By Bonnie L. Cook, Inquirer Staff Writer

POSTED: Sunday, December 30, 2012, 3:01 AM

James Nelson Kise II, 75, a Philadelphia architect and urban planner who left his aesthetic mark on the local landscape but whose touch was felt as far away as Venezuela and Egypt, died Wednesday, Dec. 26, of a heart ailment at his home in Freeport, Maine.

Mr. Kise was a principal of Kise, Straw & Kolodner, the firm he cofounded in 1984 from the remnants of David A. Crane & Partners. In the role of architect and planner for many high-profile projects, Mr. Kise blended his advocacy of contemporary design with what he saw as the need to preserve historic buildings.

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