Jim Straw, award-winning architect and prolific civic leader, has died at 76
His skill was preserving historic buildings and improving public spaces. "Without Jim Straw, there would be no such public memorial to O.V. Catto in Philadelphia today," Mayor Kenney said in 2017.
Jim Straw, 76, of Philadelphia, award-winning architect who specialized in historic preservation, restoration, and adaptive reuse projects; tireless civic and cultural leader; and versatile musician, gourmet cook, wine connoisseur, and gardener, died Monday, Aug. 8, of complications of leukemia at Pennsylvania Hospital.
Noted by his family for his “keen intellect and boundless energy,” Mr. Straw was the managing principal of Philadelphia’s KSK Architects Planners Historians from 2009 until his retirement in 2014. He joined the firm after earning a master’s degree in urban design from Columbia University in 1971, led its preservation division from 1997 to 2009, and directed numerous award-winning urban design and preservation projects in Philadelphia, West Virginia, Egypt, China, and elsewhere.
His restoration and reuse projects in Philadelphia include turning the Ridgway Library Building on South Broad Street into the Philadelphia High School for Creative and Performing Arts in 1997, and remaking Memorial Hall in Fairmount Park into the Please Touch Museum in 2010. He also restored the John Johnson House historic site in Germantown in 2008, and in 2017 was instrumental in the placement of the Octavius V. Catto Memorial statue at City Hall.
“Jim Straw is a kind, conscientious, and caring private citizen who has given so much of himself to this city,” Mayor Kenney said of Mr. Straw in a 2017 letter to an award selection committee at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. “He should be emulated as well as thanked and recognized for all of his time, efforts and hard work.”
Indeed, Mr. Straw was a leader for many local civic and cultural organizations for nearly half a century. He was commissioner of the Philadelphia Department of Parks and Recreation, and past president of the Union League of Philadelphia, Philadelphia Chamber Ensemble, and Orpheus Club of Philadelphia.
He was chair of the board at Partners for Sacred Places, Opera Philadelphia, Astral Artists, the Percent for Art Advisory Council, and the Union League’s Abraham Lincoln Foundation. He was an executive committee board member at the Mann Center for the Performing Arts, chair of the executive committee at the Philadelphia Flower Show, and cochair of the Catto Memorial Fund.
“The biggest takeaway [from fraternity life] for me was giving back to the community,” Mr. Straw said in a 2018 video after he was named a Significant Sig of the Delta Psi chapter of the Sigma Chi fraternity at RPI. “That … influenced my own career as an architect, but more than that, giving back to the community here in Philadelphia.”
Keith, his wife of 44 years, said: “When he put his mind to something, he went full force ahead. He didn’t do anything halfway. He was creative, and when he reorganized something it was usually twice as good as before.”
Mr. Straw won many honors for his work, including national preservation awards in 1998 and 2012 from the National Trust for Historic Preservation, a 2008 Pennsylvania Historic Preservation Award from Preservation Pennsylvania, and a Grand Jury Award from the Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia. He shared the Philadelphia Art Alliance’s 2009 Award of Merit with his wife.
“He was an intelligent, fun, vivacious gentleman,” a friend said in an online tribute. “He told great stories.” Another friend noted “his diverse accomplishments in a life that made a difference.”
Born April 4, 1946, in Teaneck, N.J., Mr. Straw graduated from RPI in 1969 with bachelor’s degrees in building sciences and architecture. He met Keith Ratrie on a tennis court at 10th and Lombard Streets shortly after moving to Philadelphia, and they married in 1978 and lived in Society Hill for 45 years.
Eclectic in his interests, Mr. Straw was drawn to music and art, sailing and fishing, and wine and food. He sang baritone and played saxophone, clarinet, flute, and bass guitar; collected dozens of works of female artists; sailed from Nova Scotia to Ireland; and was a proud East Coast delegate to the fraternity of Burgundy wine connoisseurs known as the Confrérie des Chevaliers du Tastevin.
He wore a signature bow tie, was active at the Old Pine Street Presbyterian Church, and was the subject of a 2003 story in The Inquirer about entering the Philadelphia Flower Show. “I think there is a myth that the whole showing process is overwhelming, but it is a myth,” said Mr. Straw, who entered his prized orchids that year. “I got a big charge out of entering. Once you show, you are hooked for life.”
His wife said: “He listened very well, and he had a wonderful ability to teach. He was patient and calm. He made things better.”
In addition to his wife, Mr. Straw is survived by other relatives.
A celebration of his life is to be held at 5 p.m. Friday, Oct. 21, at the Union League, 140 S. Broad St., Philadelphia, Pa. 19102. To attend, please respond to JimStrawMemorialRSVP@gmail.com by Oct. 10.
Donations in his name may be made to Astral Artists, 1500 Walnut St., Suite 413, Philadelphia, Pa. 19102; Broad Street Ministry, PO Box 22656, Philadelphia, Pa. 19110; and Old Pine Conservancy, 412 Pine St., Philadelphia, Pa. 19106.