In the News: Week of December 6

Associate professor Linda C. Samuels is the featured guest on Episode 361 of the Talking Headways podcast. She discusses her new book, Infrastructural Optimism (Routledge, fall 2021), how growth for growth’s sake is not the answer, learning from postmodernist urbanism, and why systems should be more connected.

St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones has appointed senior lecturer Michael Allen to the City of St. Louis Preservation Board. Allen also works as an academic researcher, historian, teacher, design critic, public artist, critical spatial tour guide, and heritage conservationist in private practice.

Assistant professor Heidi Kolk and design student Andrew Storch were interviewed for this Student Life story on post-pandemic consumer trends. “The circumstances of the pandemic have been such that what we might call anxiety-induced consumption online, some might even call it panic buying…has been normalized,” said Kolk, who teaches the course Living in a Material World. The article features an illustration by Sam Fox School student Tuesday Hadden.

Associate professor Aggie Toppins (chair, undergraduate design) will present her paper “Is Feminist Branding Possible?” at the International Association of Societies of Design Research (IASDR) 2021 Conference from 10:30a-12:30p HKT December 6.

Cristina Garmendia (BA08), founder and principal of URBNRX, is the featured speaker for the Women’s Voices Lunch & Learn titled A Tale of Two Cities: Affordability in the St. Louis Region. Sponsored by the Women’s Voices Affordable Housing Task Force, the virtual event takes place at 12p CST December 7.

L. Iréne Compadre (lecturer), Eric Ellingsen (assistant professor), Patty Heyda (associate professor), Derek Hoeferlin (associate professor and chair, landscape architecture and urban design), and Linda C. Samuels (associate professor) will discuss how they approached the Green New Deal in their studios in this webinar presented by the Landscape Architecture Foundation at 12p CST December 9.

Ruth Kahn Lynford, a dedicated supporter of the Sam Fox School and longtime member of the School’s National Council, died on December 3. After earning her Bachelor of Architecture from Washington University in St. Louis in 1946, Lynford moved to New York, where she had an illustrious career as president of her own interior design firm and also made significant contributions to design education. She earned numerous honors and awards for her work in design, including Fellowship in the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID), a Leadership Award of Excellence from the International Interior Design Association (IIDA), induction into the Interior Design Hall of Fame, an Architecture Alumni Award from the School, and a Founders Day Distinguished Alumni Award from the University. You can learn more about Lynford’s life and accomplishments in this obituary. Private services will be held December 7. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the College of Architecture.