Architects Lauren, left, and Eric Wendlandt, pictured September 10, 2009, are furniture, interior and landscape designers, who run their business Framework Design from their home in Kansas City, Missouri. (Mike Ransdell | Kansas City Star | MCT)

Nationally, approximately 30 percent of architects are unemployed. According to statistics released by the American Institute of Architects for July 2008, architectural firms across the nation were employing a total of 224,000 people. By January 2009, that number had dropped to 206,000.

Architects are now facing reduced work hours and loss of benefits. Others have lost their jobs altogether. Those affected include not only recent graduates and junior members of design firms, but also mid-career and senior members of the architecture community.

The current struggle in the architecture profession is giving the students at the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts something to ponder.

“I am planning to go on to graduate school for two years right after college, so I am hoping that by then I would have waited out this economic downturn,” said Sarah Miller, a sophomore architecture student.

The economic turmoil, Miller said, has not hindered her from striving to fulfill her dream of becoming an architect. But she admits that she is trying to branch out to give herself an edge over her peers when the time comes to send out graduate school or job applications.

“Even though I am primarily an architecture student, I am trying to get more diverse skills, such as gaining experiences in doing background landscape architecture,” she said. “Hopefully, this will make me more marketable and grant me more opportunities to graduate school and the job market.”

While students like Miller plan to cross their fingers and hope for the best, some who are already in the job market have been forced to abandon architecture in favor of more stable professions.

“This past summer I talked to quite a few past graduates from Wash. U. Sam Fox, and it was shocking that some of them had to completely switch to a different career track and give up architecture,” Miller said. “Although, there were various reasons as to why these people gave up the architecture profession, from what I heard the economy definitely played its role.”

Despite this, Miller believes that Washington University’s undergraduate architecture program prepares its students well enough to be very competitive in the architecture world.

“I wouldn’t have come here if I didn’t know that Wash. U. does an excellent job to produce successful architects,” Miller said. “Wash. U.’s architecture graduate school is very highly ranked in the country and that certainly reflects in its undergraduate program.”

(COURTESY OF KENNY ANDERSON)

Johnson, an associate professor of biology from Tuskegee, Ala., was one of three professors killed in Friday’s shootings at the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH).

UAH Professor of Biology Amy Bishop is charged with opening fire on her colleagues during a faculty meeting last Friday in a shooting spree that left three faculty members dead and three others injured.

The other two fatalities were Gopi Podila, the chairman of the Department of Biological Sciences, and Associate Professor of Biology Maria Ragland Davis.

Bishop is said to have had a violent past that included the 1986 shooting of her 18-year-old brother which was ruled as an accidental death.

The New York Times quoted anonymous faculty members who said that Bishop did not receive tenure and subsequently appealed the department’s rejection. The shooting occurred on the day the initial decision was upheld.

In the wake of Johnson’s death, his classmates have reconnected across the country to commemorate the friend they remember as a kind and quiet man with an unforgettable sense of humor.

Adriel Johnson (center) with Wash U friends Mike White ‘79 and Rommie Loudd ‘79. (Courtesy of Sheldon Ames)

Isbell and her husband live near Johnson in Huntsville. Her husband, Irvin Isbell, was Johnson’s roommate for two years at Washington University.

The WUSTL Black Alumni Network Web site—which is not affiliated with the University—and alumni Facebook pages have been flooded with an outpouring of condolences and memories of Johnson.

“It’s not often that we meet lifelong friends. In 1975, freshman year, I met Adriel,” Sheldon Ames, a close friend and 1979 Washington University graduate, wrote in response to classmate Jan Boyd’s Facebook status that honored Johnson.

One of his Wash. U. suitemates, Alvin Blackshear, wrote: “I am deeply saddened by this news. Adriel was a suitemate of mine during my freshman year and was always supportive and understanding of a not-so friendly nerd from NYC (me). His style and manner was something that years later I admired and was thankful for. I regret never having told him that he had a very positive impact on my life at Wash. U.”

