Fay Jones School Faculty, Students, Alumni Recognized by State AIA

The Cantilever House in Little Rock. (Photo by Timothy Hursley)

Interior of the Cantilever House in Little Rock. (Photo by Timothy Hursley)

The Museum Store at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. (Photo by Timothy Hursley)

The Museum Store at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. (Photo by Timothy Hursley)

The Chapel at Rio Roca Ranch in Texas. (Photo by Walter Jennings)

The Chapel at Rio Roca Ranch in Texas. (Photo by Walter Jennings)

Eco Modern Flats in Fayetteville. (Photo by Timothy Hursley)

Eco Modern Flats in Fayetteville. (Photo by Timothy Hursley)

Photo Submitted

The Cantilever House, the Fay Jones School of Architecture’s 2010-11 design/build home, won an Honor Award from the Arkansas chapter of the American Institute of Architects. (Photo by Timothy Hursley)

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Faculty, students and alumni of the Fay Jones School of Architecture were recognized with awards recently handed out 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 Sept. 12-15 at the Hot Springs Convention Center. School faculty, alumni and students won all four design awards given – three honor awards and one merit award.

The Cantilever House, the design/build home done by the Fay Jones School’s design/build program during the 2010-11 school year, won an Honor Award. The 1,100-square-foot, prefabricated house was built in two modules in the school’s warehouse in Fayetteville. It was then transported to Little Rock and installed on the site in the historic Pettaway neighborhood. The two modules are stacked perpendicularly to each other. The top module is cantilevered, creating a cover for front and back porches. The school partnered with the Downtown Little Rock Community Development Corp. for this project.

The project team included Jeff Shannon, dean; Marlon Blackwell, head of the architecture department; Mark D. Wise; visiting assistant professor; and Craig Peacock, former adjunct instructor. The team also included students Addison Bliss, Adrienne Presley, Benjamin Bendall, Benjamin Kueck, Ginger Traywick, James Swann, Jerome Tomlin, Michael Lyons, Melissa Zuniga, Matthew Poe, Sam Annable, McConnell Bobo, Augusto Larrain Vaca, Carson Nelsen, Erica Blansit, Joseph Gamblin, Tanner Sutton and William Masino.

The Museum Store at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, designed by Marlon Blackwell Architect, won an Honor Award. Inserted into a 3,040-square-foot space, the store is organized by a series of parallel cherry plywood ribs, which form the ceiling and the millwork on the rear wall. Likened to the ribbed underside of a mushroom, the surface undulates to create an elegant sectional profile. The form and structure of the ribs resonate with the shapes and geometry of the museum, which was designed by architect Moshe Safdie. The museum has had more than 500,000 visitors since it opened in November 2011.

The project team included Marlon Blackwell, Meryati Johari Blackwell, Bradford Payne and Stephen Reyenga, as well as school alumni Jonathan Boelkins, Michael Pope, William Burks, Angela Carpenter and Casey Worrell. Blackwell, a fellow of the American Institute of Architects, is also a Distinguished Professor in the Fay Jones School.

The Chapel at Rio Roca Ranch, by Maurice Jennings + Walter Jennings Architects in Fayetteville, won an Honor Award. Located on a bluff edge above the Brazos River in Texas, the 1,080-square-foot chapel seats about 50 people for private services, performances and weddings. It was constructed from stone, glass, steel and wood, using tension bars with turnbuckles at each bar to provide bracing for the wall and copper roof. The project team included Maurice Jennings, Walter Jennings, Lori Yazwinski Santa-Rita and David Pulliam – all school alumni.

Eco Modern Flats, by Modus Studio in Fayetteville, won a Merit Award. This project was a sustainable, modern design renovation of an existing 96-unit apartment complex near campus and downtown Fayetteville. It was the first multifamily project in the state to achieve LEED platinum certification. The project team included Chris M. Baribeau, Josh Siebert, Chris M. Lankford, Austin Chatelain, Jason Wright and David McElyea – all school alumni.

Tim Maddox, managing principal at deMx architecture, received the 2012 Emerging Professional Award at the ceremony. He is a 2002 graduate of the architecture school. The Jonesboro native has spent more than 20 years studying and practicing architecture in Arkansas. In his studies, he focused on small-town morphology, urban form and residential typologies. In 2005, Maddox and Tim de Noble founded what is now deMx architecture, based in Fayetteville. Maddox serves on the AIA Arkansas board of directors and the city of Fayetteville Construction Board of Adjustments and Appeals. His is the chair of the United Cerebral Palsy Northwest Arkansas Advisory Council and a member of the UCP of Arkansas board of directors. In 2011, he was named one of the “40 Under 40” by the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal. He has won four design awards from the Fay Jones School in the last three years, in the annual Fay Jones Alumni Design Awards competition.

George Wildgen received an Award of Merit at the awards ceremony. He retired in 2000, after spending more than 40 years in the fields of architecture, urban planning and design. He served as executive director of the Arkansas chapter of the AIA for 18 years and on the Arkansas State Board of Architects for 25 years. He served 10 years on the Professional Advisory Board for the Fay Jones School and twice delivered the school’s commencement address.

Randy Palculict, a principal at Jackson Brown Palculict Architects, served as chair of the 2012 AIA Arkansas Design Awards. Judges were Reed Kroloff, director of Cranbrook Academy of Art and Art Museum, in Bloomfield Hills, Mich.; James L. Luckley, director of design and a principal at SHW Group; William E. Massie, a principal at Massie Architecture and architect-in-residence and head of the architecture department at Cranbrook Academy of Art; and Paul Urbanek, a national AIA Fellow.