William H. Sippel Jr. *50

William H. Sippel, a prominent Pittsburgh architect, who with his firm greatly changed the face of that city, died Feb. 12, 2007, of a bone marrow blood disease. He was 82.

In the late 1950s, Sippel worked on the design of the civic auditorium, which once had the world’s largest retractable dome. Now named the Mellon Arena, it was a symbol of Pittsburgh’s rebirth. On March 13, 2007, there was an announcement of a replacement — a new Pittsburgh arena.

Sippel’s architecture studies at Pennsylvania State University were interrupted by World War II. After returning to Penn State, he received a fellowship for a year of graduate study at Princeton, after which he received another fellowship for a year of study at the American Academy in Rome and the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris.

By the early 1980s, Sippel had become head of his modernist architecture firm, Deeter Ritchey Sippel, and oversaw many of Pittsburgh’s civic, medical, sports, educational, and office projects. (He designed the Jefferson Hospital and Benedum Hall of Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh on his own.) He was a fellow of the American Institute of Architects.

Sippel is survived by Joanne, his wife of 44 years; and three children.