During his years at Washington University, Johnson, a biology major, participated in several intramural sports and was an active member of the Black Students Association.

“Adriel enjoyed being a college student at Washington University,” said Donald Wilkerson, Johnson’s freshman and sophomore year roommate. “We enjoyed all aspects of the life. It was fun for us. We recognized that it was one of those experiences that you only have once and I think we took advantage of it.”

Wilkerson said that their lives at the University revolved around sporting events and Johnson was very enthusiastic about the Battling Bears.

“He was a hard worker. Very competitive,” Wilkerson said. “A sweet guy.”

After graduating from Washington University, Johnson went on to earn two master’s degrees, in population genetics and muscle protein biochemistry. He graduated with a Ph.D. in 1989 from North Carolina State University.

In his professional life, he was chairman of the biological sciences department at the UAH and focused his research on cell biology and nutritional physiology.

There he was active in encouraging minority students to further their education and go to graduate school.

Johnson was the director for the UAH chapter of the Alabama Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation.

Irvin Isbell Jr., the son of Johnson’s Wash. U. classmates Irvin and Janice Isbell, attended the UAH as a chemical engineering major, and said that Johnson served as a mentor to him and encouraged him to attend graduate school.

“He was a very encouraging professor,” Isbell Jr. said. “He would tear you down then build you back up as a stronger person. His presence will be greatly missed.”

Isbell was a part of the scholarship program that Johnson oversaw.

“He gave us all a chance by putting us on the scholarship program. We are going to miss him.”

Johnson is survived by his two sons and his wife, Jacqueline Johnson, a veterinary professor at Alabama A&M University.

Junior Nick Yozamp receives the Jeopardy! College Championship trophy from host Alex Trebek. Yozamp won $100,000 in the final match, which aired Friday, Feb. 12, 2010. (Courtesy of "Jeopardy!" Productions, Inc.)

Washington University students and faculty alike have been captivated by Wash. U. student Nick Yozamp’s appearances on the popular televised game show “Jeopardy!” So when the final game was shown in the DUC Commons, everyone held their breath, rooting for the Wash. U.’s knight in school-spirited sweatshirt armor.

Yozamp pulled through, winning the $100,000 grand prize and some positive attention for the University. Ryan Stoffers, a sophomore at University of California, Los Angeles, finished second in the competition, winning $50,000. Surya Sabhapathy, a senior at University of Michigan, won $26,600 for finishing third.

“I was surprised that so many people showed up for the viewing, and with each correct response people were cheering and everything,” Yozamp said of the DUC viewing, immediately after winning. He was showered in confetti and hoisted upon student’s shoulders, as a brief chant of “Nick, Nick, Nick” filled the air.

“It was really electric all throughout the DUC,” junior Alex Christensen said. “There were a lot of people here, and we were cheering for every answer that he got right.”

Though Yozamp got the Final “Jeopardy!” question wrong, he planned his wager so that he won anyway.

Nick Yozamp is hoised into the air following his Jeopardy! victory on Feb. 12. (Matt Lanter | Student Life)

Both Stoffers and Sabhapathy correctly answered the Final “Jeopardy!” question: “These two men first meet in 1 Samuel 16 when one becomes aware of the musical talent of the other.” The correct response was “Who are Saul and David?” Yozamp responded “Who are Ramses and David?” but retained more than $10,000, which was added to his $20,000 total from Thursday’s episode.

Yozamp was in the audience at the DUC, unbeknownst to many students.

“I didn’t realize he was sitting here until the final question,” sophomore Bernell Nevil said. “He was right there. He knew if he won or not. It was definitely exciting. It will help people know we’re in St. Louis, and not Seattle or D.C.”

College “Jeopardy!” differs from normal “Jeopardy!” not only in the contestants’ ages, but in the attitude they bring with them to the game.

“Often in our regular games a player sees their score and imagines what bills could be paid with the money,” Maggie Speak, the show’s contestant producer, wrote in an e-mail to Student Life. “Although I’m sure a lot of our students could use the money for college loans, etc., they seem to really understand that this is a game and they tend to play it more for fun than cash.”

