Nils Luderowski, Adirondack architect, dies at 79

Nils Luderowski, a one-eyed architect who found his voice exploring Adirondack Camp

Style, died at home surrounded by his family. He was 79.

Nils was the eldest son of a Swedish mother and Polish-American father who met at the

Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan. He grew up with his mother in rural Sweden,

completed university in Stockholm, and moved to the United States to attend Pratt

Institute in Brooklyn, NY. Nils met Muriel while skiing in Zermatt, Switzerland. They

married in 1978 and thereafter Muriel joined Nils in Brooklyn. Nils worked for The

Walker Group, an architectural firm, before starting his own design group. He also

taught as an adjunct professor at the Parsons School of Design.

Nils became a registered architect in 1993 and moved with his family to Keene, NY in

1996. He opened a small office in Keene Valley and began, at age 54, a relationship

with Adirondack architecture that would become the great, burning love that defined the

rest of his life. Refusing to engage with computer-aided design, Nils worked and

reworked in graphite pencil, color pencil, and Prismacolor markers across pages and

pages of drafting paper. He felt joy in a cantilevered roof, the way that pencil can add

life to a line, dry gin martinis, the smugness of being left-handed, the stillness of the

pond by his house, and the search for the perfect walking stick. Unable to gather

supplies before his final trip to the hospital, Nils drew a sketch of his bathroom in order

to direct his daughter to select the correct cologne. He never missed an opportunity to

draw.

Nils is survived by Muriel, his wife of 44 years; Eva and Ana, his daughters; Christer, his

brother; Taya, his sister; Coco; over 200 buildings across the Adirondacks; and many

unfinished projects. The M. B. Clark, Inc., Funeral Home in Lake Placid, NY is in charge of arrangements. Please visit www.mbclarkfuneralhome.com to share a memory or leave condolences for the Luderowski family.

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