Since beginning his career as a draftsman in the studio shared by R. Buckminster Fuller and Isamu Noguchi, Guy Nordenson has emerged as one of the world’s leading structural engineers. Major projects have ranged from the Museum of Modern Art expansion in New York to the Jubilee Church in Rome and the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City.
At 6:30 p.m. Monday, Sept. 14, Nordenson, professor of architecture and of engineering at Princeton University, and founding partner of Guy Nordenson and Associates in New York, will deliver the annual Harris Armstrong Fund Lecture for the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts.
The talk, titled “Reading Structures,” will launch the Sam Fox School’s fall Public Lecture Series. In all, the series will feature 10 nationally and internationally known artists, architects, curators and designers.
Nordenson, a co-founder of the Structural Engineers Association of New York, has been active in research relating to earthquake engineering, climate adaptation and flood hazards mitigation, among other topics. He initiated and led development of the New York City Seismic Code from 1984 until its enactment in 1995. In 2013, his research team at Princeton was awarded a major grant by the Rockefeller Foundation to develop Structures of Coastal Resilience with partners including the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
The Public Lecture Series will continue Sept. 28 with designer Natasha Jen, recently named one of Wired magazine’s nine “designers who matter.”
Other speakers will include Heinrich Wolff, founding principal of Wolff Architects (Oct. 2); Orly Genger, the Arthur L. and Sheila Prensky Island Press Visiting Artist (Oct. 19); and Thomas W. Gaehtgens, director of the Getty Research Center in Los Angeles (Oct. 21), who will discuss the exhibition “World War I: War of Images, Images of War,” on view at the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum through Jan. 4, 2016.
All events are free and open to the public and begin at 6:30 p.m. in Steinberg Hall Auditorium, unless otherwise noted. Each will be preceded by a reception at 6 p.m.
Steinberg Hall is located near the intersection of Skinker and Forsyth boulevards, immediately adjacent to the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum.
For more information, call 314-935-9300 or visit samfoxschool.wustl.edu/calendar/events/lectures.
Fall 2015 speakers
Monday, Sept. 14
Guy Nordenson
Founding partner, Guy Nordenson and Associates; professor of architecture and engineering, Princeton University
Harris Armstrong Fund Lecture
Monday, Sept. 28
Natasha Jen
Designer and partner, Pentagram
Henry L. and Natalie E. Freund Visiting Artist Lecture
Wednesday, Sept. 30
Carlos Ott
Founding principal, Carlos Ott Architect
Fumihiko Maki Lecture
Friday, Oct. 2
Heinrich Wolff
Founding principal, Wolff Architects
Informal Cities Workshop Lecture
Wednesday, Oct. 14
Florian Idenburg
Principal, SO-IL; associate professor of practice, Harvard Graduate School of Design
Abend Family Lecture
Monday, Oct. 19
Orly Genger
Artist
Arthur L. and Sheila Prensky Island Press Visiting Artist Lecture
Wednesday, Oct. 21
Thomas W. Gaehtgens
Director, Getty Research Institute
In conjunction with “World War I: War of Images, Images of War”
* Reception at 6 p.m. in the Kemper Art Museum
Wednesday, Oct. 26
Michael Taylor
Chief Curator & Deputy Director for Art and Education, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
* Reception at 6 p.m. in the Kemper Art Museum
Monday, Nov. 2
Joanne Kohn
Chairman Emeritus, Frank Lloyd Wright House in Ebsworth Park
Eugene J. Mackey Jr. Lecture
Monday, Nov. 9
Brett Milligan
Assistant professor of landscape architecture, University of California, Davis