Yozamp plans to spend part of his winnings on his study abroad program in France this summer. The rest will help him pay for medical school.

Still, for Yozamp there is more to playing than money.

“The best part about “Jeopardy!” is not the money nor is it the recognition,” Yozamp wrote in an e-mail to Student Life. “The best part is the game itself. Playing the game in the studio is exponentially more fun than playing “Jeopardy!” at home. The most difficult aspect of the experience is not having been able to tell anyone how I did on the show.”

College “Jeopardy!” finals are a two-day total-point affair. Whatever amount was won on Thursday’s game carries over to the episode airing Friday. At the end of the second game, the contestant holding the largest amount of money is the victor.

Yozamp is guaranteed a minimum of $25,000 at the end of the finals period.

Students gathered in the Danforth University Center’s Tisch Commons on Thursday around a large screen set up to view the show at 3:30 p.m.

Should he come in first place, he will be the recipient of a $100,000 grand prize.

Yozamp, a junior, is a biology major. In his contestant blog on the “Jeopardy!” Web site, he noted that he intends to apply to medical schools this summer.

Yozamp was excited to participate in the finals.

“The finals were taped along with all of the other games in early January, so I’m just eager to watch the finals at this point,” Yozamp said. “But, when I was competing on ‘Jeopardy!’ a month ago, I was immensely excited to compete in the finals and was not the least bit nervous. I was just happy to be able to play two more games of ‘Jeopardy!’ win or lose. I expected the finals to be intense but amicable; all three of us were guaranteed at least $25,000.”

According to Maggie Speak, “Jeopardy!” contestant producer, Yozamp is an example of a great College “Jeopardy!” contestant.

“Nick is a terrific contestant and a terrific young man,” she said. “He lights up a room when he walks in. He is a truly a great competitor and a gentleman. When he is playing the game you can see the joy on his face.”

Yozamp will appear in his final episode of “Jeopardy!” at 3:30 p.m. on Friday.

The forum, titled “Monetary Policy Amid Economic Turbulence,” was hosted by the Murray Weidenbaum Center on Economy, Government, and Public Policy at Washington University in partnership with the Department of Economics and the Undergraduate Economics Association.

Professor of Economics Steve Fazzari served as moderator for the event.

“We do live, indeed, in interesting times. A year ago we were facing the most severe financial crisis of two generations and falling into a very severe recession,” Fazzari said during the opening remarks.  “According to some people, it’s over. For other people, it still continues.”

The panel consisted of James Bullard, president and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis; Costas Azariadis, Edward Mallinckrodt Distinguished Professor in Arts & Sciences and director of the University’s Center for Dynamic Economics; Thomas Cooley, Paganelli-Bull Professor of Economics at New York University; Richard Sylla, Henry Kaufman Professor of the History of Financial Institutions and Markets at New York University; and Joel Prakken, chairman of the economic consulting firm Macroeconomic Advisers.

Addressing the recession and the Federal Reserve from a different perspective, the five speakers shed light on the current state of the economy and its potential direction in the future.

Thomas Cooley (Matt Mitgang | Student Life)

Thomas Cooley

-“In 2007, the credit prices that we all should have anticipated became apparent with great suddenness. The first response of monetary policy, one has to say, was best described as being in something of a state of denial about the severity of the problem.”

-“By comparison, the year 2009 has seemed relatively calm. Of course, that’s not really true, since it began with the inauguration of a new president, big debate about stimulus and the effectiveness of stimulus, the bankruptcy of General Motors and Chrysler, the rolling out of plans of reforming the financial regulatory system, the new administration’s proposals for helping the housing sector and removing troubled assets from the balance sheets of banks—both programs which have been partially ineffective. On top of this, we have experienced the worst recession in the post-war era. It hasn’t exactly been a picnic in 2009.”

