Former Princeton University School of Architecture Dean Robert Geddes has passed away at 99.

Born in Philadelphia in 1923, Geddes served in the United States Army Air Force during World War II before finishing his studies at Yale and then earning an M.Arch from the Harvard Graduate School of Design. From there, Geddes went on to practice briefly under Hugh Stubbins in Cambridge, designing what would be the runner-up in the Sydney Opera House competition before returning to Philadelphia to form Geddes Qualls Brecher Cunningham Architects (or GQCA) in 1960.

Their most significant building, the 125,000-square-foot Brutalist Philadelphia Police Headquarters has turned into one of the city’s most fraught and essentially iconic landmarks. After initially being intended as a progressive example of then-Mayor Richardson Dilworth’s “de-politicized” police force, the structure would later take on a more sinister connotation as a symbol of violent authoritarianism and abuse thanks to (un-authorized) design changes enacted by his successor Frank Rizzo.

Geddes, for his part, had said repeatedly that he wanted to see it reused in a social justice capacity in response to the debate over its future.

While accomplished as a designer of modernist structures (including two at the Institute for Advanced Study), Geddes is perhaps better known for the transformative nature of his academic career. First at the University of Pennsylvania and then later at Princeton, Geddes is credited with shaping an interdisciplinary approach to architectural education. During his tenure as Princeton’s Dean beginning in 1965, Geddes worked to incorporate contemporary sociology in supplement to its urban planning curriculum. He also brought luminaries such as Kenneth Frampton and Robert Maxwell to campus and was responsible for a host of other changes, including the admission of women to the program for the first time, that made the school largely what it is today.

In unison with his academic commitments, Geddes furthered his award-winning practice with the designs for several higher education facilities at campuses throughout the region and the eventual master plan update for Philadelphia’s Center City, which Paul Goldberger and others praised highly.

Geddes was also the author of the influential 2013 title, Fit: An Architect’s Manifesto, and is survived by his two children.