Archinect - News

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.

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, ...

David Adjaye previews his Asaase III earthwork installation for COUNTERPUBLIC in St. Louis

2023-06-02T13:51:00-04:00

It’s very significant. In terms of personal meaning, I have approached it as a kind of meditation and reflection on the idea of deep time—planetary and galaxy time that is beyond the human timeline. Asaase III is, in a way, a representation of how I imagine an ideal city—a city that is in symbiosis with the Earth, acknowledging it and honoring it in a very deep way, but also absolutely transforming it and creating new features.

The new (permanent) addition to the Griot Museum of Black History is Adjaye’s second foray into rammed earth sculpture, following a 2021 installation at the Gagosian Gallery in New York. COUNTERPUBLIC curator Allison Glenn says the commission was born of her desire to connect the museum to the history of land use and the story of architecture in the community — in addition to Adjaye’s previous U.S. museum designs.

Adjaye says he was motivated to use materials as a means of invoking historical reference in light and also breaking us from our lost sense of place in universal spacetime, adding his concern that "Artifice has taken over our sense of reverence for the Earth."

The three-month COUNTERPUBLIC exhibition is on view in St. Louis until July 15th.

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...

Adjaye announces new rammed earth commission for The Griot Museum of Black History in St. Louis

2022-11-28T12:03:00-05:00

The Griot Museum of Black History will soon be home to a public art installation from the designer of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Architect David Adjaye will design Asaase III, a monument that surrounds the museum. The structure will be built of rammed earth, a process using soil and other natural materials from the St. Louis region to make solid structures.

The rammed earth installation is the new Order of Merit appointee’s second such following his well-profiled commission for Antwaun Sargent’s Social Works show at the Gagosian Gallery in New York. Adjaye had also incorporated earthwork into his commission for the 2019 Venice Biennale and design for the Thabo Mbeki Presidential Library and has referred to it beyond materiality as “another creature” that will join 30 other designs in the three-month public art installation COUNTERPUBLIC, which debuts this Spring.

“Since it’s outdoors and it's intended to be a community of public peace, we really wanted it to be reflective of that,” the museum’s founder Lois Conley said of the deeper inspiration behind the project. “Some of the soils will be coming from various areas that had relevantly large African American populations, whether they exist anymore or not. We still wanted to have some of that material.”

Snøhetta's St. Louis Symphony Hall renovation and expansion will be music to preservationist ears

2022-03-16T17:10:00-04:00

The historic home of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) is about to get a makeover as Snøhetta has been named the lead designer for the expansion and modernization of its Midtown headquarters called Powell Hall.

The new 65,000-square-foot expansion will add space for education programs, a new lobby, and an enhanced backstage area for the orchestra musicians inside the 97-year-old building.

Snøhetta will center the expansion on a newly created welcome plaza that serves as a “lyrical” gateway to the orchestra’s patrons and ensemble members, the latter of which will be able to enjoy a backend addition featuring all-new rehearsal spaces, dressing rooms, recording suites, and much-needed storage areas.

We’re renovating and expanding!

Today marks the start of a new chapter for your SLSO and its historic home, Powell Hall, as we announce the first major renovation and expansion of the space that has been our home for more than 50 years.

Learn more https://t.co/U1SpgVJpKK pic.twitter.com...

HOK cofounder Gyo Obata passes away at 99

2022-03-10T12:36:00-05:00

HOK has announced the death of the studio’s cofounder Gyo Obata, who passed away on March 8th at age 99. One of three principals who founded the practice in St. Louis, Missouri, Obata’s architectural career spanned six decades until his retirement in 2012.

HOK Cofounders with Priory Model. Left to Right: Gyo Obata, George Hellmuth, George Kassabaum. Image Credit: HOK

Obata was born in San Francisco in 1923 and enrolled in the architecture program at the University of California, Berkeley in 1942. His studies were interrupted by the internment of people of Japanese ancestry during World War II, which would see him travel to St. Louis to continue his architectural training at Washington University — one of the only U.S. universities which continued to accept Japanese-American students. Obata concluded his education with a Masters in Architecture and Urban Design from Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan in 1946.

