Mr. Rapson was the architect for many buildings in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minn., including the original Guthrie Theater (1963), the Philip W. Pillsbury House (1965) and the Cedar Square West (now Riverside Plaza, 1973). He also designed single and multi-family housing, churches and such institutional buildings as the Rarig Center for the Performing Arts (1972) on the Twin Cities campus and the Humanities and Fine Arts Building (1973) on the Morris Campus of the University of Minnesota. He also designed the U.S. embassies in Stockholm and Copenhagen.

Mr. Rapson brought modern design to the university but also the vision for an integrated approach to design that led him to establish the program in landscape architecture and advocate for all university design disciplines to be under one unit. That dream was only fairly recently realized with the founding of the College of Design in 2006.

Mr. Rapson led the School of Architecture from 1954 to 1984. Rapson Hall, which houses the department of landscape architecture and other units, is named in his honor. He also helped establish the Ralph Rapson Traveling Fellowship.

Recognition for his work includes five national American Institute of Architecture awards, the ACSA/AIA Topaz Medal for Educational Excellence, and five Progressive Architecture awards.

Thomas Fisher, dean of the College of Design, notes a widespread revival of interest in Mr. Rapson?EUR??,,????'???s work, particularly his low-cost, prefabricated housing ideas and lightweight furniture designs. ?EUR??,,????'??Ralph?EUR??,,????'???s passing represents the end of an era, not just for Minnesota?EUR??,,????'???s design community, but also for American architecture. One of our last living links to the first generation of Modernists, such as the famous Finish architect Alvar Aalto, is now gone.?EUR??,,????'??

Mr. Rapson graduated from the University of Michigan and Cranbrook Academy. He was a colleague of modern designers like Charles Eames and Eero Saarinen, and a fellow educator with Aalto at MIT.

Mr. Rapson headed the architecture department of the New Bauhaus School in Chicago before coming to Minnesota in 1954 and establishing the Ralph Rapson and Associates, Inc., in Minneapolis. His architect-son, Toby, a graduate of the University of Minnesota, is now the firm?EUR??,,????'???s president.

Mr. Rapson?EUR??,,????'???s career and contributions are detailed in the 1999 book, Ralph Rapson: Sixty Years of Modern Design, co-authored by Rapson?EUR??,,????'???s son, Rip, Jane King Hession and Bruce Wright. The authors note in the book?EUR??,,????'???s introduction that Mr. Rapson?EUR??,,????'???s focus was teaching, design practice, mentoring of students and faculty and community involvement. The authors note: ?EUR??,,????'??Ralph ?EUR??,,????'??Rapson may well have drawn more people than any other architect past or present?EUR??,,????'??? This focus is telling, because it shows that he has never lost sight of the fact that architecture is first and foremost, about the people who use it.?EUR??,,????'??