Exhibition to honor late architecture professor

LAWRENCE — A retrospective exhibit of the work of Wojciech Lesnikowski, former professor in the School of Architecture, Design & Planning, and his students will open Sept. 20 in the Galloway Room, 305 Marvin Hall. It will run through Oct. 6.

He joined KU in 1988 as the Donald Hatch Distinguished Professor of Architecture and taught until he died of cancer April 17. He also developed and led the department’s foreign studies programs in Paris and China.

The exhibition will feature Lesnikowski’s sketches, drawings and competition entries as well as include a timeline of his storied life. A collection of books he bequeathed to the KU Libraries will be on display in the Hatch Reading Room on Marvin’s fourth floor.

The work of alumni who participated in his Ecole Nationale Superieure d’ Architecture Paris Val de Seine (ENSAPVS) studies program will also be displayed in the bridge gallery between Marvin Hall and the Art & Design Building.

Professor Pierre Engel of ENSAPVS will open the exhibition with a lecture on tall, irregularly shaped buildings, one of Lesnikowski's passions. It will take place at 7 p.m. Sept. 20 in Wescoe Hall.

Engel is a structural engineer who has conducted extensive research on steel structures, and he consulted on the Orbit megasculpture that was built for the Olympics in London. He also teaches KU students in the Paris program.

“Wojciech built the academic exchange between our two universities, and academically it is very important,” Engel said.

The Office of Study Abroad, the Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering, and the School of Architecture, Design & Planning are sponsoring Engel’s lecture.

In addition to designing buildings in the U.S., France and Poland, Wojciech was a professor at ENSAPVS and the Technical University of Krakow.

The school is accepting donations to establish the Lesnikowski Global Scholarship Fund in his honor in order to continue his work preparing students for global practice. To make a gift to this fund please visit www.kuendowment.org/lesnikowski..