated to the U.S. in 1938 after the Fascist dictator stripped away his citizenship along with all other Italian Jews. Even though he was classified as an enemy alien, Cavaglieri served in the U.S. Army in Europe during World War II.
