Michael Eversmeyer spent his career fighting to safeguard Pittsburgh's architecturally important buildings as a city employee and on the boards of Preservation Pittsburgh, the Community Design Center and the city Historic Review Commission.

But the Highland Park resident may end up best remembered for his work to commemorate buildings that were not saved.

In April he published a collection of postcards of long-gone buildings called "Pittsburgh 1900-1945," preserving for future generations the city of a past generation.

The volume "will always be a reminder of what was and what happens when we do not value preservation," Scott Leib, president of Preservation Pittsburgh, wrote in a recent letter. "It inspires me and I hope it will inspire future planners and developers to have more respect for our past."

Mr. Eversmeyer's wife, Janna Smith Eversmeyer, said the book was supposed to be the first of several. "He had a profound knowledge of the city of Pittsburgh," she said. "He could have gone on forever."

Mr. Eversmeyer died of cancer Sunday morning, at home with his wife and their two sons. He was 56.

Mr. Eversmeyer's love for Pittsburgh was not an expected one; a native of Washington, D.C., he grew up in northern Virginia, went to college in Chicago and got a master's in architecture from Tulane University in New Orleans.

He and his wife moved to Pittsburgh in 1985 so he could take a job as the city's historic preservation planner.

"He just took to this city like a duck takes to water," Mrs. Eversmeyer said. In the city's work-a-day functionality and 19th-century neighborhoods, she said, he found a perfect focus for his passions for architecture and history, along with his fascination with how people interact with architecture.

Caroline Boyce, who preceded Mr. Eversmeyer as the city preservation director and is now president of the Pennsylvania chapter of the American Institute of Architects, said Mr. Eversmeyer's professionalism and integrity had a lasting impact on the city planning department.

"He really helped to elevate the importance of preservation as a tool in development in the city," she said.

Mr. Eversmeyer in 1997 joined Perkins Eastman Architects, then worked independently when Perkins Eastman folded its preservation office in 2002.

His wife said restorations of the Baum Building Downtown and a 19th-century building at 1507 E. Carson St. were among his favorite private projects.

Mr. Eversmeyer was appointed to the city HRC in 2002 and named chairman in 2003. He was also appointed that year to the Pennsylvania Historic Preservation Board.

Rob Pfaffmann, a colleague and fellow board member of Preservation Pittsburgh, said Mr. Eversmeyer was quiet but persuasive on the HRC.

"He saw the history of this place as the backdrop of our lives," Mr. Pfaffmann said. "It was very alive to him."

Mr. Pfaffmann especially noted Mr. Eversmeyer's role in a 2006 confrontation with City Hall. The city was backing efforts for a 10-story medical building in Oakland; the Eversmeyer-led HRC insisted it was too massive and too tall.

A smaller version of the building was eventually pushed through the courts, and Mr. Eversmeyer was unceremoniously dumped from the HRC a year later.

"In the face of a great deal of pressure to back off, he stuck to his principles," Mr. Pfaffmann said.

Mr. Eversmeyer took the blow gracefully, expressing confidence that his replacement would be a "quick study," and put his energies into writing.

"He was going to do another postcard book on the Golden Triangle," his wife said.

"He had been on every street, in every alley, on every paper street, on every bridge," she said. "If someone mentioned a building here, he knew where it was and what it looked like.

"He was deeply in love with the city of Pittsburgh."

Funeral arrangements were incomplete last night.