Three Architecture School Alumni Honored With Design Awards

The Arkansas Studies Institute design uses the book as a physical container of information.

The atrium railing bears 100 historic archival images, detailing time and place.

Three buildings, three centuries and three construction types meld into one architectural timeline.

The RomWoods house fuses modernist ideals with vernacular strategies of the region.

The open floor plan and large windows on the north and south sides bring the outdoors inside.

The south side of the house allows an abundance of sunlight to penetrate into the house.

The Bakhita Ridge house sits next to a historic barn on a hilltop clearing in Fayetteville.

The open living-dining-kitchen area features green walls, maple cabinetry and bamboo floors.

The eastern end of the house features a first-floor master suite and second-floor guest suite.

The side porches of the courthouse were restored to their original use and appearance.

Restoration of the 1905 courthouse included restoring the third-floor courtroom.

Photo Submitted

Reese Rowland’s award winning work as principal designer for the Arkansas Studies Institute. Photograph by Timothy Hursley.

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Fifteen designs for homes, historic renovation, retail and corporate space, and structures dedicated to health care, education and religion vied for recognition in this year's Fay Jones Alumni Design Awards competition.

Entries came from Fay Jones School of Architecture alumni practicing in cities around the state, as well as in Oklahoma, Missouri, Tennessee and Texas. After careful review, the three-member jury chose four projects for accolades.

The alumni design awards were announced and presented April 11 during the school's annual Honors Recognition Banquet at the Arkansas Union on the University of Arkansas campus in Fayetteville.

Reese Rowland took this year's top award, the Honor Award, as design principal for the Arkansas Studies Institute in Little Rock. Rowland, who graduated in 1990 from the university with a Bachelor of Architecture, is a principal with Polk Stanley Wilcox Architects in Little Rock. Rowland won the first prize in the 2010 alumni design competition, with his design of the Heifer International Education Center in Little Rock, and was a co-winner of the 2008 alumni design competition, with his design of the Heifer International Headquarters in Little Rock.

The jury commended the Arkansas Studies Institute project for its "sensitive and innovative adaptive reuse of existing buildings" in the River Market District of Little Rock. "The architects successfully combined a modern, inviting series of spaces and materials, with the skillful and sensitive renovation of the historic existing buildings containing special collections as an extension of the main library.

"The porous, inviting exterior fenestration encourages public exploration and utilization of the building, with its excellent implementation of a unifying system or vocabulary of architectural elements, tying together three disparate existing structures. This inviting openness and airiness is achieved with the use of exposed steel framing, internal bridges and atriums bringing daylight deep into the building. The weaving of structure, program and architectural elements, such as skylights and internal bridges, supports the architect's primary concept of the building as open pages of a book. The jury felt that this is clearly achieved and articulated, resulting in an exceptionally successful example of adaptive reuse, combining the existing urban fabric with modern spaces and forms."

Two Merit Awards went to Tim Maddox of deMx Architecture in Fayetteville for RomWoods and Bakhita Ridge, two homes in Fayetteville. Maddox is a 2002 graduate with a Bachelor of Architecture.

For RomWoods, jury members applauded the "clear, compact sense of scale and breakdown of elements." They also appreciated the architect's use of a formal diagram "interpreting the vernacular dogtrot plan as a local precedent, firmly rooting the house as a modern form interpreting local context and regional forms."

With Bakhita Ridge, the jury recognized the project's "strong, clear plan, clear forms and connection to the outdoors, bracketing or framing the exterior landscape garden and barn through the use of scale, massing and abstraction of the agrarian-inspired architectural language." The jury also noted the balance of contemporary and modern forms, with comfortable and warm interior spaces, which was achieved through contrasts, colors and materials.

An Honorable Mention was given to John Dupree of Polk Stanley Wilcox Architects in Fayetteville for restoration of the Historic Washington County Courthouse. Dupree is a 1969 graduate with a Bachelor of Architecture.

The jury said the "most spectacular achievement" in the restoration of the courthouse, built in 1905, was the refurbishment of the third-floor courtroom, complete with a gallery opening to the fourth floor, returning it to its original appearance. Jury members commended this project "for revitalizing an historic structure of great significance to the region, taking care to uncover and preserve the qualities that make this building an important landmark of historic significance and architectural importance."

Jury members were all faculty members of the architecture school: Santiago R. Perez, assistant professor of architecture; Mark Boyer, head of the landscape architecture department; and G. Marie Gentry, director of the interior design program.