Fred Koetter, the globally-renowned American architect and urbanist, died on August 21 at the age of 79 after a lengthy illness. Born in Montana, Koetter was an undergraduate at the University of Oregon when the idea of being an architect struck him. “A small light called ‘architecture’ went on in my head—a little tantalizing light that completely seduced me,” he reminisced to UO’s Architecture & Allied Arts 100 Stories Project. Appropriately, he was in UO’s architecture building Lawrence Hall, designed by architect Ellis F. Lawrence in 1923, at the time of his epiphany. Beginning that day, Koetter built a career that crossed borders and broke boundaries between urban planning and architecture.

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