José Oubrerie, a French architect with ties to many leading modernists, has died at the age of 91. 

The longtime Knowlton School professor was noted for his academic accomplishments and for being one of the last surviving members of Le Corbusier’s studio. He inspired many generations of students to long careers in architecture, departing with his own being both highly decorated and admired within the broader community of professional design.

"He showed a direction for architecture during a time of great confusion," friend Steven Holl wrote in a tribute published to his firm’s website yesterday. "Now at a time where architecture seems to have drifted into commercial activity with firms of hundreds of people, he reminded us that in the office of Le Corbusier, at the end, there were only six employees including José. His dedication to architecture came with a jolly sense of humor and enormous bank of stories, which shall be passed down by many as dedicated as he was."

Oubrerie and Holl collaborated to design the Chapel of the Mosquitoes in Rhinebeck, New York, in 2015. 

A 2014 feature interview between Oubrerie and Archinect senior contributing writer Orhan Ayyüce can be read in full here.

Oubrerie was known for his work on the Centre Le Corbusier museum in Zurich, which was completed in 1967, just after the death of his mentor at the age of 77. He was also closely involved with the design of the Église Saint-Pierre in Loire. Other important commissions credited to his name include the French Cultural Center in Syria and the conceptual Miller House in Lexington, Kentucky. He formed Atelier José Oubrerie in Paris in 1967 before immigrating to America and forming a new studio, Atelier Wylde-Oubrerie, in 1989.

Outside of practice, Oubrerie contributed to the faculties of the University of Kentucky, Columbia GSAPP, The Cooper Union, and other universities in France and Italy, in addition to the Knowlton School, where he was a department Chair for six years and taught until his retirement in 2013.

Among his many numerous honors, Oubrerie was promoted to the Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres (one of the French state's highest cultural distinctions) by the country's Ministry of Culture in 2009.