-“Eventually the Fed is going to have to drain reserves in the system, and that’s going to have repercussions elsewhere in the economy.”

-“I think the problems of monetary policy are manageable for the Fed. What to do about the size of the Fed’s balance sheet is a little bit more problematic.”

-“It’s really the case that the Federal Reserve should not be in the business of propping up particular sectors of the economy and allocating capital to that sector. That’s really the role of the Treasury, and going forward the Fed is going to have to find a way to shift their role to the Treasury where it belongs.”

Richard Sylla (Matt Mitgang | Student Life)

Richard Sylla

-“It’s a not a new thing that the Fed’s balance sheet doubles over time. It happened in the 1930s. It happened in the 1940s. Unfortunately, it didn’t happen from 1929 to 1933, which is why the Great Depression was as bad as it was.”

-“Financial crises are part of the capitalist system.”

-“A lot of the financial crises just had one year attached to them. But whenever financial crises seem to have more than one year attached to them, it’s probably quite a bit worse. The one we’re in now appears to have at least three years attached to it, maybe more.”

-“Nonetheless, despite all these crises, the story of U.S. economic growth over two plus centuries is a good story.”

-“There is a displacement. The pattern is then during the upswing everyone wants to. That’s the upside building up the financial crisis. Then something happens. Distress happens. And then everybody heads to the exits. This is called the leveraging regulation.

-“What is the central bank supposed to do during a financial crisis?”

Students and a professor work with locals helping out in Haiti on behalf of Engineers Without Borders during spring break in 2009. (Courtesy of Robin Shephard (top-left) and Will Fischer)

As national fundraisers for Haiti include everything from texting donations to celebrity-sponsored telethons, Washington University’s Engineers Without Borders continues to pursue long-term efforts to tackle poverty in the country.

Even before the earthquake struck on Jan. 12 near the capital city of Port-au-Prince, Haiti was considered the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. The 7.0 magnitude earthquake has killed more than 200,000 people in the nation to date. According to The New York Times, relief efforts in the United States for Haiti have raised about $560 million.

“[The country] suffers from so many ills: environmental degradation, corrupt government, inadequate education, crippling malnutrition [and] no reliable infrastructure for transporting goods into the country or obtaining power,” said Jamie Cummings, a member of Engineers Without Borders (EWB).

The University’s chapter of EWB partnered with Meds and Food for Kids (MFK), hoping to address these issues.

MFK, headed by Patricia Wolff, pediatrician at the Washington University Medical School, provides treatment for 2,000 to 3,000 malnourished children in Haiti with the Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) or Medika Mamba. This peanut butter product is a home-based treatment administered over six to eight weeks to alleviate malnutrition in children. RUTF used in Haiti is produced within a local factory headed by MFK.

French pediatrician André Briend had developed the formula, which is now used by worldwide organization Project Peanut Butter to treat hundreds of thousands of malnourishment cases. During field-testing, Mark Manary, a University professor of pediatrics, used the formula to treat malnourished children in Malawi.

In Haiti, MFK’s factory purchases as many peanuts as possible from local farmers and employs about 30 Haitians. According to senior Will Fischer, president of EWB, the student group hopes to help the factory increase the efficiency of the creation process. One issue EWB hopes to address is the difficulty farmers face in growing peanuts due to the region’s rainy seasons and climate.

“It’s really risky for a farmer to lay out peanuts on their fields unless it’s dry,” Fischer said. “Normally they have to get rid of 40 percent of the peanuts that they harvested.”

The solar peanut dryer would reduce peanut mold growth, and farmers would easily be able to introduce the machine into their farms. The dryer is also planned to be affordable for Haitian farmers.

Other plans include creating a process to make charcoal from waste peanut shells. According to Cummings, peanut shells are currently thrown away into nearby rivers after productions. With the new method, these peanut shells would be carbonized and pressed into briquettes.

“Once we fine-tune the process, we hope to distribute the technology to Haitians in the area, so that they can start up their own charcoal-making businesses, using waste biomass, while also decreasing the demand for wood,” she said.

