Fay Jones School of Architecture Wins Big in Arkansas AIA Awards

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Faculty and staff of the Fay Jones School of Architecture gathered five of the eight design awards selected by a jury and handed out recently by the Arkansas Chapter of the American Institute of Architects.

Design awards and other awards were given during the annual AIA Arkansas State Convention, held Oct. 21-23 at the Statehouse Convention Center in Little Rock.

Marlon Blackwell’s Fayetteville firm, Marlon Blackwell Architect, won four of the eight design awards presented. Blackwell, a fellow of the American Institute of Architects, is a distinguished professor and head of the architecture department in the school. His firm received the only two Honor Awards, for the Porchdog house in Biloxi, Miss., and the Saint Nicolas Eastern Orthodox Church in Springdale. He also won a Merit Award for an addition to the Blair residence in Fayetteville and a Citation Award for the Cottages at Fallingwater in Bear Run, Pa.

A Citation Award also went to Visioning Rail Transit in Northwest Arkansas: Lifestyles and Ecologies, by the University of Arkansas Community Design Center in Fayetteville. Katie A. Breshears, a member of the American Institute of Architects and a 2002 graduate of the school, was the architect of record. The center is an outreach program of the Fay Jones School of Architecture.

Blackwell’s Porchdog house, built as part of Architecture for Humanity’s Biloxi Model Home program, is a prototype for sustainable, storm-proof housing in areas affected by hurricanes. The challenge of the design was how to retain the important social space of a porch at street level when the house is elevated 11 feet above the street to meet the new Federal Emergency Management Agency flood regulations in Biloxi. The solution uses a variation on the traditional shotgun house and incorporates a stoop that serves as a street-level porch. The project team for the Porchdog house consists of Marlon Blackwell, FAIA; David Tanner; Chris Baribeau, AIA; Ati Blackwell, Associate AIA; Matt Griffith; and Jonathan Boelkins, Associate AIA. Tanner is a 2001 graduate, Baribeau is a 2003 graduate and Boelkins is a 2004 graduate of the school.

The Saint Nicolas project entailed a transformation of an existing metal shop building into a sanctuary and fellowship hall. Its project team includes Blackwell; Boelkins; Bradford Payne; Gail Shepherd, AIA; Ati Blackwell, Assoc. AIA; and Stephen Reyenga. Shepherd is a 1994 graduate of the school.

The Blair residence project included a new four-car garage and exercise-room addition bookending an existing 1960s wood-framed house. The project team consists of Blackwell and Baribeau.

For his entry in a design competition, Blackwell designed six guest cottages for the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy, for an expansion of its educational program at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater house. Inspired by Wright’s belief that architecture should be of a site and not merely placed upon it, the cottages were embedded in the ground, not unlike the position of Fallingwater in the rock. Project team members were Blackwell; Boelkins; Payne; Reyenga; Angela Carpenter and Michael Pope. Carpenter is a 2006 graduate and Pope is a 2010 graduate of the school of architecture.

Several school alumni and a former faculty member also served on the design teams of other projects recognized by the jury.

A Merit Award went to the Bowtie house in Fayetteville, designed by deMx architecture, pa, in Fayetteville. The design team consisted of Timothy de Noble, AIA; Timothy Maddox, AIA; and Roberto Ramirez, design architect. Maddox is a 2002 graduate and Ramirez is a 2005 graduate of the school of architecture. De Noble is the former head of the school’s architecture department.

Another Merit Award went to Polk Stanley Wilcox Architects for the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Psychiatric Research Institute in Little Rock. The design team included Wesley Walls, AIA; Conley Fikes, AIA; Dian Bartlett, Assoc. AIA; and Andrijana Vukovich, Assoc. AIA. Walls is a 1992 graduate, Fikes is a 1967 graduate and Vukovich is a 2003 graduate of the school of architecture.

The Design Awards program honors works of distinction of AIA Arkansas members and draws public attention to examples of outstanding architecture. Projects are submitted in two categories: Built and Unbuilt. The Built category has two levels of awards: Honor, the highest award, granted for overall design excellence; and Merit, granted to projects worthy of recognition because of their design quality. The Unbuilt category has one award, the Citation, granted in recognition of creativity or design possibility.

A jury of practicing architects from New Orleans selected the 2010 AIA Arkansas Design Awards. The jurors were F. Macnaughton Ball Jr., AIA; Steve Dumez, FAIA; and Thaddeus Zarse, Associate AIA.

Another award, the Member Choice Award, went to Heifer International Education Center by Polk Stanley Wilcox Architects. Reese Rowland, AIA, was the design principal. He is a 1990 graduate of the school of architecture. Others on the team included David Porter, AIA, a 1982 graduate; Ed Sergeant, Assoc. AIA; Sarah Bennings, AIA, a 2004 graduate; and Patty Opitz, Associate AIA, a 2004 graduate of the architecture school.

In addition, Steve L. Kinzler, AIA, of Polk Stanley Wilcox Architects, received the 2010 Fay Jones Gold Medal at the awards ceremony. This award recognizes an individual architect who demonstrates touchstones of excellence through artistic vision and design, leadership and service to the state and to the AIA Arkansas Chapter. Excellence is measured not only by the mark of architectural and individual achievement, but through the esteem and regard held for the architect by professional practitioners and the community as a whole.

Kinzler serves as president and chief operating officer of Polk Stanley Wilcox Architects, a 40-person firm located in Little Rock and Fayetteville. He is a 1973 graduate of the architecture school and is president of the school’s Dean’s Circle.

Also, Candice Adams, AIA, of Little Rock, received the 2010 Emerging Professional Award at the ceremony. She graduated with high honors from the school o architecture in 2004. She has worked with AIA Arkansas since 2005 as an advocate for intern architects both statewide and regionally, serving two terms as associate director.