Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts

Below is a link to the Washington University news release about the U.S. News & World Report undergraduate rankings for 2004-05: http://news-info.wustl.edu/news/page/normal/3627.html To view a full listing of U.S. News magazine, book and Web-only rankings for 2004-05, please visit the U.S. News & World Report site: http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/college/rankings/rankindex_brief.php

Photo by Kevin LowderCarl Safe (center) helps students cut the ribbon at the Grand Center plaza dedication.Ten architecture majors from the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts designed and built a public plaza for visual art in Grand Center that was dedicated Dec. 15. The project, begun last fall, teamed the students with Grand Center Inc., a non-profit organization that develops district arts initiatives and real estate, and the Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts.

Ray Bradbury’s vision of the future was a scary one indeed. Of course, that’s the point of being a science-fiction writer, but in his classic Fahrenheit 451, Bradbury wrote about firemen who didn’t necessarily put out fires. Rather, they started them in order to burn books and suppress learning and knowledge. The book is the centerpiece of a National Endowment for the Arts-supported program in February. “The Big Read,” hosted by the University in partnership with several local organizations, will feature lectures, readings, art exhibits, theater productions, book discussion groups and film festivals featuring the themes of Bradbury’s novel.

Lighting designer Paul A. Zaferiou will launch the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts’ spring Architecture Lecture Series Jan. 22. Zaferiou, a 1975 alumnus of Washington University, is president and principal of Lam Partners Inc., a lighting consulting firm whose credits include the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, and The Getty Villa in Malibu, CA, among many others. The lecture series will continue Jan. 29 with Winy Maas, a principal of MVRDV, the Office of Architecture and Urbanism, in Rotterdam.

Feinknopf PhotographyLam Partners Inc.Lighting designer Paul A. Zaferiou will launch the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts’ spring Architecture Lecture Series Jan. 22. Zaferiou, a 1975 alumnus of Washington University, is president and principal of Lam Partners Inc., a lighting consulting firm whose credits include the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, and The Getty Villa in Malibu, CA, among many others. The lecture series will continue Jan. 29 with Winy Maas, a principal of MVRDV, the Office of Architecture and Urbanism, in Rotterdam.

303 Gallery, New YorkCollier Schorr, *Lina, Opening Braid, Bettringen*Since the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989, Germany has reemerged as a potent intellectual and creative center within the international art world. In February 2007, the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum at Washington University in St. Louis will present Reality Bites: Making Avant-garde Art in Post-Wall Germany, the first thematic museum exhibition to examine how contemporary artists have dealt — both directly and indirectly — with the social, economic and political ramifications of German unification.

Cristina Greavu and Peter ElsbeckStudy for “A Neighborhood … Residence and Life” competitionCristina Greavu and Peter Elsbeck, both graduate students in architecture in the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, have earned an honorable mention as part of an international urban design competition sponsored by the High Commission for the Development of Arriyadh.

Courtesy photo*DesignIntelligence*Washington University’s Graduate School of Architecture & Urban Design, part of the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, has risen four spots to tie for 6th in the nation according to a recent satisfaction survey by DesignIntelligence, a monthly journal published by the Design Futures Council.

David Kilper/WUSTL Photo ServicesArchitecture students have created a new plaza for visual art in Grand Center.Grand Center has long served as St. Louis’ premiere arts and entertainment district, home to the Fox Theatre, the Sheldon Concert Hall, the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra and other cultural organizations. This fall, a group of 10 architecture majors from the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts teamed up with the Pulitzer Foundation and Grand Center, Inc. to design and build a new public plaza for visual art. The plaza — located immediately south of the Symphony Orchestra’s Powell Hall, 718 North Grand Blvd. — will host outdoor exhibitions, site-specific installations, performance pieces and video and new-media work by local and nationally known artists. A formal dedication will be held Dec. 15.

David Kilper/WUSTL Photo Services*Bit.Fall* by Julius PoppChristiane Paul, adjunct curator of new media arts at the Whitney Museum of American Art, will speak on Grid vs. Network: Aesthetics of New Media Spaces at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 30. The talk is sponsored by the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum in conjunction with the exhibition [Grid Matrix], on view through Dec. 31.