Members from EWB traveled to Haiti in spring 2009. Students built the solar peanut dryer and tested the prototype in the summer. EWB plans to travel to Haiti in summer 2010 to continue its work with MFK.

“The saving of Haiti will come from long-term, smart investments in Haiti,” Cummings wrote. “Like that made by Meds and Food for Kids: building Haiti’s economy, employing its people and in general empowering its people to solve their own problems.”

At the time of the earthquake, more than a million families had already depended on international food aid to survive. Previous deforestation and soil erosion have resulted in severely depleted resources and even more disastrous effects from hurricanes and other storms.

“Haiti was in a desperate situation before the earthquake,” Cummings said. “The average Haitian lives on $2 a day.”

Last Thursday, Yozamp appeared on “Jeopardy! College Championship” on NBC, beating out representatives from other universities in the quarterfinal round.

Although he was second going into Final Jeopardy!, he correctly answered the question of who appeared on the cover of the 1946 Time magazine with the caption “All Matter is Speed and Flame.”

Nick Yozamp

When looking back at the competition, Yozamp remembered the intensity of the game.

“The quarterfinal episode that I competed in was very competitive,” he said. “We were all pretty evenly matched. It was a really good game on all fronts.”

Having won the quarterfinal game, Yozamp is guaranteed winnings of $5,000, and will move onto the semifinal round to compete for the $100,000 prize guaranteed for the winner of the tournament.

Three semifinal games will be broadcast from Monday to Wednesday on NBC at 3:30 Central time; the game that Yozamp plays in will be aired on Monday. The final rounds will be broadcast Thursday and Friday.

Yozamp’s passion for “Jeopardy!” began when he started watching the show at around the age of 6 at his grandparents’ house. He was so captivated by the game that he asked for a “Jeopardy!” computer game for Christmas when he was 8.

Although correct answers were few and far between when he first began practicing the game, he continued playing, regularly watching the show and participating in Knowledge Bowl throughout middle and high school.

Gradually, he built up that encyclopedic knowledge and quiz-game acumen that would later carry him onto the very show itself.

Last August, Yozamp took a 50-question online diagnostic test offered by “Jeopardy!” and began his journey to the podium. After that performance, Yozamp was invited to an audition in Chicago in October.

After taking another 50-question test, playing a mock “Jeopardy!” game and being interviewed by the contestant coordinators, he was notified in December that he qualified to compete in the quarterfinal game.

Saying that Yozamp was excited would be an understatement.

“Since late high school or early college, it has been my ultimate goal in life to be on ‘Jeopardy!’—that was the main thing I wanted to do,” Yozamp said. “I’m just surprised that it happened so quickly.”

Yozamp said he enjoys every part of the game.

“I like the trivia aspect of it, learning knowledge in a lot of different fields,” he said. “What really appeals to me is just the breadth of the information on the show…The competitive aspect is also really fun. Everything about it is just really cool.”

Unsurprisingly, Yozamp’s family and friends are very proud of his accomplishment and are supportive in his trivia-related strives.

“I think that winning his quarterfinal game was an amazing feat,” said junior Alyssa Moller, Yozamp’s friend. “I am very excited to tune in on Monday for his semifinal game and see if he advances to the finals. Go Nick!”

While Yozamp is proud of his accomplishment, he also believes that others can do it as well. His advice to other “Jeopardy!” aspirants: “Keep at it—take the online tests when they are offered. Who knows, maybe you will do well enough, make it to the auditions and make it on ‘Jeopardy!’ If I can do it, other people can do it too.”

The next online “Jeopardy!” test for college students will be offered at 8 p.m. on Tuesday. Interested students can go to www.jeopardy.com, make an account and register for the test.

In addition to Yozamp, three other students have also represented Washington University in prior competitions on “Jeopardy!”: quarterfinalist Ericka Hayes in 1993, semifinalist Arianna Haut in 2002, and second runner-up Jayanth Iyengar in 2006.

