Sam Fox School launches fall Public Lecture Series

Speakers include Guy Nordenson, Natasha Jen and Orly Genger

Guy Nordenson, who will speak at the Sam Fox School Sept. 14, has served as structural engineer for more than 100 projects worldwide. Pictured is the Contemporary Art + Design Wing at The Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, New York. (Credit: Iwan Baan/The Corning Museum of Glass)

Since beginning his career as a draftsman in the studio shared by R. Buckminster Fuller and Isamu Noguchi, Guy Nordenson has emerged as one of the world’s leading structural engineers. Major projects have ranged from the Museum of Modern Art expansion in New York to the Jubilee Church in Rome and the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City.

At 6:30 p.m. Monday, Sept. 14, Nordenson, professor of architecture and of engineering at Princeton University, and founding partner of Guy Nordenson and Associates in New York, will deliver the annual Harris Armstrong Fund Lecture for the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts.

The talk, titled “Reading Structures,” will launch the Sam Fox School’s fall Public Lecture Series. In all, the series will feature 10 nationally and internationally known artists, architects, curators and designers.

Nordenson, a co-founder of the Structural Engineers Association of New York, has been active in research relating to earthquake engineering, climate adaptation and flood hazards mitigation, among other topics. He initiated and led development of the New York City Seismic Code from 1984 until its enactment in 1995. In 2013, his research team at Princeton was awarded a major grant by the Rockefeller Foundation to develop Structures of Coastal Resilience with partners including the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Orly Genger, “Terra” (2014), recycled lobster rope and paint. (Credit: Vanessa Rudloff)
Orly Genger, “Terra” (2014), recycled lobster rope and paint. (Credit: Vanessa Rudloff)

The Public Lecture Series will continue Sept. 28 with designer Natasha Jen, recently named one of Wired magazine’s nine “designers who matter.”

Other speakers will include Heinrich Wolff, founding principal of Wolff Architects (Oct. 2); Orly Genger, the Arthur L. and Sheila Prensky Island Press Visiting Artist (Oct. 19); and Thomas W. Gaehtgens, director of the Getty Research Center in Los Angeles (Oct. 21), who will discuss the exhibition “World War I: War of Images, Images of War,” on view at the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum through Jan. 4, 2016.

All events are free and open to the public and begin at 6:30 p.m. in Steinberg Hall Auditorium, unless otherwise noted. Each will be preceded by a reception at 6 p.m.

Steinberg Hall is located near the intersection of Skinker and Forsyth boulevards, immediately adjacent to the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum.

For more information, call 314-935-9300 or visit samfoxschool.wustl.edu/calendar/events/lectures.

Paul Iribe, Detail of “I Have You, My Captain. You Won’t Fall.”, 1917. Color lithograph, 12 1/2 x 14 15/16″. À coups de baïonnette 9 (June 1917): pp. 424–25. Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles. From the exhibiton “World Wark I: War of Images, Images of War.”

Fall 2015 speakers

Monday, Sept. 14
Guy Nordenson
Founding partner, Guy Nordenson and Associates; professor of architecture and engineering, Princeton University
Harris Armstrong Fund Lecture

Monday, Sept. 28
Natasha Jen
Designer and partner, Pentagram
Henry L. and Natalie E. Freund Visiting Artist Lecture

Wednesday, Sept. 30

Carlos Ott
Founding principal, Carlos Ott Architect
Fumihiko Maki Lecture

Friday, Oct. 2
Heinrich Wolff
Founding principal, Wolff Architects
Informal Cities Workshop Lecture

Wednesday, Oct. 14
Florian Idenburg
Principal, SO-IL; associate professor of practice, Harvard Graduate School of Design

Abend Family Lecture

Monday, Oct. 19
Orly Genger
Artist
Arthur L. and Sheila Prensky Island Press Visiting Artist Lecture

Wednesday, Oct. 21
Thomas W. Gaehtgens
Director, Getty Research Institute
In conjunction with “World War I: War of Images, Images of War”
* Reception at 6 p.m. in the Kemper Art Museum

Wednesday, Oct. 26
Michael Taylor
Chief Curator & Deputy Director for Art and Education, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
* Reception at 6 p.m. in the Kemper Art Museum

Monday, Nov. 2
Joanne Kohn
Chairman Emeritus, Frank Lloyd Wright House in Ebsworth Park

Eugene J. Mackey Jr. Lecture

Monday, Nov. 9
Brett Milligan
Assistant professor of landscape architecture, University of California, Davis