Priory Chapel at Saint Louis Abbey. Image Credit: HOK...

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...

Atelier Cory Henry and Constance Vale Studio joins Höweler + Yoon, Tatiana Bilbao, and four others in 'On Olive' housing redevelopment in St. Louis

2021-05-14T13:13:00-04:00

A redevelopment project led by Owen Development in St. Louis' Grand Center Arts District invites a group of groundbreaking architects to design homes for the St. Louis community. The "On Olive" redevelopment will be transformed by LA's Michael Maltzan Studio, New York City-based MOS Studio, Boston-based Höweler + Yoon, Mexico City-based Productora Studio, Guadalajara-based Macias Peredo, St. Louis-based Mitchell-Wall, and Tatiana Bilbao of Tatiana Bilbao ESTUDIO.

According to the On Olive site, Owen Development brought together local and internationally recognized architects to "design homes for single-family housing within a three-and-one-half acre urban landscape. The seventeen homes are thoughtfully placed throughout the development, combined with a fascinating mix of amenities and sculptural attractions." Joining the list of powerhouse architects who will design homes on the north side of Olive Street is Cory Henry of Atelier Cory Henry and Constance Vale of Constance Vale Studi...

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 ...

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...

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 ...

Interboro Partners, H3 Studio among designers of 17-acre “Nature Playscape” for Forest Park, St. Louis

2019-07-16T19:34:00-04:00

“We want this to be an evolving place for people to come back again and again,” said [Lesley Hoffarth, president and executive director of Forest Park Forever]. It will change with the seasons and change as people decide how to use it, she said.

Having easier access to green urban spaces and thoughtfully sprucing up public parks would ideally be higher priorities for cities across the U.S. In Missouri, nonprofit conservancy Forest Park Forever and the City of St. Louis celebrated the groundbreaking yesterday of the upcoming 17-acre Nature Playscape in historic Forest Park, located in the western part of town.

Scheduled to open in 2020, Nature Playscape is being built to encourage local residents of all backgrounds to get outdoors and allow kids and their developing minds to engage with nature and reap the benefits of spending time outdoors. The project is the first of its kind at this scale in the region.

The Meadow at the Forest Park Nature Playscape. Image courtesy of Forest Park Forever.

A team of landscape architecture and play-space experts that included the Natural Learning Initiative, H3 Studio, Interboro Partners, and Rubus Landscape Architecture developed and designed the project in collaboration with Forest Park F...

Cahokia Mounds outside St. Louis could become a National Park

2019-07-11T11:48:00-04:00

Federal legislation to make Cahokia Mounds part of a new national park could soon be introduced in Congress, according to proponents of the plan. The Cahokia Mounds and Mississippian Culture National Historic Park would also include ancient mounds in St. Clair and Madison counties and Sugarloaf Mound in St. Louis, the last remaining mound in the city.

If the proposed Cahokia Mounds and Mississippian Culture National Historic Park is approved, the thousand-year-old pre-Columbian Native American historical site, which includes mounds in southern Illinois and outside St. Louis, would be the second new national park created in Missouri in two years.

Last year, according to St. Louis Public Radio, Congress created the Ste. Genevieve National Historical Park, an urban historic district that consists of a series of colonial era timber and heavy truss structures built by French settlers in the area during the 1700s.

Cahokia Mounds was named as a World Heritage site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 1982; The site is currently listed as a National Historic Landmark and on the National Register of Historic Places.

