Derek Hoeferlin has been installed as the Raymond E. Maritz Professor of Architecture at the WashU Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts. A ceremony took place Sept. 29.
Charlie White, the school’s Ralph J. Nagel Dean, celebrated Hoeferlin’s achievements and expressed his own excitement at his first installation ceremony as dean. White called Hoeferlin “a brilliant polymath, a proven researcher and practitioner, a committed administrator, a really thoughtful educator, and just an incredibly nice person.”
Aki Ishida, the Sam and Marilyn Fox Professor and director of the College of Architecture and Graduate School of Architecture & Urban Design, praised Hoeferlin’s intimate knowledge of the Mississippi River and his expertise on building sustainably with water. She also noted his commitment to sharing “his curiosity and discoveries with students by taking them on rivers, dams, levees and barges,” including her own introduction to the Missouri River via a canoe trip he led.
Hoeferlin gave a presentation of his research, connecting his deep roots in the St. Louis region and Mississippi River watershed to his career exploring water and watershed architecture. He also shared selections from his recent book, “Way Beyond Bigness: The Need for a Watershed Architecture,” which brings years of research, drawings, maps and images of the Mississippi, Mekong and Rhine River systems into one volume that proposes adaptations and templates for working across entire watersheds.
Read more on the Sam Fox School website.
