William Riley Sims, Jr.

William Riley “Bill” Sims, Jr., 86, of Lansing, NY, passed away on February 7, 2025. He was born December 17, 1938, in Gulfport, MS, to William Riley Sims, Sr. and Hallie Pauline (Mills) Sims. He is survived by his wife of 62 years, Jean Lee (Booth) Sims, and his daughter, Hallie Jean Sims, both of Lansing, NY.

Bill had fond memories of growing up among a vast, extended family in Perry County, MS, and later Albuquerque, NM. The first to attend college, he worked at his uncle’s filling station, various construction sites, and as an architectural drafter to put himself through the University of New Mexico, graduating in 1963 with a Bachelor of Architecture. He and Lee spent two memorable summers at Fort Burgwin, NM, documenting old adobe haciendas and moradas for the book, Taos Adobes (Museum of New Mexico Press). This was the first step in a lifelong passion for old houses and historic preservation.

After receiving his Master of Architecture and City Planning from the University of Pennsylvania in 1965, Bill won a Fulbright Scholarship to Oslo, Norway in 1966 where he studied city planning with a focus on urban green spaces. While his wife completed her MFA at the University of California, Berkeley, Bill worked at an architectural and urban design firm in San Francisco while also teaching at Berkeley. He received his PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1974 and held faculty positions at the University of Washington and the Ohio State University. In 1981, Bill joined the faculty of Cornell University’s College of Human Ecology where he served as chair of the Department of Design and Environmental Analysis for many years. He stayed at Cornell for the remainder of his career, conducting innovative research in the fields of building technology and facility planning and management and mentoring generations of students.

Throughout his life, Bill loved renovating and restoring old houses and barns (the more dilapidated the better), and every home he ever lived in bore the stamp of his vision and hard work. Bill’s ashes will be spread on the Lansing farm he called home for nearly 40 years. In lieu of flowers, the family encourages contributions to the SPCA of Tompkins County and the Don Schlegel Design Excellence in Architecture Endowed Scholarship at the University of New Mexico School of Architecture and Planning. Bill did not wish for a funeral service; instead, please swing a hammer, read a Tony Hillerman novel, or take your dog for a walk in the woods at the Sims-Jennings Preserve at Cayuga Cliffs in Lansing, NY.

Memories and photos of Bill may be shared in the guestbook below.