CACC/AIA Charleston Lecture Series: Linda C. Samuels, RA, PhD
An ongoing case for design as optimism
LINDA C. SAMUELS, RA, PhD
Director of Sustainable Design & Environmental Justice Chair of Urban Design Professor in Urban Design & Architecture College of Architecture / Graduate School of Architecture & Urban Design Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts Washington University in St. Louis
Linda C. Samuels, RA, PhD, is Professor and Chair of urban design at the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis and the inaugural Director of Sustainable Design and Environmental Justice for the School. She teaches inter-disciplinary studios and seminars on systems-based urban design, urban history and theory, and alternative sustainability metrics.
Samuels’s research focuses on ideas of infrastructural opportunism – leveraging investment in large-scale systems to create more socially and environmentally productive public works. She is currently working with ShadeLA and the Festival Trail team on grassroots planning for a more bike, pedestrian, and transit forward LA28 Olympics as well as convening research, teaching, and outreach focused on co-creating a more resilient St. Louis. She has partnered with Virgin Hyperloop One, Food Forward, Impossible Foods, and local, regional, and state agencies in Missouri, Arizona, and California.
Samuels was co-principal investigator on a grant from The Divided City initiative, funded by the Mellon Foundation, entitled Mobility For All By All, which aims to increase the social and environmental benefits of the multibillion-dollar proposed MetroLink expansion in St. Louis for residents living along the alignment. She was a team member on the award-winning “+STL: Growing an Urban Mosaic” finalist proposal for the Chouteau Greenway Competition led by dhd, TLS Landscape Architecture & OBJECT TERRITORIES.
Previously, Dr. Samuels was the inaugural director of the Sustainable City Project (SCP), a multidisciplinary research, teaching, and outreach initiative of the University of Arizona where she worked with public and private partners on micro- to macro-scaled sustainability efforts in southern Arizona and the larger megaregion. While earning her Doctorate in Urban Planning at UCLA, she was a senior research associate at cityLAB, an urban think tank in UCLA's Department of Architecture and Urban Design, where she co-ran the WPA 2.0 competition and symposium.
Samuels’s book, Infrastructural Optimism, is available now from Routledge.
An ongoing case for design as optimism
LINDA C. SAMUELS, RA, PhD
Director of Sustainable Design & Environmental Justice Chair of Urban Design Professor in Urban Design & Architecture College of Architecture / Graduate School of Architecture & Urban Design Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts Washington University in St. Louis
Linda C. Samuels, RA, PhD, is Professor and Chair of urban design at the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis and the inaugural Director of Sustainable Design and Environmental Justice for the School. She teaches inter-disciplinary studios and seminars on systems-based urban design, urban history and theory, and alternative sustainability metrics.
Samuels’s research focuses on ideas of infrastructural opportunism – leveraging investment in large-scale systems to create more socially and environmentally productive public works. She is currently working with ShadeLA and the Festival Trail team on grassroots planning for a more bike, pedestrian, and transit forward LA28 Olympics as well as convening research, teaching, and outreach focused on co-creating a more resilient St. Louis. She has partnered with Virgin Hyperloop One, Food Forward, Impossible Foods, and local, regional, and state agencies in Missouri, Arizona, and California.
Samuels was co-principal investigator on a grant from The Divided City initiative, funded by the Mellon Foundation, entitled Mobility For All By All, which aims to increase the social and environmental benefits of the multibillion-dollar proposed MetroLink expansion in St. Louis for residents living along the alignment. She was a team member on the award-winning “+STL: Growing an Urban Mosaic” finalist proposal for the Chouteau Greenway Competition led by dhd, TLS Landscape Architecture & OBJECT TERRITORIES.
Previously, Dr. Samuels was the inaugural director of the Sustainable City Project (SCP), a multidisciplinary research, teaching, and outreach initiative of the University of Arizona where she worked with public and private partners on micro- to macro-scaled sustainability efforts in southern Arizona and the larger megaregion. While earning her Doctorate in Urban Planning at UCLA, she was a senior research associate at cityLAB, an urban think tank in UCLA's Department of Architecture and Urban Design, where she co-ran the WPA 2.0 competition and symposium.
Samuels’s book, Infrastructural Optimism, is available now from Routledge.
- Lunch at 12:00 pm
- Lecture at 12:30 pm
- CEUs will only be given to AIA members attending in person. There will be a sign-in sheet at the door to receive credit
- Please park in the remote lot - located between Cooper and Grace Bridge Streets
- Please sign in at the front desk
Photo Credit: Park ‘n’ Play by JAJA Architects