Upcoming Events and Tours (2025–2026)

• Friday, October 10, 6:00 PM: Night Tour: Into the Darkness (tickets required)
• Saturday, October 11, 11:00 AM: Public Campus Tour (tickets required)
• Saturday, October 11, 1:00 PM–4:00 PM: pond: a symphony open hours
  • 3:00 PM: Interdisciplinary talk with artist Lynne Smith and the Fowler-Finn Lab discussing the exhibition and recording around (and in) the pond
  • 4:00 PM: Performance

    Join the sentient creatures in and around the pond for a ‘golden hour’ acoustic performance. Musical call and response and improvisation will serve as a form of vibrational communication as musicians respond to plants, insects, birds, frogs, and other infrastructural, ambient, and atmospheric sounds (and each other).

    Featuring:
    Jordan Geiger (preacher’s organ)
    Mere Herrach (cello)
    Eleanor Witt Wardlaw (vocals)

    Instruments will be available for audience participation.

• Saturday, October 18, 4:00 PM–7:00 PM: Photowalk (applications closed)
• Saturday, November 8, 11:00 AM: Public Campus Tour (tickets required)
• Saturday, December 13, 11:00 AM: Public Campus Tour (tickets required)
• Saturday, January 10, 11:00 AM: Special archives tour TBA

Please contact us for information about private tours.

Past Lectures

• June 14, 2022: Architectural Terra Cotta in St. Louis: A History Across Five Blocks of One Street – Michael R. Allen
• June 21, 2022: When Bad Things Happen to Good Buildings – Meg Lousteau
• July 5, 2022: Heavy Lifting: Cast Iron on Main Street – Mike Jackson, FAIA
• July 12, 2022: Mesker Brothers: Storefronts of America – Darius Bryjka
• May 10, 2023: The James R. Thompson Center: Preserving Futures at the Postmodern People’s Palace – Elizabeth Blasius and Jonathan Solomon (video)
• June 28, 2023: Philippine Village Historical Site – Janna Añonuevo Langholz
• July 12, 2023: Statues and Liberties: What Stories Monuments Tell Us – Geoff Ward, Stephanie Weissberg, and Michael R. Allen
• August 9, 2023: The Repair and Conservation of Terra Cotta – Peter Wollenberg
• May 29, 2024: When Demolition Is Actually Preservation – Kyle Lansing and others in conversation with Michael Allen (Link to audio)
• June 19, 2024: What We’re Made Of: St. Louis’ Architectural Geology – Amanda Clark (Link to audio, split)
• July 10, 2024: Cultural Aggregates: Architecture and Ceramic 3D Printing – Kelley Van Dyck Murphy (Link to audio, split)
• August 14, 2024: A Tall Heritage Redux: Photographing Downtown St. Louis, Thirty-Five Years Later – Gary Tetley (Link to audio, split)
• October 22, 2024: “A New Museum of the Built Environment for Our Age: The National Building Arts Center”, Society of Architectural Historians/Steedman Library Lecture Series lecture with Michael R. Allen (Link to recording)
• November 13, 2024: “Reconstructing the James Clemens, Jr. House”, webinar with Michael R. Allen and Alan Yang (Link to recording)
• May 28, 2025: “The Terra Cotta High Rise” – Thomas Leslie
• June 25, 2025: “Brick in Design, Design in Brick” – Will Quam
• July 23, 2025: “Restoring Two Art Deco Terra Cotta Masterpieces” – Edward Gerns
• August 6, 2025: “Going for Zero: Decarbonization of the Built Environment on the Path to Our Urban Future” – Carl Elefante