Eric P. Mumford named 2026 ACSA Distinguished Professor

Eric P. Mumford is the Rebecca and John Voyles Professor of Architecture at the Sam Fox School at WashU where he also holds courtesy appointments in art history and archaeology, as well as history. Mumford’s research interests concern the material form of buildings and cities, examined historically to answer questions of how observable built and environmental conditions have come to be as they are. Teaching in a design school, with a previous professional career as an architect in New York, these interests have led him toward a research focus on how architects and designers have attempted to shape modern urban environments, and what the results of those attempts have been. Most of his archival research has centered on the group of modern architects known as CIAM (International Congresses of Modern Architecture).

Mumford’s books include “Design Agendas: Modern Architecture in St. Louis, 1930s-70s,” (Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum) the catalogue for the 2024 exhibition he co-curated. He is also the author of several widely known works of architectural history, including a textbook, “Designing the Modern City: Urbanism Since 1850” (Yale University Press, 2018); “The CIAM Discourse on Urbanism, 1928-1960" (MIT Press, 2000); “Defining Urban Design: CIAM Architects and the Formation of a Discipline, 1937-69" (Yale University Press, 2009); “Modern Architecture in St. Louis” (Washington University, 2004); and an earlier museum catalogue, “Ando and Le Corbusier, volume 2” (Alphawood Foundation, Chicago, 2021).

He was co-principal investigator with Mónica Rivera on “Edges of Privacy,” a housing research project in 2021-24, supported by a McDonnell International Scholars Academy Global Incubator Seed Grant. He currently an advisor to the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR), Humanity’s Urban Future committee and a steering committee member of the Genealogies of Urban Design Network.