Linda C. Samuels

Linda C. Samuels is a Professor and Chair of Urban Design at the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, Washington University in St. Louis. She also serves as Director of Sustainable Design and Environmental Justice, overseeing programs integrating equity and ecological principles into urban infrastructure. Her academic roles include teaching architecture studios, urban design seminars, and courses on infrastructural urbanism and sustainability metrics.

Samuels holds a Master of Architecture from Princeton University and a doctorate in urban planning from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where she was a senior research associate at cityLAB. Her research focuses on equitable infrastructure systems, with emphasis on metrics for measuring social and environmental impacts of urban projects.

Her work includes founding Infra_OPTS, a consulting firm developing infrastructure equity tools like the Los Angeles Infrastructure Equity Scorecard. She co-led the Mellon Foundation-funded “Mobility For All By All” project addressing the St. Louis MetroLink expansion’s societal benefits. Recent collaborations involve Virgin Hyperloop One, Food Forward, and local community organizations.

Key publications include her 2022 book *Infrastructural Optimism* (Routledge) and 2023 essay *Measuring What Matters* in *Journal of Architectural Education*. Her research bridges architecture, urban planning, and environmental justice, advocating for infrastructure as a driver of equitable urban futures.