The Apple iPad, a tablet computer announced on Jan. 27, 2010, will have versions released later this year in March and April. (Courtesy of Apple)

Apple recently went public with its new tablet computer, the iPad.

Features of the new device include Web browsing, picture viewing, gaming and support for e-books. Almost all of the current iPhone applications will work on the device. It weighs 1.5 pounds and is half an inch thick. Prices for the device are set to start at $499 and will increase based on memory size and optional 3G service.

“iPad is our most advanced technology in a magical and revolutionary device at an unbelievable price,” Apple chairman and CEO Steve Jobs said when he unveiled the product.

On the Wash. U. campus, student reactions to the iPad are varied. Many students think that the iPad is redundant technology, given its similarities to Apple’s iPod Touch and traditional laptops.

“I already have an iTouch, and I don’t feel like I need any of stuff that it [the iPad] has,” freshman Christine Lang said.

Freshman Tiffany Kang agrees: “I think it [is] kind of pointless because there are already too many gadgets out there. It has the same functions as a laptop, which I would rather buy. There’s no extra benefit over having an iPod. I would find it extraneous to have one.”

Price is also a factor that plays a role in whether or not students would consider buying the device. Most students are not willing to splurge on the iPad when it is so comparable to devices that they already own.

“I am perfectly happy with my iPod Nano,” sophomore Brendan Cook said. “Five hundred dollars is way too much for something that is so similar to what I already have. If they added a bunch of new features I would probably consider getting it.”

Laura Yu, a sophomore, said, “They look interesting, but I would never buy one because I feel like I could do the same stuff on a MacBook and don’t need to buy one.”

Junior Nick May said the iPad “seems like a giant iTouch, but I haven’t really looked at it. I’m sure it has more stuff, and on the other hand I don’t think it could do everything a laptop could do. It’s the first generation. The next generation will have more capabilities.”

This sentiment is common on campus. Some students claim that they would be more likely to buy the iPad if it had greater capability.

“I would want to wait until they came out with a new edition to buy it,” senior Becky Bell said.

Some students feel more positive about the new Apple gadget.

“I want it because it’s new technology and it is interesting,” Bell said. “I feel like its function is to be hip and trendy.”

People have also found humor in the similarities the iPad shares with previous products.

“I already have a laptop and an iTouch, so I’ll just tape them together,” May said.

Apple also released a new kit for developing apps to run on the iPad. The Software Development Kit (SDK) allows developers to test apps on a Mac and program them to run on the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. There are currently more than 140,000 apps that run on Apple products.

The tablet computer will be sold starting in March. Storage capacities range from 16GB to 64GB.

(Photos courtesy of Lora Iannotti)

On Jan. 10, Iannotti, a nutrition and public health expert in the George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University, traveled to Haiti to research the effectiveness of “Medika Mamba,” a peanut butter-based food developed by the St. Louis organization Meds and Foods for Kids for children’s malnutrition. Her work was interrupted two days later by the devastating earthquake.

In addition to working with Meds and Foods for Kids, Iannotti was also working with the Children’s Nutritional Program of Haiti to find preventative measures for malnutrition, particularly for children under the age of 5. Her team was stationed in Leogane, Haiti, which was closer to the epicenter of the earthquake than the capital, Port-au-Prince.

“We were very lucky because we were in Port-au-Prince that day,” Iannotti said. “Our guest house did fall and the apartments of the people I was working with were demolished, so we were very fortunate that we were in a restaurant, so we just ran to a parking lot outside when the earthquake hit.”

After the quake, Iannotti said her team worked with Doctors Without Borders before heading back to Leogane, where 80 to 90 percent of the buildings had come down.

“There was a great deal of devastation there, and it has really been in this past week that relief efforts have made it to Leogane,” she said. “When we were there, there were two Haitian doctors performing what were literally miracles, and people were streaming in with catastrophic injuries. All they had were cardboard boxes, water, and gauze—and these two doctors were doing the best they could with very little.”

