Edwin Sidman, Helped Reshape Boston Skyline, 62

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Mr. Sidman, who also developed 75 State St. and was involved in many
projects that contributed to the revitalization of the South Station
area, died yesterday, March 16, 2005, in Brigham and Women's Hospital,
at the age of 62.

Edwin N. Sidman left his imprint all over the Boston, Masssachusetts,
skyline -- One Post Office Square, the Hotel Meridien, and Rowe's Wharf
were among his projects as a developer. But his influence in the area
extended far beyond bricks and mortar.

"Besides being a builder of Boston, he was a builder of people," Mayor
Thomas M. Menino said yesterday. "He was involved with a lot of
community groups."

"He had a great impact on the city," Alan M. Leventhal, his
brother-in-law and chief executive officer of Beacon Capital Partners,
said yesterday.

Leventhal said Mr. Sidman was particularly proud of his work on the
mixed-use development of Rowe's Wharf. The site, which many consider
the signature project of Boston's waterfront in the past half-century,
combines the Boston Harbor Hotel with offices, condominiums, and a
ferry dock.

"He put much of his life into it," Leventhal said. "He viewed it as a
gateway to the city for future generations."

Mr. Sidman also developed thousands of units of affordable housing and
was just as proud of that, Leventhal said.

"He was a man of vision, persistence, and loyalty," Barry Shrage,
president of Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston, said
yesterday. ''He only spoke when he had something to say, but when he
spoke everyone listened."

Mr. Sidman was chairman of The Beacon Companies and was formerly the
chairman of Beacon Properties, a development and management firm
founded in the 1940s by Robert and Norman Leventhal, Mr. Sidman's
father-in-law. Mr. Sidman lived in Newton, where the Leventhal-Sidman
Jewish Community Center is a tribute to his family's philanthropy.

Mr. Sidman grew up in Omaha and graduated from the University of
Michigan and Harvard Law School. He married Paula Leventhal while in
law school. Before joining The Beacon Companies in 1971, he practiced
real estate law for several years.

Long active in community affairs, he was a member and onetime chairman
of the board of directors of Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater
Boston, a cofounder of the Friends of Post Office Square in Boston, and
a member of a group lobbying for the creation of a center for arts and
culture on the Rose Kennedy Greenway created by the Big Dig.

"He was involved with the intangibles as well as the tangibles," Menino
said.

Shrage said Mr. Sidman's philanthropic projects also included helping
Ethiopian and Soviet Jews immigrate to the United States and Israel, as
well as many local initiatives.

"He created the skyline of the city of Boston and was a major builder
of the architecture of the community," Shrage said.

In addition to his wife, he leaves a daughter, Hope of New York; a son,
Matthew of Boston; and a granddaughter.

Boston Globe