Nathan Silver, an architect whose 1967 book, Lost New York, offered a history lesson about the many buildings that were demolished before the city passed a landmarks preservation law that might have saved them, died on May 19 in London. He was 99.

Mr. Silver’s book was a photographic guide to what had vanished over many decades. “While cities must adapt if they are to remain responsive to the needs and wishes of their inhabitants, they need not change in a heedless and suicidal fashion.”