Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts

Maki & Associates, TokyoSaligman Family Atrium, Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Sam Fox School of Design & Visual ArtsIn 1960 a young Japanese architecture professor named Fumihiko Maki completed his first-ever commission while teaching at Washington University in St. Louis. Four decades later, Maki is among the world’s premier architects, a Pritzker Prize-winner renowned for creating monumental spaces that fuse Eastern and Western sensibilities. Current projects include both the $330 million United Nations expansion in Manhattan and Tower 4 at the former World Trade Center site. Now Maki has returned to Washington University as architect of the new Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, a dramatic, light-filled structure that will showcase the university’s internationally renowned art collection.

Eric Hoffman and Tony Patterson*Softscape*Two recent architecture alumni from the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts have been selected as finalists in a national competition sponsored by the Boston Center for the Arts (BCA). The competition, titled inside::out: Weaving the Arts Into the Urban Fabric, aims to unify the 3.6-acre BCA campus — which includes a wide variety of galleries, performance venues and artists studios — by transforming its central brick plaza into an architecturally distinctive public space.

David Kilper/WUSTL Photo ServicesCatharina ManchandaCatharina Manchanda, Ph.D., has been appointed curator of the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, part of the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis. Manchanda succeeds Sabine Eckmann, Ph.D., who was named director of the Kemper Art Museum last year. Her appointment comes at a critical time for the museum, which will open a new 65,000-square-foot facility, designed by Pritzker Prize-winning Japanese architect Fumihiko Maki, in the fall.

“When colleagues have professed great satisfaction about being a part of this community, it validates what we are doing,” Chancellor Wrighton said.

The fully choreographed, Paris-style extravaganza will feature more than 50 professional and volunteer models wearing close to 130 outfits.

Washington University in St. Louis was named one of the top three Best Places to Work in the St. Louis Business Journal’s annual survey of area employees. At a dinner and reception April 20 at The Westin Hotel, Washington University was named the best workplace in the large employer category.

Mary Butkus/WUSTL Photo ServicesBallgown by Rachel LwinThe Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis will present The 77th Annual Fashion Design Show at Saint Louis Galleria Sunday, May 7. The fully choreographed, Paris-style extravaganza will feature more than 50 professional and volunteer models wearing close to 130 outfits created by six seniors and 19 juniors from the school’s fashion design program.

The awards recognize those who have demonstrated creativity, innovation, leadership and vision to the practice of architecture & the school.

She succeeds Sabine Eckmann; the appointment comes at a critical time for the museum, which will open a new 65,000-square-foot facility this fall.

The Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis will honor four outstanding architecture alumni at its 13th annual Distinguished Alumni Awards Dinner April 6. Recipients will be Soo K. Chan (BArch ’84), Eric Haesloop (BArch ’77), Sandra Ford Mendler (BArch ’81) and Jimmie E. Tucker (MArch ’81). In addition, Corinna Cotsen (MArch and MSCE ’83) will receive the 2006 Dean’s Medal for exceptional service while Brian Vitale (March ’95) will receive the Young Alumni Award.