Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts

Architects from across the country converged on the Danforth Campus Oct. 6 and 7 to install “Sukkah City STL 2014: Between Absence and Presence.” The design competition challenged participants to reimagine the traditional Jewish Sukkah through the lens of contemporary art and architecture. On view through Oct. 12.

​In advance of Washington University in St. Louis’ Major-Minor Fair on Monday, Oct. 6, Matthew DeVoll, PhD, assistant dean in the College of Arts & Sciences and dean of sophomores, talks about the choices facing second-year students and the options open to them.

The Railway Exchange Building in downtown St. Louis is an icon, synonymous with Christmas lights, holiday cheer and civic pride. Yet since being vacated by Macy’s in 2013, the structure has sat largely empty. Now The Partnership for Downtown St. Louis and the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts are partnering to explore adaptive reuse strategies for the 21-story high-rise.

Ten cutting-edge Sukkahs by architects and designers from around the nation will be installed Oct. 7-13 on the campus of Washington University in St. Louis. The projects are winners of “Sukkah City STL 2014: Between Absence and Presence,” an ambitious contemporary design competition presented by St. Louis Hillel and the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts.

Legal segregation may be over, but segregation is hardly a thing of the past. This fall, the Center for the Humanities in Arts & Sciences and the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts will launch “The Divided City: An Urban Humanities Initiative.” The $1.6 million project — funded in part by a four-year, $650,000 grant from the Mellon Foundation — will examine segregation from a variety of perspectives.

Painter Michael Ray Charles will launch the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts’ Public Lecture Series Sept. 15. Charles is known for his aggressive appropriation — and scathing critiques — of racist imagery drawn from vintage illustration.

Jean Sutherland Boggs, the first woman appointed to full professorship in the Department of Art History and Archaeology in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, died Friday, Aug. 22, 2014. She was 92.

Since the shooting of Michael Brown, the eyes of the world have turned to St. Louis. Over the last several weeks, associate professor Bob Hansman — one of the area’s most prominent community activists — has quietly ushered hundreds of students through the neighborhoods of north St. Louis, chronicling the racial, social and urban histories that have shaped conditions on the ground.

Today, for the first time in history, the majority of the world’s population lives in cities and urban areas. This fall, the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum will present “Encountering the City: The Urban Experience in Contemporary Art.” The exhibition, which encompasses a wide range of media, explores how artists respond to, and grapple with, our rapidly changing urban landscape.

As chair of the Architectural Association in London, Alvin Boyarsky was among the most influential figures in 20th-century design education. This fall, the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum will present “Drawing Ambience: Alvin Boyarsky and the Architectural Association,” the first public museum exhibition of drawings from Boyarsky’s private collection.