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Aki Ishida appointed director of the Sam Fox School College of Architecture and Graduate School of Architecture & Urban Design

2024-04-15T13:16:00-04:00

Washington University in St. Louis has announced the appointment of Aki Ishida as the next director of the Sam Fox School College of Architecture and Graduate School of Architecture & Urban Design. The current associate professor and interim associate director of Virginia Tech’s School of Architecture will take over duties effective July 1st. Her appointment follows the departure of Heather Woofter, who left St. Louis to become the new Dean at the University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture last summer.

"Aki is an accomplished architect and designer, a respected scholar and a dedicated teacher and mentor. She is fascinated by the ways social conditions can shape the built environment, and she has a long history of collaborating with artists, engineers and health-care professionals, among others. I am confident Aki will be an inspiring leader who will connect deeply with our community and advance the strategic goals of the school and university. We are proud to welcome her t...

Looking at the potential for adaptive reuse in the St. Louis market with HOK’s Eli Hoisington

2024-02-08T12:38:00-05:00

Over the past two decades, St. Louis has gained recognition for its growing bioscience sector. In its 2030 STL Job Plan, Greater St. Louis Inc. identified bioscience (and related fields of agtech and life sciences) as critical to the continued success of our region. To continue to fuel research and innovation in this sector, St. Louis needs talent, capital and partner institutions. It also needs the right labs and buildings.

More and more universities and colleges are pursuing adaptive reuse projects of the kind Hoisington and his team at HOK’s local office completed recently for Washington University in St. Louis in the West End Cortex Innovation Community. As he described, the method is also an increasingly preferred solution for the biotech and life sciences industries. St. Louis has joined Dallas in competing with established hubs like Boston-Cambridge and Pittsburgh for a larger share of the market for both.

Looking to the future, studies have suggested the global markets for adaptive reuse and biotechnology to reach $47 billion and $1.3 trillion, respectively, USD by the end of this decade.

HOK has published a primer on adaptive reuse and laboratory design.

Get Lectured: Washington University in St. Louis, Spring '24

2024-01-14T11:00:00-05:00

The Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis has shared its Spring ‘24 public lecture schedule as part of our Get Lectured rundown of speaking events on campus this semester.

The lectures begin on Friday, January 26, with the Fitzgibbon Charrette Kickoff Lecture from FreelandBuck co-founders Brennan Buck and David Freeland. Artist Josh Kline Bunny and the Charles Burson Visiting Lecture comes next on February 6, followed by the Fumihiko Maki Lecture on February 8 from landscape architect Gina Ford.

February continues with a visit from Swiss architects Louie and Nicole McIntosh on February 16, followed by the Coral Courts Lecture from distinguished Mexican practitioner and academic Fernanda Canales on February 19. The month ends on February 26 with the Historic Preservation Lecture from David Dowell. Cory Henry will deliver his Ruth & Norman Moore Visiting Professor of Architecture Lecture on March 18, followed by D.I.R.T. studio founder Julie Bar...

Get Lectured: Washington University in St. Louis, Fall '23

2023-10-09T11:53:00-04:00

This week, we are continuing our Get Lectured series with a look at the big names coming to The Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis in the Fall 2023 semester.

The semester has already seen appearances from Adam Pendleton, Marie Lorenz, and Crystal Z. Campbell. Events continue on October 19 when Javier García-Germán delivers the Ruth & Norman Moore Visiting Professor of Architecture Lecture. He is followed by Weiss/Manfredi founders Marion Weiss and Michael Manfredi, who will deliver the Abend Family Visiting Critic Endowed Lecture on October 23. Finally, the month closes with a lecture from Artist William Villalongo and data scientist Shraddha Ramani on October 24.

November begins with a lecture from Whitney Museum of American Art Curator Adrienne Edwards on November 2. She is followed by a special event featuring dancer Kyle Abraham and performance theorist Joshua Chambers-Letson on November 8. Both events are co-sponsored by the Kemper Art ...

Washington University in St. Louis launches search for next architecture director

2023-10-04T15:29:00-04:00

Following last week’s look at an opening for a Senior Project Manager at The Menil Collection, we are using this week’s edition of our Job Highlights series to explore an opportunity on Archinect Jobs for the Director of the College of Architecture and Graduate School of Architecture and Urban Design at Washington University in St. Louis.

The role, based in the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, calls for an individual who will “provide leadership to elevate pedagogy and research within the College and across the university, as well as recruit and retain exceptional faculty in their fields.” Candidates for the position will ideally hold a terminal degree in one of the disciplines taught within the school and “demonstrate a track record of research, creative practice, or significant equivalent professional activity appropriate for appointment as a full professor with tenure.”

