Tatom, assistant professor of architecture, dies at 51

Jacqueline Tatom, assistant professor of architecture in the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, died at her home in the Central West End Sunday, March 18, following a long battle with ovarian cancer. She was 51.

Tatom, a registered architect, had practiced in France, the United States and West Africa. Her research focused on contemporary urbanism and the metropolitan landscape, particularly issues of transportation, infrastructure, de-urbanization and environmental sustainability.

“Jacqueline was a lively intellectual presence in the Master of Urban Design (MUD) program, which she helped to revive in 1999 and which she co-directed to 2004,” said Eric Mumford, associate professor of architecture, who now directs the program. “Her interests in patterns of land subdivision — the subject of her Harvard Design School thesis on urban development in Lyons, France — and on deurbanization, which she studied in St. Louis, brought new perspectives into the school.

“She was a great inspiration to students, and she devoted a tremendous amount of energy to making urban design an important component of what is now called the Graduate School of Architecture & Urban Design. She will be much missed.”

Born in Morocco to an American father and European mother, Tatom was raised in France, Germany and the United States. She studied at the University of Texas at Austin and the Unité Pédagogique d’Architecture N. 1 in Paris, earning a diplôme d’architecture DPLG, the French professional degree, in 1980.

From 1980 to 1984 Tatom served in several capacities for Bouygues, the large construction/engineering firm, for which she traveled to Lagos, Nigeria and Algeria. Following a short stint with Cabinet D’Architecture Epee Ellong in Cameroon, she returned to the United States and settled in New York, joining Gruen Associates and then Studio for Architecture, where she met her husband, Paul Naecker. From 1986 to 1990 she was an associate at SITE Projects, Inc., the influential design firm, where she helped develop many commercial and institutional projects.

In 1990 Tatom enrolled in Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, studying with noted urbanist Peter Rowe. She earned a master’s of architecture in urban design in 1992 and a doctorate in design in 1995. After graduation she served as a Research Fellow at Harvard’s Unit for Housing and Urbanization; was principal instructor of urban design for Harvard’s Career Discovery Program; and taught at the University of Texas.

Tatom arrived at Washington University as a visiting professor in 1997 and was named assistant professor in 1999. Over the next five years she would direct or co-direct the MUD program, which explores contemporary urban issues through a combination of architectural, landscape and planning perspectives. Her design studios investigated a number of local sites, ranging from Brentwood Boulevard and Ballas Road to Swansea, Ill., and North-Central St. Louis. She also initiated and led efforts to develop a street tree-replanting program for the historic blocks of the Fullerton’s Westminster Place neighborhood.

Meanwhile Tatom published her own research in the Journal of Urban Morphology, the Nordic Journal of Architectural Research, the online journal Ecumene and the anthology Landscape Urbanism: A Reference Manifesto, among others. She also received two Graham Foundation Grants and organized a pair of symposiums on “Design, Modernity and American Cities,” for which she edited the proceedings. Most recently Tatom was editing the essay collection Towards a Metropolitan Urbanism.

Tatom is survived by her husband and their 12-year-old daughter, Theresa-Ann Naecker. A memorial service will be held in Graham Chapel from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. April 15, with a reception to follow in Givens Hall. Memorial contributions can be made to the Jacqueline Tatom Memorial Fund, College of Architecture, Campus Box 1079, Washington University, One Brookings Drive, St. Louis, MO 63130-4899.