Architecture’s highest honor

Wang Shu, winner of 2012 Pritzker Prize, speaks for Sam Fox School

“Someone at Washington University in St. Louis just hit the lecture jackpot.” So quipped Blair Kamin, the Chicago Tribune’s influential architecture critic. On Feb. 27, just two days before his scheduled talk for the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, architect Wang Shu (above, center) became the first Chinese citizen to win the Pritzker Architecture Prize, generally considered the profession’s highest honor. On Feb. 29, Wang met with students, faculty and well-wishers at a reception in the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum (above) and then spoke before a capacity crowd in Steinberg Hall Auditorium (below). Fittingly, Wang delivered the Sam Fox School’s annual Fumihiko Maki Lecture, named for former WUSTL faculty member and Wang’s fellow Pritzker laureateFumihiko Maki, who designed the Kemper Art Museum and Steinberg Hall. (Credit: jerry naunheim jr. (2))

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