Joanne Kohn, chairman emeritus of the Frank Lloyd Wright House in Ebsworth Park, will deliver the annual Eugene J. Mackey Jr. Lecture, titled Saving the Frank Lloyd Wright Usonian House in St. Louis.
Since 1993, she has been involved in saving the Frank Lloyd Wright House in Ebsworth Park, also known as the Kraus House, located in Kirkwood, Missouri. In 1997, she became chairman of the board and was responsible for raising funds to save and restore the house, turning it into a cultural institution focused on architecture and design.
A lifetime supporter and advocate for the arts, Kohn has served as president of the board of the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, chairman of the opera guild of Opera Theatre St. Louis, chairman of the Missouri Arts Council, and director of the arts management and leadership MFA program at Webster University. She has been a member of several boards, including Dance St. Louis, Friends of the Saint Louis Art Museum, the Mid-America Arts Alliance, the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies, Opera Guilds International, and the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy. She is an honorary member of the American Institute of Architects.
This endowed lecture honors Eugene J. Mackey Jr., a distinguished architect who practiced in partnership with Joseph Murphy, former dean of the School of Architecture. Among other projects, Mackey and Murphy designed John M. Olin Library and collaborated with R. Buckminster Fuller on the design of the Missouri Botanical Garden’s Climatron.
The Eugene J. Mackey Jr. Lecture brings significant patrons of architecture to campus. Past lecturers have included Gerald Edelman, Thomas Krens, Jorma Ollila, Emily Pulitzer, Richard Jackson, Eric J. Cesal, Alan Webber, Stanislaus von Moos, K. Michael Hays, and Robert Herrmann