Cooper Robertson emphasizes Universal Design in new Gateway Arch Museum

2018-10-03T15:40:00-04:00

In redesigning the Gateway Arch Museum that opened in July, Cooper Robertson — along with James Carpenter Design Associates and Trivers Associates — made it a priority to integrate Universal Design, which goes beyond ADA regulations to create buildings that can be equally accessible to people of all abilities. The redesign adds 45,000 square feet of new museum area and over 100,000 square feet of reconfigured galleries, public education facilities, and visitor amenities.

A gently sloping plaza, architecturally integrated ramps, and engaging exhibitions allow everyone to experience the building in the same way. The redesign doesn't just “simply provide accessible ‘alternatives’,” said Cooper Robertson's Scott Newman in a statement. And for the first time, a special exhibition in the tram lobby allows visitors to experience the top of the Arch through live webcam feeds from the observation deck.

“The Gateway Arch Museum reflects a fundamental shift in the public sector and the design ...

St. Louis' Gateway Arch reopens with a new name and a new museum that reexamines the history of U.S. western expansion

2018-07-03T17:30:00-04:00

The name change, however, also reflects two facts that have long bedeviled the arch and its role within the National Park Service. Saarinen’s soaring arc of steel is an icon of the automobile age, an attraction that has always been more about playing to the passing audience of the interstates than any particular relevance to the idea of national expansion. It also honors historical events that are now understood as deeply problematic within the larger trajectory of American history.

It's a big day for the city of St. Louis, which is celebrating the grand reopening of the Gateway Arch. The monumental renovation project includes a new name — the Gateway Arch National Park, a new museum, and a major redesign of the park's urban landscape. The exhibitions inside the museum reexamine moments in the city's history, the consequences of the U.S.'s westward expansion, and the design and construction of the Arch.

You can see the new museum come to life in EarthCam's construction time-lapse video below.

The Gateway Arch's newly landscaped grounds reconnect an icon to its city

2018-03-13T15:32:00-04:00

... [Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates] have renovated and expanded the arch grounds, originally designed by famed Modernist landscape architect Dan Kiley. New parks adjacent to the grounds are intended to funnel activity to the riverfront and work as connective urban tissue for the city’s most iconic feature, as well as to serve as a pedestal for that quicksilver curve.

The winning design by Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates has reconnected the St. Louis Gateway Arch with its surrounding environment. The $380-million renovation allows for tourists and locals alike to enjoy the entire space around the Arch. The freshly landscaped grounds are mostly open now, however a formal opening will take place this July with the new museum.

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...

St. Louis, segregation and how history shapes the urban landscape

2017-03-24T20:32:00-04:00

Segregation is no accident.

Nearly five decades after the Fair Housing Act of 1968, American cities remain racially, culturally, spatially and economically divided. Entrenched conditions and persistent biases undermine the policies and priorities that would heal lingering wounds.

So argues Catalina Freixas, assistant professor of architecture in the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts. Last semester, Freixas and Mark Abbott, professor of history and director of the Center for Neighborhood Development at Harris-Stowe State University, launched “Segregation by Design.” Developed as part of The Divided City initiative, their class — which will be offered again next fall — explores both the historic roots and present-day reality of urban separation.

In this Q&A, Freixas discusses St. Louis, segregation and the hidden histories that shape our urban landscape.

You’re from Argentina but joined the Sam Fox School faculty in 2004. What drew you to the topic of American segregation?

My researc...

One of the best long reads of 2016 explores the demise of a medieval U.S. city

2016-12-14T18:20:00-05:00

Each generation likes to think it is unique, or at least living on the cutting-edge; but archaeologists have long known that history has a way of repeating itself. Although North America is often considered to be part of the "New World," inhabitations on this continent date back millennia. In this fascinating piece by Annalee Newitz for Ars Technica (whose length is perfect for plane reading) archaeologists uncover new sections of the lost city of Cahokia, which flourished between 1100 and 1400 A.D. in an area that is currently known as East St. Louis. A city of 30,000 that was more populous than Paris at the time, the pyramid and earthern-mound laden city went through all the statutte-endowed stages of societal refinement before taking the low road into ritual sacrifice and random trash fires. Sound familiar?