Archinect Feature: Investigating the Histories and Futures of Water-Based Crises with Nathan Stanfield, ...

Architecture students will reconstruct an original Buckminster Fuller geodesic dome at the National Museum of American History this summer

2023-04-14T14:00:00-04:00

A new collaborative project between the Catholic University of America and the National Museum of American History will offer architecture students the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to repair and reconstruct one of Buckminster Fuller’s famed geodesic domes in the hopes of presenting such structures as a viable resilience tool to be used by designers in the ongoing fight against climate change.

Beginning in early July, a group of students from the school’s undergrad and graduate programs will work together on the reconstruction of the more than 70-year-old The Weatherbreak design created by Fuller protégé Jeffrey Lindsay in the museum’s Flag Hall.

Under the guidance of assistant professor Tonya Ohnstad, lead fabricator Lorenzo Cardim DeAlmeida, and museum curator Abeer Saha, the group will explore its potential usage as affordable, resilient housing. This is the first time the structure will be displayed to the public since entering the museum’s collection and represents the first ...

Get Lectured: Washington University in St. Louis, Spring '23

2023-02-03T12:25:00-05:00

This week, we are continuing our Get Lectured series with a look at the big names coming to The Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis in the Spring 2023 semester for what promises to be a packed slate of public lectures and events.

The month kicks off with Mario Gooden’s February 6 lecture on his practice and recent high-profile designs, followed by a visit from photographer and digital artist Al-An deSouza on February 8. Installation artist Alison Hilmer will follow on February 22, and Artemas Quibble founder Jason Ross will conclude things with a visit to campus on February 23 to discuss his career as an apparel and accessories designer.

March’s events begin with a visit from Mark Lee and Sharon Johnston on March 1 to discuss the work of their firm’s recent projects in Asia and the United States. Hanno founder Sarita Sundar will follow on March 2, preceding visits from Cory Henry on March 3 and Catalan duo Anna and Eugeni Bach on March 6. Tam...

The nature of place: Petra Kempf on architecture, virtual media our shifting urban terrains

2021-12-01T12:13:00-05:00

Pink umbrellas tumble on hidden winds. IP addresses cross like city streets. Bright islands of community float like balloons tethered to gray infrastructural networks.

In her wall-sized drawing “Confronting Urbanization: The Interactive Tissue of Urban Life Pro[log]ue,” Petra Kempf, assistant professor of architecture and urban design in the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis, combines copious data and mischievous symbolism to explore how smartphones, online commerce, and global connectivity are reshaping the urban terrain.

Hires scan of Petra Kempf’s “Confronting Urbanization: The Interactive Tissue of Urban Life Pro[log]ue.” The full drawing, which measures roughly four meters in length, is featured in the 2021 Venice Architecture Biennale. (Photo: Courtesy Petra Kempf)

Some two years in the making, “Confronting Urbanization” is featured in the 2021 Venice Architecture Biennale, one of the world’s premier architectural showcases, as part o...

$75,000 Steedman Fellowship in Architecture launches 2021 call for proposals on the theme of 'Disruption'

2021-10-18T14:50:00-04:00

This post is brought to you by the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis

Climate change, COVID-19, the fight for social justice. In disruptive times, how can architecture help to chart new paths and implement far-reaching solutions?

That’s the question posed by “Disruption,” the 2021 James Harrison Steedman Fellowship in Architecture. The biennial research competition invites early-career architects from around the world to explore how architecture can help to address today’s most pressing global challenges.

The fellowship is organized by the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis, in concert with AIA St. Louis, a chapter of the American Institute of Architects. The winning proposal will receive $75,000 to support up to a year of international travel and research.

A Black Lives Matter mural in Brooklyn, New York. Installed in June 2020, the mural is 375 feet wide, with letters 28 feet tall. (Photo: Shutter...

Get Lectured: Washington University in St. Louis, Fall '21

2021-09-27T19:38:00-04:00

Fall is upon us and as the school term is well underway architecture schools continue to roll out their Fall 2021 lecture series. Continuing with Archinect's coverage of lecture programs we feature presentations from the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis.

Archinect's ongoing Get Lectured series features each school's lectured series and their graphic design prowess with eye-catching lecture posters.

Want to share your school's lecture series? Send us your school's lecture series poster and details to connect@archinect.com.

