"Hopeless, I felt hopeless, " Krier, who watched the scene unfold from a nearby bridge, told KSFY.

CNN: March 16, 2013 -- Updated 0041 GMT (0841 HKT)

Matthew Krier shared Ducheneaux's sense of helplessness about not being able to do more.

CNN: March 16, 2013 -- Updated 0041 GMT (0841 HKT)

This was undoubtedly encouraged when the Luxembourg architect Leon Krier, an avowed classicist and superb delineator, joined Stirling's office in 1968.

WSJ: Notes from the Archive: James Frazer Stirling, Architect and Teacher, at the Yale Center for British Art | Postmodernism's Pivotal Figure | By Ada Louise Huxtable

Mr. Krier's elegant and evocative drawings, with their classical allusions and the odd pieces of Biedermeier furniture, have become associated with much of the firm's output.

WSJ: Notes from the Archive: James Frazer Stirling, Architect and Teacher, at the Yale Center for British Art | Postmodernism's Pivotal Figure | By Ada Louise Huxtable