Distiguished Alumni

Kurt Altvater is the Senior Vice President of the National Loan and Portfolio Sale Advisors of CBRE Capital Markets. He has over forty years of experience in commercial real estate and participated in the placement of more than $23 billion in loan and property sales at CBRE. Kurt has been a leading sales professional and received CRBE’s National Teamwork Award multiple times.

After graduating from LAEP at Utah State, Kurt spent two years as an architectural designer and planner in San Francisco. The turning point in his career happened while working for John Portman, the author of “Architect as Developer,” at Embarcadero Center. There Kurt learned that the client holds a key role in any project and the importance of balancing aesthetic as well as economic goals. His experience as a project manager in development reaffirmed that the best possible outcomes resulted from collaborative team-oriented process involving designers, planners, users, contractors, and capital partners.

While working with a number of banks, Kurt executed over $1 billion in property loans with a concentration in loans secured by hotel and retail properties. During the savings and loan crisis of the early 1990s, he noticed that Darwinian economics often prevailed and only the strongest projects survived. He also observed that the balance of good design and good economics often resulted in the best outcomes. After spending eleven years at investment banks making real estate loans sold on Wall Street (CMBS) he transitioned to CBRE to advise lenders on the sales of property loans since 2008.

Kurt serves on the LAEP Advancement Board. Since 2015, he has supported students by offering his design, development, and finance expertise during the Utah Real Estate Challenge and promotes the qualifications of LAEP students to the Wasatch front real estate investment community.

Michael Budge (BLA, 2004)

Michael Budge brings over 15 years of innovative site design to his practice in Salt Lake City. Known for a unique synthesis of conceptual rigor, technical know-how and an unsurpassed attention to detail, his designs extract influences from the site and surrounding context to create outdoor spaces with a simple and clear aesthetic, that have won recognition on both the local and national stage.

In 2014 he co-founded LOCI, an award-winning Landscape Architecture, Land Planning, Urban design firm that tackles a wide range of project types and scales—from urban design, resorts, institutions, parks and open space, neighborhood and community planning, mixed-use development and private residences.

This diverse range of projects has taken their work into over 38 different countries and 6 different continents.

From time to time, we have to say goodbye to our alumni. We invite you to join us in honoring the lives and impact of these alumni who have recently passed.

Please note, this list was provided by the Office of Advancement at Utah State University, and includes individuals with a recorded death date between August 1, 2022 and July 11, 2023.

GERE SMITH, 1938-2023

It is with great sadness that we share the news that former LAEP faculty member Gerald L. Smith passed away on March 13, from complications of Lewy body dementia.

Following completion of his BLA degree at Iowa State, Gere moved to California, where he had the good fortune to work with noted landscape architects Thomas Church and Garret Eckbo. Eckbo convinced him to return to school for an MLA, which he completed at the University of Illinois in 1968. While there, Gere met fellow students Craig Johnson, Vern Budge, Jerry Fuhriman, and Wendell Morse, all of whom he would eventually join as fellow faculty members at Utah State.

Gere began his teaching career at the University of Illinois in 1965 while still a student, and came to USU in 1968, where he served as a faculty member until 1979. He moved on to become Department Head at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, where he retired in 2001. Despite his move to the west coast, Gere and his wife Sally retained a soft-spot in their hearts for Cache Valley, and acquired a cabin in their beloved Logan Canyon to which they would return every summer until just a few years ago. He maintained close ties with the LAEP Department, serving as a member of the LAEP Advancement Board for many years.

Gere loved the outdoors, and would join his former colleagues frequently for their annual fall “Island Park Seminar” (aka fishing trip) on the Henry’s Fork in Island Park. He had a passion for bicycling, completing a ride across America after his retirement, collecting pledges from well-wishers to benefit both the LAEP Department and the Cal Poly LA Department.

Gere was a true craftsman who sought perfection in everything he undertook. He was an avid sketch artist, whose prolific output graced the walls of his home. An “in progress” colored pencil sketch occupied his drawing board at the time of his passing.

Gere was very active in the Council of Educators of Landscape Architecture and the Landscape Architecture Accreditation Board, serving as an external reviewer on visiting accreditation teams on numerous occasions. He was named a Fellow in the American Society of Landscape Architects in 2001.

Gere was interviewed by MLA student Aaron Smith on 8-22-2013 as part of the 75th Anniversary celebration of the LAEP Department, a transcript of which may be accessed here.