Fay Jones School Students Recognized in Eighth Hnedak Bobo Group Design Competition

Photo by Mattie Bailey

Mark Weaver, from left, stands with architecture students Laura Cochran, Carla Chang and Greg Scherer, following the awards ceremony for the eighth annual Hnedak Bobo Group International Design Competition, held Nov. 4 at Vol Walker Hall.

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Five University of Arkansas students in the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design created the three winning designs recently selected from among 12 entries in the eighth annual Hnedak Bobo Group International Design Competition. The competition recognizes work done from international locales during the school's study abroad programs.

"HBG is pleased to support the Fay Jones School's continuing mission to produce open-minded, creative, talented design students with a vast knowledge of architectural history and an enthusiastic appreciation of the field," said Mark Weaver, a partner and principal architect with the firm and a 1982 graduate of the Fay Jones School. "We believe the U of A's study abroad experience is invaluable to the learning process and contributes significantly to professional and personal growth. We are pleased to recognize and encourage high-level conceptual design thinking through the scholarship program and also support the financial commitment made by the students who travel abroad."

Carla Chang and Juan Alvarez, both fourth-year architecture students from Panama, won an Award of Excellence for a design they created in the Mexico City studio. Laura Cochran, a fifth-year architecture student from Kansas City, Missouri, won an Award of Excellence for a design she created during her study abroad semester at the University of Arkansas Rome Center. Each project received a $2,000 prize.

Greg Scherer, a fourth-year architecture student from Little Rock, and Edmundo Gonzalez, a fifth-year architecture student from Cuba, won an Award of Merit and a $1,000 prize for a design they created in the Mexico City studio.

The $5,000 in total prize money was awarded by Hnedak Bobo Group, the Memphis, Tennessee, architecture firm that also helped judge the submissions. Weaver coordinated the competition. Allison Graham, a recruiter for Hnedak Bobo Group, and Amanda Boxman, a Fay Jones School alumna and architectural designer, joined Weaver at the Nov. 4 awards ceremony in the Young Gallery of Vol Walker Hall, followed by a lunch hosted by the firm.

Juries were impaneled at Hnedak Bobo Group and within the Fay Jones School, and members evaluated and provided their comments on the students' work. Jury members from the Fay Jones School included Winifred E. Newman, professor and head of the Department of Architecture, and faculty members Kim Sexton and Tahar Messadi.

Instructors leading the Mexico City studio were Russell Rudzinski, clinical assistant professor in the Fay Jones School, Victor Alcerreca, an architect and professor in Mexico City, and Fernando Vasconcelos, an architect and professor in Mexico City. Rome Center instructors were Francesco Bedeschi and Riccardo d'Aquino, coordinated by Davide Vitali, the center's director.

Rudzinski, director of the Latin American Urban Studio, said this summer was the program's second year of looking at larger scale questions about the historic center of Mexico City. During the students' 10-week session, they had the chance to visit with other Mexican architects and educators.

For their project, students investigated an internal boundary in the center of Mexico City and in the historic district, Centro Historico. Mexico City is experiencing internal migration from the periphery back to the center of the city because many people are tired of extreme commutes. Students looked at the edge between the historic district and this emerging mega city along with a tenfold expansion at the University of the Cloiser of Sor Juana. They considered public and private spaces, along with preservation issues and ways that contemporary architecture could be introduced.

The project by Chang and Alvarez focused on a courtyard in Mexico City. Weaver said the vigorous study of the courtyard as an urban space, and the many iterations developed, showed a high level of advanced conceptual thought.

"The idea of utilizing verbs found in the sculpture of Richard Serra, and overlaying those ideas, provides a methodology to mold the courtyard concept," he said. "This reaction to special moments or forces on the project make each response unique."

The Fay Jones School jury members noted the intriguing move to join the cloister and street to create a novel urban form. "The project takes a setting conceived for the work and life of medieval monastic scholars and translates it into spaces that enhance modern intellectual activity," they said.

Weaver called the project by Scherer and Gonzalez well executed, noting that the expressive drawing style caught the jury's attention.

"The solution seemed very sensitive to the surrounding context and provided pedestrian connectivity at the street level, while also creating a visual connection to the activities of the university," he said. "The sections and mass model showed the beginning of an exciting architectural solution that could be expanded on with further study."

Sexton and Messadi also applauded the graphic and model quality of the work, as well as the overall presentation. "This project has shown an interesting and functional sequence of incisions into the historic urban fabric for the purpose of emerging with 'open spaces' to promote social interaction," they said.

Newman said that the Rome project focused on issues of sustainability and preservation, and how an architect may work with and manage artifacts. The projects were centered on the earliest piece of fortification in Rome, the Aurelian wall. Students were asked to analyze the existing urban conditions; identify multiple social and cultural overlays on the site; and understand the principals of construction for the existing site of the wall they were working with.

Students worked in groups for the early analysis, and then individually considered how an early intervention using an existing piece of the older city would make it relevant for today.

"The focus was not as much on introducing program space," Newman said, "but as a thought to how you can create places to stop — such as small exhibit spaces, and how to integrate everyday activities in a modern city with some kind of older element" and what that means in to the quality of life in that city.

Sexton and Messadi admired the way Cochran opted to reinforce "the monumentality of the Aurelian Wall with a series of gracefully designed towers and sculpture gardens. The wall stands as a backdrop for the visitors to view while also enjoying the experience of the gardens."

Weaver noted that Cochran viewed the Aurelian Wall not as a backdrop, but as an integral part of supporting the garden solution. A new wall provides a circulation connector, and the portals echo the rhythm and scale of the buttresses on the original wall.

"The drawing style was excellent and told the story beautifully," Weaver said. "The vignette study was clear and told the story visually of the extent of research conducted to inform the final solution."

The firm's jury included a wide cross-section of the firm including former University of Arkansas students who had participated in the competition in school, emerging design professionals and seasoned architects. The two panels judged the competition independently and then consulted with each other on their selections. The three projects selected included the top choice from each panel and one entry in which all judges concurred.

The Hnedak Bobo Group has long supported both undergraduate and graduate architecture programs throughout the mid-south, Weaver said. The firm established this international design competition at the Fay Jones School in 2007, and it represents the firm's commitment to help prepare the next generation of architects, he said.