The school will present 17 virtual and in-person events as part of its fall public lecture series. On September 20, Marcelo Spina and Constance Vale spoke with Robert McCarter, the Ruth and Norman Moore Professor of Architecture, about the book Mute Icons & Other Dichotomies of the Real in Architecture (2021), authored by Spina and Georgia Huljich and edited by Vale.

On September 27 the school hosted a panel discussion...

Watershed moments: Derek Hoeferlin on managing 21st-century waterways

2021-06-14T14:38:00-04:00

From headwaters near Salem, Missouri, the Meramec River snakes 218 free-flowing miles, through 14 counties and scores of towns, skirting St. Louis before emptying into the mighty Mississippi.

Derek Hoeferlin grew up outside St. Louis, on a wooded hill close to the Meramec. As he commuted to school along Interstate 44, he’d cross the river and its sprawling floodplain twice or more each day.

“It’s always mesmerized me,” Hoeferlin recalls. “Something about its meandering made me daydream. Rivers don’t give a damn about north or south, east or west — or interstates for that matter. Water flows where water wants to flow.”

Today Hoeferlin is a licensed architect and chair of both landscape architecture and urban design programs in the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts. In many ways, rivers have become his life’s work. But the daydreams are tempered by a growing sense of urgency.

“Too often, architects are responding to emergencies,” he adds. “It’s triage work. But we need to be m...

Get Lectured: Washington University in St. Louis, Fall '20

2020-09-22T18:54:00-04:00

As schools are ramping up for the Fall term, it's time for Archinect's latest edition of Get Lectured. This ongoing series features each school's lectured series and their graphic design prowess with eye-catching lecture posters.

With many schools holding virtual events, distance is no longer an issue when it comes to hearing from design professionals and academics within the industry. Check back regularly to keep track of upcoming lectures you don't want to miss.

Want to share your school's lecture series? Send us your school's lecture series poster and details to connect@archinect.com.

In preparation for their fall 2020 public events, the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis is gearing up for an amazing line-up of 20 speakers addressing topics in urban planning, architecture, and social injustices within architecture, as well as in art and design. The School’s Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum will present lectures by several notable speakers ...

Washington University publishes “Approach,” a compendium of student work from the College of Architecture and Graduate School of Architecture & Urban Design

2020-04-22T11:57:00-04:00

This post is brought to you by Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis an Archinect School Partner

The Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis is pleased to announce the publication of the latest graduate and undergraduate editions of Approach, which celebrate student work produced by architecture, landscape architecture, and urban design students.

"The work featured in both Approach publications reflects how, through critical thinking, research, and unique collaborative structures, our school gives students the means and motivation to improve our world," says Heather Woofter, director of the College of Architecture and Graduate School of Architecture & Urban Design. "The publications also evoke the life of the school—a place of experimentation, where our full range of programs combine to create forums for new modes of thinking. Every day, students interact with architects, landscape and urban designers, art...

Get Lectured: Washington University in St. Louis, Spring '20

2020-02-25T09:12:00-05:00

Archinect's Architecture School Lecture Guide for Winter/Spring 2020

A new school term means it's time for Archinect's latest edition of Get Lectured, an ongoing series where we feature a school's lecture series—and their snazzy posters—for the current term. Check back regularly to keep track of any upcoming lectures you don't want to miss.

Want to share your school's lecture series? Send us your school's lecture series poster and details to connect@archinect.com.

The Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis has a stellar line-up of spring 2020 public events highlighting topics in architecture, landscape architecture, and urban design. Some of the speakers at the College of Architecture and the Graduate School of Architecture & Urban Design include Mabel O. Wilson, Lola Sheppard, Tom Leader, Kenneth Frampton, Fuensanta Nieto, Thomas Phifer, José Zabala, Charles A. Birnbaum, and Wiel Arets, to name a few.

Other events this semester include a film s...

Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts announces new full-tuition scholarships

2019-12-10T18:15:00-05:00

Since its founding in 2006, the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis has established a national reputation for addressing critical social and environmental challenges. Innovative programs, curricula, and collaborative initiatives have driven substantial growth in graduate enrollment and in the school’s campus footprint — both of which have roughly doubled in size.

Now, the Sam Fox School is launching a new scholarship program designed to enhance recruitment and interdisciplinary exchange across its graduate degree programs.

The Sam Fox Ambassadors Graduate Fellowship Program, which will welcome its inaugural class in fall 2020, will provide full-tuition waivers and accompanying travel stipends, as well as unique academic and professional opportunities, for 10 applicants each year, across the following graduate degree programs:

Master of Architecture
Master of Fine Arts in Illustration & Visual Culture
Master of Fine Arts in Visual Art
Master of L...

