Vol Walker Hall Selected as Finalist for AZ Awards

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Vol Walker Hall, with its Steven L. Anderson Design Center addition, was chosen as a finalist in the AZ Awards, an international design competition sponsored by Azure magazine. It is also up for a People's Choice Award. (Photo by Timothy Hursley)

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The project that renovated Vol Walker Hall and added the Steven L. Anderson Design Center to the home of the Fay Jones School of Architecture has been selected as a finalist for the AZ Awards, an international design competition sponsored by Azure magazine. The project is also in the running for a People’s Choice Award, for which public voting begins today.

Marlon Blackwell Architect served as lead architect for the project, with Polk Stanley Wilcox Architects as associate architects. Blackwell is a Distinguished Professor and head of the architecture department in the Fay Jones School of Architecture. He also is a fellow of the American Institute of Architects.

The 34,320-square-foot design center addition is made from limestone panels, steel, architectural concrete, Arkansas white oak and glass. Added to the 56,635 square feet in Vol Walker Hall, the total space in the building is now 90,955 square feet. This state-of-the-art facility includes several design studios, a computer lab, a design shop, a 200-seat lecture hall, a securable exhibition gallery, student and faculty lounge areas, and a green roof.

The AZ Awards jury reviewed more than 650 entries submitted from 36 countries and narrowed those down to 48 finalists in 13 categories. Categories include the areas of residential and commercial architecture, landscape architecture, residential and commercial interiors, furniture design, lighting, interior products and student work. The Vol Walker Hall renovation and addition project is one of seven finalists in the category for commercial/institutional architecture over 1,000 square meters.

Through May 2, the magazine is soliciting votes for the People’s Choice Awards, to designate one such winner in each of the 13 categories. University of Arkansas students and faculty and the general public can register and select their favorite finalists on the Azure website.

The AZ Awards are hosted by Azure, a magazine based in Toronto, Canada. The competition was open to designers and design firms from all disciplines. According to the Azure website, judges looked for designs that would “reflect the industry’s intermingling of ideas and multidisciplinary nature, as well as the boundary-breaking nature of great design.”

A panel of international experts – Jamie Gray of Matter; Patricia Patkau of Patkau Architects; Charles Waldheim of the Harvard Graduate School of Design; Ron Arad; and Diego Burdi of Burdifilek – juried the submissions and determined the finalists and the ultimate winners.

The winners selected by the jury and the public will be announced June 20 during a ceremony at Evergreen Brick Works in Toronto. The list of all finalists will appear in the June issue of Azure, on newsstands in mid-May. The winners will be featured in the July/August issue of Azure, on newsstands in mid-June. All winners and finalists will be included in Azure’s Annual Awards Issue, on newsstands in June.

This building project also won a Building Information Modeling Award from the American Institute of Architects for Exemplary Use of BIM in a Small Firm in 2012. The project also was featured in the November 2013 issue of Architectural Record as part of a special section on recent building projects on university and college campuses across the United States.