University of Arkansas Community Design Center Earns Four Awards

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The University of Arkansas Community Design Center has received four prestigious awards for its design work.

The center, which is an outreach program of the Fay Jones School of Architecture, is one of five university programs nationwide to receive an Excellence in Green Building Education Recognition Award from the U.S. Green Building Council. The center and the university will be featured in the council’s future education material and events.

“This is a relatively new award, intended to support programs and projects that advance green building education in a leadership capacity,” said Stephen Luoni, director of the Community Design Center. “It is a great honor to receive this recognition for innovative principles in outreach and teaching and for the way our studentsare able to apply what they learn.”

The center also received a national award from the Society of American Registered Architects for the MacArthur Park District Master Plan. The plan was named winner of the society’s 2009 Professional Design Award. The master plan for MacArthur Park in Little Rock was a collaboration with Conway and Schulte Architects, Oslund and Associates, both of Minneapolis; McClelland Consulting Engineers Inc. of Little Rock; and George Wittenberg of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.

The MacArthur Park plan also received a 2009 Achievement in Urban Design Award from the Arkansas Chapter of the American Planning Association.

The Community Design Center received an additional state award from the Arkansas Chapter of the American Planning Association. The Visioning Rail Transit in Northwest Arkansas project earned the 2009 Unique Contribution to Planning Award. The project was a collaboration between the University of Arkansas department of architecture; the Washington University College of Design in St. Louis; William Conway in Minneapolis, and Eric Kahn in Los Angeles.