Arts & Culture

Career Catalysts is a series about WashU interns, by WashU interns. In this installment, meet architecture student Bedgid Aurelie Laguerre, who worked at Christner Architects as a CityStudioSTL Fellow. There, she learned that good communication and good design go hand in hand.

For landscape architect and urban designer Brendan Wittstruck, architecture is a life of service.

WashU connections abound at a restorative retreat in Playa El Coco, Nicaragua.

In Rebuilding the American Town, the Sam Fox School’s Patty Heyda helps redefine our understanding of the smaller cities that make up the urban landscape.

Six projects created by Sam Fox School faculty, students and alumni are featured in the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale and associated exhibitions.

Associate Professor Chandler Ahrens has been named chair of graduate architecture in the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis. The new role took effect July 1. 

The Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts has announced the theme for its 2026 James Harrison Steedman Fellowship in Architecture. The competition, which will mark the Steedman’s 100th anniversary, invites early-career architects from around the world to investigate and reimagine the fundamental systems, facilities and services that underlie contemporary life.

Philanthropists Nancy Kranzberg and Ken Kranzberg received the 2025 Dean’s Medal from the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts April 10 as part of the school’s annual Awards for Distinction ceremony. Also recognized during the ceremony were six outstanding alumni in art, architecture and design.

Carmon Colangelo, the Ralph J. Nagel Dean of the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis, will conclude his deanship effective June 30, 2026. Colangelo will continue to serve as WashU’s E. Desmond Lee Professor for Collaboration in the Arts. He will return to teaching, after a yearlong sabbatical, in fall 2027.

Illustrator Carson Ellis, sculptor Beatriz Cortez and architect Rahul Mehrotra are among the internationally renowned creative professionals who will discuss their work for the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts spring Public Lecture Series.