Iannotti, who has been working in Haiti for several years, said that there are different stages in the recuperation of an area after a disaster like this. She said that the immediate relief effort is incredibly important, but as time passes the more pressing issue is preventing infection and disease among the population, particularly diarrheal infections.

“There are going to be huge problems,” Iannotti said. “They are constructing latrines right now, but they are very poor and they are living on the streets or in temporary camps. There are thousands of people sharing latrines.”

Children may face the biggest risk in Haiti after the earthquake. Iannotti said, “A big misconception is that drinking water is the most important thing. Drinking water is important, but in this second phase you really need clean water for washing to prevent the diseases.”

Although students donating to the cause are essential in the relief effort, Iannotti believes that people tend not to pay attention to where their charity money is going.

“There’s a tendency among students to want to give to the relief efforts, but I think it’s extremely important that people give to those that will be there in the long term, such as Meds and Food for Kids, and Save the Children,” she said. “Those are groups that will be in Haiti for a long time and will be there for a long time and that’s what is needed— sustained support. Things were improving in Haiti, we just need to get them back to that track.”

English professor Gerald Early was selected as a member of an eight-person jury charged with choosing a proposal to redesign the grounds surrounding the Gateway Arch. The facelift of the Arch grounds will be finished by 2015. (Matt Mitgang | Student Life)

The competition, “Framing A Modern Masterpiece: The City + The Arch + The River,” encompasses the idea of “connecting the city, the Arch grounds, and the river, maintaining the Arch as an icon, [and] portraying the entire place as an iconic place,” according to the competition manager, Don Stastny, a prominent architect and urban designer and the CEO of Portland’s StastnyBrun Architects Inc.

In January, eight jurors of various specialties were selected, one of whom was a Washington University faculty member: Gerald Early, the Merle Kling Professor of Modern Letters and the director of the Center for the Humanities.

Others include architecture critic Robert Campbell, former National Park Service Deputy Director Denis Galvin, urban strategist David Leland, curator Cara McCarty, landscape architects Laurie Olin and Carol Barney, and Harvard urban design professor Alex Krieger.

“We selected the jury [by looking at] the qualities that we want the designers to address within the competition,” Stastny said. “We look for people who aren’t just kind of singular but have multiple kinds of discipline. They also have to be the type of people who will collaborate…[and] have the highest personal integrity. Once they make a decision as a jury, that opinion will be respected and not turned over.”

Redesigning the Arch grounds had been an architectural project discussed for many years before becoming a reality.

“One of the things that had been talked about was redesigning the Arch grounds by 2004 [to commemorate the year 1904, when the World Fair had been held], but that never happened,” Early said. “This is a new initiative that’s being launched—[it has been] talked about probably for the last eight or nine years.”

The first step of the competition—a deadline for competition registration that included a letter of intent—has ended.

“In this first round, we will evaluate the qualifications; people have submitted their intention and their desire…The jury will look for teams who have shown prior work [that is] creative and viable,” said Alex Krieger, an urban designer who had been on the juries for a competition to redesign Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House as well as a Holocaust memorial in Boston.

According to Early, a winning team’s scheme will be selected this August.

To connect the city and the river is a unique project in and of itself and can be compared to a similar architectural design competition in Shanghai, Krieger said.

“In Shanghai, the competition was to take a three-mile area between the river and the historic part of the city…to bury the very wide road [separating] the city from the river, and then extend the park system to the river,” Krieger said. “The kind of impact of [the Arch competition] would be comparable to the transformation [in Shanghai].”

The jury will meet for the first time early next week and begin the selection process. According to Stastny, there has not been a budget for the competition in an effort to prevent limiting designs. But Krieger said the jury will make sure that “the winning scheme is viable to be realized and to continue to be realized in the near future.”

“It has to be somehow comparable to the Arch itself,” Krieger said. “It has to provide amenities to people using the park environment; it should diminish the barrier from downtown St. Louis and the river; [and] it should of course be beautiful when seen from the distance.”