EUGENE, Ore. -- (June 11, 2010) -Fred Koetter has traveled the globe pursuing architecture and urban design projects with the award-winning firm he co-founded in Boston in 1978, Koetter Kim and Associates. Now he's traveling to his alma mater, the University of Oregon, to accept the Lawrence Medal for distinguished alumni.
Koetter will deliver a keynote address for the School of Architecture and Allied Arts commencement ceremony on Monday, June 14. The school's ceremony will take place at 3 p.m. on the east lawn of the Erb Memorial Union, 1222 East 13th Ave. The event is free and open to the public.
Coming to Oregon from his native Montana, Koetter first worked in Seattle before relocating to New England. Much of Koetter's life has involved higher education, both in teaching and design. He served as the dean of the School of Architecture at Yale University from 1993 to 1998. He also designed buildings on the campuses of Princeton, Cornell, Brown and others.
Koetter remembers his time at Oregon as one of open communication among students, professors and disciplines. "One of the reasons why I was drawn to Oregon was its proximity to the art school," Koetter said. "I got into sculpture, as well as continuing my earlier obsession with drawing and painting. There was a freedom to the program that I found prepared me well."
His firm's work in London led to projects in Lebanon, Kazakhstan, Korea and Saudi Arabia. Current projects allow him to look forward to the sustainable opportunities of new cities. His firm's work in the Middle East provides opportunities for harnessing alternative energy on a massive scale, including solar energy, geothermal heating and cooling, and wind power.
He's currently working on a book about cities as settlement, and how systems such as transportation affect architecture. Koetter said prior to the Federal Highway Act of 1956 there wasn't much in the way of suburbia, and it has transformed the nature of urban design and where and how people live.
"I like cities where people live in the city," he said. "Compactness itself is a higher level of sustainability."
His partner Susie Kim, whom he met while teaching at Cornell, has studied this kind of urban interconnectedness in Sicily. These urban units, he said, "have different identities. You know when you are in a different one."
About the University of Oregon
The University of Oregon is a world-class teaching and research institution and Oregon's flagship public university. The UO is a member of the Association of American Universities (AAU), an organization made up of the 63 leading public and private research institutions in the United States and Canada. The University of Oregon is one of only two AAU members in the Pacific Northwest.
Contact: Karen Johnson, AAA Communications, 541-346-3603, karenjj@uoregon.edu
Link: http://aaa.uoregon.edu/people/alumni/medal
###