Two new buildings, renovations to three foster collaboration
By Liam Otten
The University will name a new $56.8 million campus center for the visual arts and design in honor of Sam Fox, one of St. Louis' most prominent civic and philanthropic leaders and one of the University's staunchest supporters, Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton announced Dec. 7.
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| Sam Fox |
The center's facilities will include two new buildings -- an art museum and a second building for the School of Art -- designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Fumihiko Maki. These new buildings will be integrated, also according to Maki's design, with three renovated structures: Bixby, Givens and Steinberg halls.
This integration will produce new opportunities for research, interdisciplinary study and teaching in visual arts and design.
Renovations to Bixby and Givens halls have been completed. Renovation of Steinberg Hall and construction of the new buildings will begin when funding has been secured.
Fox, who has described the University as "the place where the whole world came alive for me," is the founder, chairman and chief executive of Harbour Group Ltd., a privately owned company specializing in the acquisition and development of manufacturing companies for long-term investment.
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| Photo by Joe Angeles |
| The Sam Fox Arts Center, as seen in this model looking northeast, will comprise three renovated, existing buildings -- (foreground, from left) Givens, Steinberg and Bixby halls -- and two new structures -- (background, from left) the Musesum Building and the School of Art Building. |
He and his wife, Marilyn, have long been active in numerous business, civic and cultural organizations. They and their family foundation support many causes.
"Sam Fox is among Washington University's most loyal and dedicated supporters," Wrighton said, "and we are deeply indebted to him for his longstanding generosity and his many years of devoted service. Sam truly believes there is nothing more important to the future of our nation than educating our young people, and his commitment to the University is inspiring to even the most dedicated of our supporters. He is the very embodiment of the generosity of spirit that has made Wash-ington University the world-class institution it is today.
"It is with great pleasure that we are able to recognize Sam's special relationship with Washington University by naming the new center for the arts in his honor," Wrighton continued. "The Sam Fox Arts Center will bring together artists, designers, architects, educators, students, patrons and the public in a world-class facility that promises to become a landmark for the entire region."
To date, more than $39.5 million has been earmarked toward the estimated $56.8 million cost of the center, both through the allocation of University funds and the receipt of outside commitments, including $10 million in gifts and bequests from Fox.
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| Photo by Joe Angeles |
| The 65,000 gross-square-foot Museum Building, viewed here looking southeast, will be the new home of the Gallery of Art, which will be renamed the Museum of Art. |
About Sam Fox
Fox's leadership in the St. Louis community has been extraordinary.
He is currently chairman, and formerly was president, of the Greater St. Louis Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America, one of the strongest scouting programs in the United States.
As president of the board of commissioners of the St. Louis Art Museum from 1997-2001, he spearheaded recruitment of Director Brent Benjamin and the development of a 10-year strategic plan. Today, Fox is extending that leadership as a member of the art museum's board of commissioners.
He serves or has served on the boards of many other St. Louis institutions and cultural groups, including the Arts & Education Council of Greater St. Louis, Barnes-Jewish Hospital, Civic Progress, The Muny in Forest Park, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, the V.P. Fair Foundation, the St. Louis Science Center and the Saint Louis Zoo.
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One feature of Sam Fox Arts Center's
Museum Building will be the 13,000-square-foot
Kenneth and Nancy Kranzberg Information
Center; this artist's rendering
shows the center's reading room.
Also housed in the Museum Building
will be a School of Art gallery
for faculty and student use and
new offices and classrooms for
the Department of Art History
and Archaeology in Arts & Sciences. |
Sam Fox was elected as a University trustee in 1989, served as vice chairman of the Board of Trustees from 1999-2001 and then was elected an emeritus trustee.
In 2002, Fox received an honorary doctor of laws degree from the University and was named the St. Louis Variety Club's Man of the Year. He received the University's Distinguished Alumni Award in 1986, the Olin School of Business' Distinguished Alumni Award in 1988 and the Beta Gamma Sigma Medallion for Entrepreneurship in 1996.
Sam Fox Arts Center
The Sam Fox Arts Center will serve as a campuswide umbrella organization for the study and promotion of visual culture.
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| Fumihiko Maki |
Additionally, the center will bring students and faculty in the School of Art, now studying and working in three separate buildings -- one of them a renovated former junior high school located one mile from campus -- together in two adjacent buildings on the Hilltop Campus.
Mark S. Weil, Ph.D., director of the Sam Fox Arts Center and the E. Desmond Lee Professor for Collaboration in the Arts, said: "By bringing three curricular units into a consortium with our museum and library, we are embarking on a new approach to arts education.
"Our goal is to move away from separate practices and toward a more interactive and cross-disciplinary training that takes greater advantage of contemporary technology."
Spearheading the fund-raising initiative for the new center are Lee M. Liberman and Harvey Saligman, leadership chairs for the School of Art in the Campaign for Washington University, and Warren M. Shapleigh and Jerome Sincoff, leadership chairs for the School of Architecture in the capital campaign.
