Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts
Washington University in St. Louis
One Brookings Drive
St. Louis, MO 63130
The Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts is an interdisciplinary and diverse community of architects, artists, and designers dedicated to excellence in learning, creative activity, research, and exhibition. Our unique structure allows us to build on the strengths of each unit—Art, Architecture, and Museum—and to draw on the resources of the University to create new knowledge and address the social and environmental challenges of our time.
The Master of Fine Arts is a two-year, critically engaged studio program that provides a forum for collaboration and both discipline-specific and interdisciplinary study. As part of a tight-knit community, students explore a wide spectrum of media, production methods, and distribution strategies. Throughout the program, students are encouraged to investigate the relationship between idea generation and production, and to articulate the conceptual underpinnings of their work. Graduate seminars provide the opportunity to study theory through the lens of studio practice, while a robust thesis seminar supports students in their writing and studio-related research.
The Master of Architecture program emphasizes the tangible making of architecture and critical thinking. The heart of the curriculum, the design studio sequence, facilitates the development of strong conceptual abilities, thoughtful integration of technical information, and experimental representations of architectural ideas in two- and three-dimensional form. The faculty is actively engaged in building and pedagogical research, and the program includes opportunities for international travel, interdisciplinary collaboration, fabrication studios, and community engagement.
The Master of Landscape Architecture program approaches the redesign of our cities, and of our industrial and agrarian landscapes, through strategic interdisciplinary interactions that foster critical thinking and the highest level of scholarly and creative production. The program’s location in the St. Louis metropolitan region provides a particularly appropriate venue for landscape-driven inquiry and design. All components of the curriculum—from course syllabi to graduate research assistantships to outreach and study abroad programs—are designed to model emerging real-world conditions.
The Master of Urban Design is an innovative, post-professional program that allows students to pursue advanced design and research work focused on the urban environment while acquiring the theoretical and professional foundation for urban design practice. The program focuses on reinventing and transforming cities across the United States and the world through a full range of scales, and provides opportunities for experiential immersion learning. The MUD program shares an important relationship with the newly launched Doctor of Sustainable Urbanism.
Graduate dual degree programs—offered in Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Urban Design, Construction Management, Business, and Social Work—provide both disciplinary depth and broad perspectives to address current and emerging global design problems.
Visiting artists, architects, & designers
Each semester, the Sam Fox School hosts weekly lectures by nationally and internationally recognized artists, architects, designers, landscape architects, urban designers, historians, and critics. In addition, various fellows programs and visiting faculty and critics promote new ideas in practice, theory, and technology across disciplines.
The Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum plays an integral role within the Sam Fox School. The Museum’s collection of more than 5,000 objects, focusing on European and American art of the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries, is an extraordinary resource for students. In addition, the Museum’s ambitious exhibition schedule brings nationally and internationally renowned artists and architects to campus, and documents their work through an award-winning publications program.
Learn more about our graduate programs and access an online application here.