Sam Fox School names Hoeferlin chair of landscape architecture & urban design

2019-11-06T13:32:00-05:00

Associate professor Derek Hoeferlin has been named chair of the landscape architecture and urban design programs in the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis.

Hoeferlin, who joined the Sam Fox School’s College of Architecture and Graduate School of Architecture & Urban Design in 2005, is principal of the [dhd] derek hoeferlin design. His work spans architecture, infrastructure, landscape, and urban design, with a particular focus on water-based design strategies.

“From climate change and sustainability to urban density and the creation of public space, landscape architecture and urban design provide critical means for addressing many of today’s most pressing issues,” said Carmon Colangelo, the Ralph J. Nagel Dean of the Sam Fox School.

“Derek’s unique background as an architect with expertise in water management systems and adaptive land strategies, along with his ability to work collaboratively across disciplines and his dedication to teaching...

Decoys & Depictions: Images of the Digital Symposium at Washington University in St. Louis

2019-10-18T13:58:00-04:00

This post is brought to you by the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis an Archinect School Partner

In architecture today, nothing is what it seems. Familiar outputs in the form of drawings, models, and photographs are now produced through sophisticated digital tools and techniques. And though these products of electronic imaging may seem like replicas of their predecessors, they are in fact something entirely new.

So argues Constance Vale, assistant professor of architecture in the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis. From October 24-26, Vale will convene Decoys & Depictions: Images of the Digital, a symposium exploring how digital images are constructed; the implications for how architects and artists operate; and the potential effects within social and political realms.

Current Interests (Matthew Au & Mira Henry), “Hedge” (2018). Featured in the Des Lee Gallery exhibition.

“Decoys are objects ...

KieranTimberlake's transformative addition to Washington University of St. Louis Sam Fox School to debut this fall

2019-09-09T19:04:00-04:00

Transformative additions to the Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts campus designed by architects KieranTimberlake are set to make their public debut this fall.

Located on the Washington University in St. Louis Danforth Campus, the project includes the addition of a new academic building, Weil Hall, as well as extensive expansions and renovations to the existing Fumihiko Maki-designed Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum. These projects represent part of a much larger $280 million effort to rework the university's East End, and include replacing a series of disjointed surface parking lots and lawns with a grassy expanse dotted with trees. Master planning for the East End was led by landscape architect Michael Vergason.

Work on the remaining structures included in the larger East End plan is set to continue into 2021.

The new architecture building is marked a central commons containing seating areas and a multi-story grow wall. Image courtesy of ©KieranTimberlake/studioAMD

The newly c...

Lily Zhang wins Steedman Fellowship; $50K travel grant among largest U.S. architecture awards

2019-04-03T15:47:00-04:00

If architecture is in a relationship, posits Lily Zhang, then storage is its selfless soul mate: essential and supportive but typically overlooked.

“Storage allows architecture to maintain order,” said Zhang, an architectural designer based in New York and winner of the 2018-19 James Harrison Steedman Memorial Fellowship in Architecture.

“We keep our active inhabitable areas free of clutter and the appearance of overindulgence,” Zhang added, “while banishing unused and unwanted items to the basement, the warehouse, the broom cupboard or the mechanical room.

“Yet rather than dismissing these spaces as passive and inert, what we stash away and where we hide them are as revealing as what we display, if not more.”

Planometric and sectional views of shared storage spaces, from “Collective Clutter,” which proposes new spatial and socially engaged models of storage. (Image: Courtesy of Lily Zhang)

Granted since 1925, the biennial Steedman Fellowship is organized by the College of Architect...

Sir David Adjaye to receive Washington University International Humanities Prize

2018-09-05T16:36:00-04:00

The building tells a story.

It begins underground, in somber galleries recounting slavery’s brutality. It spirals upward, through the Civil War and segregation, into sun-drenched spaces recounting the civil rights era and Black Lives Matter. It’s a tale of challenges faced and works yet to be accomplished.

Since opening in 2016, the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture, designed by British architect Sir David Adjaye, has become arguably the nation’s most prestigious, acclaimed and beloved new structure.

On Oct. 29, Adjaye will receive the 2018 International Humanities Prize from Washington University in St. Louis.

Granted biennially, the prize honors the lifetime work of a noted scholar, writer or artist who has made a significant and sustained contribution to the world of letters or the arts. Previous winners include Orhan Pamuk (2006), Michael Pollan (2008), Francine Prose (2010), Ken Burns (2012), Marjorie Perloff (2014) and Bill T. Jones (2016).

Smit...

