Architect with local tie dies

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Architect Jeremiah Oosterbaan sketches plans at his desk in 1979. The renowned local designer died on July 13 in Naples, Fla. Photo Provided

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July 17, 2011

STEPHEN BARTLETT Press-Republican The Press Republican Sun Jul 17, 2011, 03:28 AM EDT

PLATTSBURGH — Form follows function but the former must be beautiful, with every detail considered, architect Jeremiah Oosterbaan told his daughter.

In her father's recent passing, Erika Misener recalled his passion for his work, building their home in Chazy and learning the history surrounding the buildings they passed by during trips to Europe.

"He was a true architect, and Plattsburgh is better for it," said Misener.

Oosterbaan, 82, died July 13 in Naples, Fla., on the 54th wedding anniversary of he and his wife Danielle. He designed several local buildings, including the Press-Republican, Clinton County Government Center, Beth Israel Temple and the Newman Center. He designed several churches, including Sacred Heart Church in Chazy, Sain Mary's of the Lake on Cumberland Head and Saint Alexander's in Morrisonville.

He also designed and later retrofitted many area schools to meet new handicapped standards at the time, renovated some Clinton Community College buildings, worked extensively on Plattsburgh State's campus, and designed the house of artist Rockwell Kent in AuSable.

Oosterbaan was born in Chicago, where he nurtured a love for architecture as a young student tagging along with his father, who ran a painting company, at job sites downtown. He graduated from high school in 1948 and went on to earn a degree in architecture in 1953 from the Illinois Institute of Technology before serving in the Army.

At the Illinois Institute of Technology, he studied under Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, who was a German architect widely regarded as one of the pioneering masters of modern architecture.

Oosterbaan rubbed elbows with Rohe's friend Frank Lloyd Wright, who was an architect, interior designer, writer and educator. Wright, considered the greatest American architect of all time, designed more than 1,000 projects, which resulted in more than 500 completed works.

"My dad was chosen to pick him (Wright) up at the airport and they would stop at a local bar," Misener said. "They got to know each other and my dad got to supervise two of Frank Lloyd Wright's projects."

On July 13, 1957, Oosterbaan married Danielle in Montreal. He opened an architectural practice in Plattsburgh, where he designed and began building a home on Lake Champlain near Chazy, where he would live with his wife and five children.

The modern house was completed in 1982 with glass from floor to ceiling that looked out on Lake Champlain. The entire family worked on the construction of the home, which Oosterbaan lived in 40 years, leaving in 1997 for Florida.

"He had such excitement during the design process and always showed me along the way," Misener said. "He always said form follows function, but he made sure form was beautiful and meticulous, and every detail was thought of."

Oosterbaan designed an extensive list of buildings throughout the North Country, his simple and elegant style, modern and sleek with a concrete theme, brought a contemporary touch to Plattsburgh and the surrounding area.

Oosterbaan's children received consistent architectural instructions growing up in the North Country and during trips to Europe, lessons about the purpose and beauty of buildings and the flow and the strength of structure.

She also knew her father as a history buff and intellectual who invited professor friends from Plattsburgh State to dinner for spirited debates.

The devout Catholic loved to cut firewood, bicycled to work in Plattsburgh from Chazy and knew all phases of building, getting his hands dirty regularly.

He even ended up in jail once after getting into a fight at a diner with the owners, who refused to serve a black man, she said.

But Oosterbaan was always an architect first.

"On one trip we photographed all these buildings in Europe and he would teach us the history of the buildings as we went," Misener said. "I'll never forget all his stories."

Email Stephen Bartlett at: sbartlett@pressrepublican.com