MacKeith named an honorary consul of Finland

MacKeith, associate dean and associate professor of architecture in the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis, has long worked to deepen cultural and educational relations between Finland and the United States, particularly in the fields of architecture, education and design. His appointment expands Finland’s network of honorary consulates in the United States to 29.

Ambassador Ritva Jolkkonen, Finland’s consul general in New York, inaugurated MacKeith during a visit to campus June 21 and 22. To mark the occasion, WUSTL flew the Finnish flag from Brookings Hall on both days.

A formal installation for MacKeith took place June 22 in the atrium of the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum.

MacKeith, who received a Fulbright Fellowship to Finland in 1989, has written extensively on Finnish architecture for international publications.

He is author and/or editor of The Finland Pavilions: Finland at the Universal Expositions 1900-1992 (1992); Encounters: Architectural Essays, a selection of essays by Juhani Pallasmaa (2005); The Dissolving Corporation: Contemporary Architecture and Corporate Identity in Finland (2005); and Archipelago, Essays of Architecture (2006).

Prior to joining the Sam Fox School, in 1999, MacKeith directed the international master’s program in architecture at the Helsinki University of Technology. In 2009, he served as St. Louis coordinator for Eero Saarinen: Shaping the Future, a major retrospective of work by the Finnish-American architect who designed the Gateway Arch.

The Honorary Consulate for Missouri, in St. Louis, will focus on strengthening relations between research and academic institutions as well as mapping out the commercial potential of the region.