For more on the ancient world:

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.

Heart of the Community program selects six new cities to receive placemaking grants

2015-04-22T13:11:00-04:00

This morning, Southwest Airlines announced that non-profit organizations in six U.S. cities will receive Placemaking grants to help them reimagine and reactivate important but underutilized public spaces in their city. [...] Albuquerque, New Mexico: Civic Plaza Ft. Myers, Florida: Lee County Regional Library Jacksonville, Florida: Hemming Park Milwaukee, Wisconsin: 4th & Wisconsin Area Portland, Maine: Congress Square Park St. Louis, Missouri: Strauss Park

A Failed Public-Housing Project Could Be a Key to St. Louis' Future

2014-08-25T14:53:00-04:00

Today the Pruitt-Igoe site is once again in the spotlight, but this time because of a new bid to “get the economic flywheel going in the right direction again,” in the words of private developer Paul McKee, the force behind the proposed NorthSide Regeneration project. [...] The lynchpin of it all would be to get the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency—the high-tech eyes and ears of the Defense Department—to relocate to where the towers of Pruitt-Igoe once stood.

‘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...

Michael Jantzen shows M-velope in St. Louis

2014-07-11T17:40:00-04:00

The exploration of new ways of thinking about the built environment is at the heart of a new exhibition at St. Louis', MO Bruno David Gallery which opened June 27.

Key piece of the show is M-velope by artist Michael Jantzen (read Archinect's 2009 interview with Jantzen here), an art retreat structure designed to provide shelter when trying to "escape from the norm."

The sculpture, 12 feet high by 12 feet wide and 20 feet long, takes up the center of the main gallery space and is Michael Jantzen's latest sculpture from his “M-velope” series.

The exhibition still runs until Saturday, August 23, 2014.

Scroll down for more details.

"Michael Jantzen has always approached his art and design as an inventor, rather than a stylist. By creating architectural art, he is reinventing the built environment so that it can continually be altered to meet the changing needs and desires of its occupants. At times, he attempts to invent systems and components that can be assembled and reassembled in various...

The National Park Project Aiming to Change the Landscape of St. Louis

2014-03-24T20:24:00-04:00

During a lecture given at Kansas City Design Week earlier in the year, Gullivar Shepard of Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates (MVVA) called the St. Louis Arch Ground project, known as CityArchRiver 2015, one of the most challenging projects he has been involved in.

Previously: The "Park Over the Highway" is now underway

The "Park Over the Highway" is now underway

2013-08-14T09:55:00-04:00

Officials from the U.S. Department of Transportation announced the start of the aptly named "Park Over the Highway" plan in St. Louis, Missouri earlier this month. The plan's objective is to connect the iconic Gateway Arch grounds and Downtown St. Louis by building a park over the Interstate-70, which has divided the city from the Mississippi waterfront for the past 50 years. Last month, the Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) awarded KCI Construction Company $26.4 million to begin construction. The project is expected to be done by Fall 2015.

As depicted in the rendering above, the extensive renovation project also involves re-routing roads, laying groundwork pedestrian and bike paths, and general enhancement of the landscape.

Funds for the entire $380 million plan came from public sources like federal grants and a voter-approved local sales tax as well as private contributions from major supporters like the CityArchRiver foundation.

U.S. Transportation ...

Gateway Arch 'Biography' Reveals Complex History Of An American Icon

2013-05-28T15:04:00-04:00

More than decade after Abbott's imaginative drawing, Eero Saarinen submitted a design for a gleaming metal curve to a competition, and the saga of the Arch began. Campbell, a history professor and the co-director of the Wendell Ford Public Policy Research Center at the University of Kentucky, joins Scott Simon to talk about the controversy around the design, the African-American residents who were displaced to build the Arch and whether the monument really symbolizes the opening of the West.

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.