School of Architecture to honor distinguished alumni April 8

The School of Architecture will honor five outstanding alumni at its 11th annual Distinguished Alumni Awards Dinner April 8 at the Lindell Pavilion in Forest Park.

The awards recognize architecture graduates who have demonstrated exceptional creativity, innovation, leadership and vision through their contributions to both the profession and the school.

“One of the true measures of the quality of an academic institution is the professional attainment of its alumni,” architecture Dean Cynthia Weese said. “By this measure, Washington University’s School of Architecture ranks extremely high. Our alumni have had remarkable careers, achieving success in a wide range of endeavors.”

In addition, Leslie J. Laskey, professor emeritus of architecture, will receive the 2004 Dean’s Medal in recognition of his exceptional dedication and advocacy on behalf of the school.

Laskey trained generations of students in a career spanning five decades. As a young man, he studied at the Institute of Design in Chicago (now the Illinois Institute of Technology) with founder and American Bauhaus pioneer Lászlò Moholy-Nagy.

Laskey came to the School of Architecture in 1956 and soon was charged with developing the basic design program. In 1982, he received the Washington University Distinguished Faculty Award, and in 1986 he received a Distinguished Professor Award from the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture.

Named emeritus in 1987, Laskey remains a prolific painter and printmaker, dividing his time between St. Louis and a second home in Manistee, Mich.

Distinguished Alumni Award recipients

Stephen N. Abend (1962) is president and principal-in-charge of design for ASAI Architecture, a full-service architectural firm based in Kansas City, Mo., that is nationally recognized for design excellence.

Under his leadership, ASAI Architecture has received more than 150 major awards for architecture, urban design, interior design and planning. Its work has been featured in every major American architecture and interior design journal, as well as in numerous books.

Alan E. Goldberg (1954), of New Canaan, Conn., began his career in New York working on a number of important buildings, including the Seagram’s Building. In 1966, he joined Eliot Noyes & Associates; he was named head of the firm’s architectural practice in 1972 and became a partner in 1974.

In 1977, he became sole principal under the firm’s new name, AG/ENA. His leadership in design and design management is evident in a remarkably wide range of projects for major clients, including IBM and Mobil Oil.

Aseem Inam (1992) is assistant professor of urban planning at the University of Michigan’s Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning. Inam has written widely on urban design issues for numerous journals and professional publications.

His research includes studies on “Developer-Planner Interaction in Transportation and Land Use Sustainability” (2000) and “Transportation and Land Use Innovation: Impacts on Household Residential Choice” (1999).

Jack L. Nasar, Ph.D. (1969), is professor of city and regional planning at Ohio State University’s Austin E. Knowlton School of Architecture, where he also edits the Journal of Planning Literature.

He is a foremost expert in the field of environmental aesthetics — a field he helped establish with the book Environmental Aesthetics: Theory, Research and Applications (1988). His most recent books are Design by Competition: Making Design Competition Work (1999) and The Evaluative Image of the City (1998).

Laurent J. Torno Jr. (1962) is principal of Laurent Jean Torno Jr. & Associates, a St. Louis-based architecture firm specializing in historic preservation and adaptive reuse.

Torno has worked on many high-profile public renovations, including the Saint Louis Art Museum’s Decorative Arts Period Rooms restorations; the Mark Twain Museum, Huckleberry Finn House and Becky Thatcher House, all in Hannibal, Mo.; the Log Cabin Club; the Boone Valley Golf Club; and the Forest Park Boathouse.

For more information, contact Aly Abrams at 935-7223 or aly.abrams@wustl.edu.