Rigorous Design and Socially Engaged Practice Go Hand-in-Hand at Washington University in St. Louis

2018-04-05T09:00:00-04:00

This post is brought to you by Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis

With its tree-lined streets and stately architecture, Shaw is among St. Louis’ oldest and most elegant neighborhoods.

It is also among the city’s most integrated. According to U.S. Census data, in 2010, Shaw’s population was 51.7 percent white and 41.9 percent black.

But neighbors can be feet away and worlds apart.

Building typologies in Shaw. Courtesy Cierra Higgins, Ashley Holder, Danning Liang, and Suyin Yao.

“In Shaw, segregation is social rather than spatial,” says Cierra Higgins, who is pursuing dual master’s degrees in architecture and urban design in the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis.

Last fall, Higgins spent months researching and exploring Shaw as part of Segregation by Design. The class—developed by Sam Fox School assistant professor Catalina Freixas and Mark Abbott of Harris-Stowe State University, with funding from The...

Rebuilding the American City: Patty Heyda on "the politics behind the design"

2018-02-07T12:42:00-05:00

How do you restore community? Do you honor local context? Or do you bulldoze everything and try to start again?

Few places embody that choice more starkly than Botanical Heights, the St. Louis neighborhood formerly known as McRee Town. Looking east from Thurman Avenue, one sees gated blocks of large, suburban-style new construction. To the west, homeowners are rehabbing existing properties and redeveloping vacant parcels. The old commercial district bustles with shops, restaurants and a Montessori school.

“As architects and urban designers, we tend to focus on form,” said Patty Heyda, associate professor in the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis. “But there are so many forces, especially in our increasingly privatized economy, that underlie those formal decisions. What are the politics behind the designs?”

In "Rebuilding the America City" (2016), Heyda and co-author David Gamble, of Harvard University, offer Botanical Heights as a case study...

Heather Woofter to lead architecture programs at Washington University in St. Louis

2017-06-20T17:15:00-04:00

Heather Woofter, co-director of the St. Louis-based firm Axi:Ome llc, has been promoted to director of the College of Architecture and Graduate School of Architecture & Urban Design, both part of the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis.

Woofter joined the Sam Fox School as an assistant professor in 2005; has chaired the graduate architecture program since 2010; and became a full professor in 2015. Her appointment begins July 1.

She will succeed Bruce Lindsey, the E. Desmond Lee Professor for Community Collaboration and current president of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA). Lindsey has led architecture for the past 10 years, and will join the faculty after a yearlong sabbatical.

“Bruce leaves a significant legacy,” said Carmon Colangelo, the Ralph J. Nagel Dean of the Sam Fox School. “His vision and energetic leadership have helped to shape the Sam Fox School, promoting interdisciplinary connections across campus a...

Washington University in St. Louis to phase out styrene next fall, students express mixed reactions

2016-04-19T13:10:00-04:00

Many current architecture students are excited about the removal of styrene mainly because of the various health hazards...[However,] others are worried that it will negatively impact their work and productivity. Sophomore Sam Landay explained that it’s not uncommon for architecture students to put their projects before their health. Even outspoken opponents of styrene admit the necessity of utilizing the material.

‘Drawing Ambience: Alvin Boyarsky and the Architectural Association’

2014-08-12T13:09:00-04:00

Is architecture a trade or an art?

For Alvin Boyarsky, the answer was clear. As longtime chair of the Architectural Association (AA) in London, and one of the most influential figures in 20th-century design education, Boyarsky argued that architecture was not only a profession but also an artistic venture — an open, wide-ranging practice that comprises drawing and publication as much as it engages design and construction.

This fall, the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum at Washington University in St. Louis will present “Drawing Ambience: Alvin Boyarsky and the Architectural Association,” the first public museum exhibition of drawings from Boyarsky’s private collection.

Featuring early formative works on paper by a generation of prominent architects — including Frank Gehry, Zaha Hadid, Daniel Libeskind, Rem Koolhaas and Bernard Tschumi — “Drawing Ambience” explores Boyarsky’s role as a collector of drawings and also, metaphorically speaking, of the ideas and people that have come to defin...

Sunflowers, pocket parks and other ideas aim to beautify vacant lots

2013-04-29T14:44:00-04:00

If you live in any large ‘rustbelt’ city in the Midwest, and St. Louis in particular, you’re probably all too familiar with the site of vacant lots. Empty land where homes and businesses used to be present a tough challenge for cities. This weekend, ground will be broken on several projects which aim to change the way neighborhoods and cities deal with vacant property. The Washington University Sustainable Land Lab Competition chose five winning designs from 48 design submissions.