Site plan
Design architect Maki, principal of Maki & Associates in Tokyo, is internationally renowned for creating bold, monumental structures that harmonize with their natural and urban environments.
The Sam Fox Arts Center will be located at the southeastern end of the Hilltop Campus. It will encompass two new limestone buildings; the Beaux Arts-era Bixby and Givens halls, homes to the schools of Art and Architecture, respectively; and the classically modernist Steinberg Hall, current home of the Gallery of Art, Art & Architecture Library and Department of Art History and Archaeology.
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Permanent and temporary exhibition
spaces -- the temporary displays
gallery is shown in this rendering
-- along with state-of-the-art
storage facilities will be housed
in the Museum Building. |
"We are extremely fortunate to be working with an architect of Maki's caliber," said Cynthia Weese, dean of the School of Architecture. "His buildings are thoughtful, dignified and respectful of what is around them ... beautiful and useful at the same time.
"The Sam Fox Arts Center will be one of only a handful of Maki's work built in the United States, and a source of pride for all of St. Louis."
Each of the five units in the Sam Fox Arts Center will benefit from significant increases in programming space as well as the use of shared facilities and amenities such as a planned lunch counter/snack bar.
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The J.E. and L.E. Mabee Foundation has awarded a $1 million challenge grant to the University to support development of the new Museum Building within the Sam Fox Arts Center, according to Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton. To receive the $1 million grant, the University must raise an additional $5.8 million in outright gifts and pledges for the Museum Building by Oct. 9. “We are thrilled that the Mabee Foundation has pledged such a significant gift to the Museum Building, and has done so in a manner that adds considerable value to each subsequent gift made to the project,” Wrighton said. “The Museum Building will be a focal point for activities within the Sam Fox Arts Center. It is going to serve as a diverse, multidisciplinary resource for students and faculty, as well as an architectural ‘destination’ for the entire St. Louis region.” J.E. Mabee was an oil operator, drilling contractor and rancher in Oklahoma. He and his wife established the Mabee Foundation in 1948 to assist educational, charitable and religious organizations in the southwestern United States (Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas), particularly in the area of capital improvements. Located in Tulsa, Okla., the Mabee Foundation is one of the largest supporters of higher education in the nation. |
In preparation for new construction, Bixby and Givens halls have, over the past two years, been the focus of an extensive, $16 million renovation, with an additional $1.8 million allocated to infrastructure improvements for the entire site.
New construction -- along with renovations to Steinberg Hall, which will provide additional studio space for the schools of Art and Architecture -- is budgeted at approximately $39 million.
The project architect is Harish A. Shah, a principal of RMW Arch-itecture + Design in San Francisco and a 1973 graduate of the School of Architecture. Maki and Shah previously collaborated on the award-winning Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco.
Museum Building
The three-level, approximately 65,000 gross-square-foot Museum Building will be immediately north of Steinberg Hall and will become the new home of the Gallery of Art, which will be renamed the Museum of Art, reflecting its status as the first art museum founded west of the Mississippi River.
The building will house permanent and temporary exhibition spaces and state-of-the-art storage facilities.
The building also will incorporate a gallery for the School of Art for use by faculty and students; new offices and classrooms for the Department of Art History and Archaeology; and the 13,000-square-foot Kenneth and Nancy Kranzberg Information Center.
Angela Miller, Ph.D., associate professor and acting chair of art history and archaeology, noted that the Museum Building will become a central meeting point for faculty and students in different design disciplines, both physically and programmatically.
"Already, productive exchanges have begun taking shape through joint committees and the funding of collaborative work," Miller said. "We look forward to expanding these opportunities for interdisciplinary cooperation."
Shirley K. Baker, vice chancellor for information technology and dean of University Libraries, added that the Kranzberg Information Center will combine an expanded Art & Architecture Library with the Visual Resource Collection, a massive slide and digital image bank; and with the Whitaker Learning Lab, a media studio and technology center.
"Books remain incredibly important to students and scholars of the visual arts, but increasingly they're supplemented by rich databases of images and online journals," Baker said. "Grouping these services together will radically enhance their accessibility and usefulness to students and faculty from both studio and academic disciplines."
School of Art Building
The approximately 38,000 gross-square-foot School of Art Building, also three levels, will be just north of Bixby Hall and will allow programs presently conducted at the Vernon Street Graduate Studios and the Lewis Center, both in University City, and at West Campus to return to the Hilltop Campus.
The new facility will include graduate studios; studios for ceramics, sculpture and painting; and the Nancy Spirtas Kranzberg Studio for the Illustrated Book.
"Currently, more than half of art and design students and faculty work and study away from Bixby Hall," said Jeff Pike, dean of the School of Art. "The Sam Fox Arts Center will bring programs scattered among several off-campus sites back to the Hilltop, fostering both a greater sense of community within the school and a greater degree of interaction with our colleagues in other creative areas."