FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Eddie Jones and Neal Jones will present a lecture titled “About Time: The Work of Jones Studio” at 5:30 p.m. March 17 in Ken and Linda Sue Shollmier Hall, Room 250 of Vol Walker Hall, on the University of Arkansas campus in Fayetteville, as part of the Fay Jones School of Architecture lecture series.

Eddie Jones (AIA) is principal at Jones Studio, where his business partner and brother, Neal (AIA, LEED AP), is president. Raised in the oil fields of Oklahoma, the brothers aspired from an early age to be architects and share a studio.

After graduating from Oklahoma State University, Eddie Jones founded Jones Studio in 1979, three months before his 30th birthday. His persistence and innovation has expanded the palette of materials and methods available throughout Arizona. His long-standing implementation of sustainability and environmental design, matched with an extraordinary sensitivity to the factors that create space, has improved the experiences of those that occupy, and moreover, the spaces occupied.

After graduating from Oklahoma State University in 1977 with a Bachelor of Science in Architectural Studies degree, Neal Jones pursued the business side of architecture. He attended the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana, where he received a double master's degree – Master in Architecture and a Master of Business Administration in 1980 – among the first recipients in the country in this new type of program. Upon graduation, he relocated to Atlanta to begin his career at Heery International. He then moved to Phoenix in June 1986 to begin a journey with Jones Studio that continues to grow.

As the “practice visionary,” Neal Jones is constantly reinforcing the vision of Jones Studio, maintaining design excellence in every project undertaken by the firm. The staff never loses site of that goal. He is the designer of the office culture. He designs the work environment, providing a comfort that will engender the good will necessary for his staff to maintain the high levels of energy and creativity required to serve the firm’s clients.

Jones Studio was one of seven firms in the nation considered for the national Firm of the Year Award from American Institute of Architects for 2005, 2010 and 2012, and is the first firm from Arizona ever nominated. Jones Studio received the first ever Sustainability Firm of the Year Award in 2007 and the first ever AIA Arizona Firm of the Year Award in 2003. The studio received the AIA Western Mountain Region Firm of the Year Award in 2011. Neal and Eddie Jones are the 2004 recipients of the Melvin R. Lohmann Medal from Oklahoma State University for career achievement in architecture, engineering and technology – the first time in the history of the medal that an architect has won.

In their lecture, the work of Jones Studio will be presented in the context of climate responsiveness, diversity of programs, range of building types and the acknowledgement of the procession of time. The selected projects will represent the firm’s commitment to design excellence, respect for site and the aspiration to advance a quality community. They will include the reality of design decisions and their consequences, personal ethics, perseverance and determination balanced with the art and obligation of listening. In addition, they’ll discuss how architects get work, how they get paid, the importance of “business” in architecture, how to keep the doors open, and how education impacts all of the above.

This is the Sustainability Lecture, sponsored by Polk Stanley Wilcox Architects.

The public is invited to attend. Admission is free, with limited seating.

For more information, contact 479-575-4704 or architecture.uark.edu.