Paul Katz, president and managing principal of the architectural firm Kohn Pederson Fox Associates (KPF), died of septic shock Nov. 20, 2014, while being treated for cancer. He was 57.

Katz grew up in Cape Town, South Africa, and earned a bachelor of architecture degree in 1982 from the Technion—Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa. Moving to the U.S., he received a master of architecture degree from Princeton in 1985. He joined KPF as a designer in 1984, and became president and managing principal in 2008, overseeing a staff of 670.

In an age of specialists, Katz was an architect of broad range who focused on fine detail as well as on the big urban picture. Dealing with the aims of developers and his firm’s architects, he negotiated the building of some of the tallest mixed-use structures in the world.

His other KPF projects included a huge Tokyo complex and London’s Canary Wharf redevelopment. In New York City, Katz was involved in the master plan for the Hudson Yards on Manhattan’s West Side and in KPF’s 5 million square feet of commercial structures under construction there.

Katz is survived by his wife, Ziva Freiman; two children; and his parents.

Graduate memorials are prepared by the APGA.

Graduate Class of 1985