Professor Greg Herman Presented With Mayor's Outstanding Service Award, Other Recent Honors

University Relations

Greg Herman

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Greg Herman, associate professor of architecture in the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design, will be presented with the Mayor's Award for Outstanding Service in Historic Preservation at the June 8 meeting of the city of Fayetteville's Historic District Commission. The meeting is at 5:30 p.m. in Room 326 at City Hall, 113 W. Mountain St.

This award recognizes an individual's or organization's outstanding and exemplary service in historic preservation — which may include funding/fundraising for preservation, instructing others in the field of preservation, advocacy for the preservation and/or protection of historic structures or landscapes, and promoting public policies that advance the interest of preserving the cultural heritage and history of a community.

Herman has been on the faculty of the Fay Jones School at the University of Arkansas since 1991. During his tenure, Herman has guided several teams of students in the preparation of documents for the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS), a part of the National Park Service.

The north (top drawing) and west elevation drawings of Deepwood House, which is sited at the edge of a bluff on Mount Kessler. (Drawings courtesy of Fay Jones School students involved in the Deepwood House project.)

He has led HABS documentation on several mid-century modern structures in Fayetteville, including the Fay and Gus Jones House and Hantz House, both designed by Fay Jones; Deepwood House, designed by Herbert Fowler; Segraves House, designed by Warren Segraves; and Williams House, designed by John G. Williams.

This summer, Herman is working with students in an independent study on another one, a private home designed by Jones. It's a one-room, 500-square-foot space with an enclosed bathroom. "Through geometry and other tricks of spatial definition, it is turned into a house," Herman said.

The June 8 commission meeting is tied in to a public discussion of a historic preservation plan for Fayetteville. Though Herman is not trained as a preservationist, he said it is a common occurrence in his career path.

He has researched structures built as part of the Farm Security Administration, looking at the design ethos of the farm resettlement communities in Arkansas created during the Great Depression.

"I'm drawn to historic preservation primarily as a way of interpreting modernism," Herman said. "I come to it as a consequence of my duties."

Herman plans to spend his spring 2018 semester on an off-campus duty assignment, to research mid-century modern architecture in Northwest Arkansas.

"It makes sense. Those are preservation activities. To enlarge that into a study that encompasses mid-century modernism in Northwest Arkansas seems like the next logical step," he said. 

This honor from the city of Fayetteville is one of several recent accolades for Herman.

This spring, he was recognized with the Faculty Gold Medal by the U of A's Office of Nationally Competitive Awards for his continued support of students pursuing special opportunities.

Herman was also was recognized as an outstanding mentor by that same office for his work with several students who won third place in the 2016 Charles E. Peterson Prize Competition for architectural drawings of Deepwood House in Fayetteville, prepared according to HABS specifications. This was the second time in recent years that students led by Herman have won this prestigious national prize.

The Peterson Prize is presented by the Historic American Buildings Survey, the Athenaeum of Philadelphia and the American Institute of Architects. This prize annually recognizes the best set of measured drawings prepared to the survey's standards and donated to the survey by students. The students' drawings will be placed in the Library of Congress. The third place award money, a check for $2,000, will be used to fund future HABS projects in the school.

In 2010, another group of architecture students guided by professor Herman was awarded first place for their drawings of the Fay and Gus Jones House in Fayetteville. The prize was $3,000.

Herman also received one of five faculty research grants awarded for 2017 by the Office of the Vice Provost for Research and Economic Development through its annual Arts and Humanities Seed Grant Program. The $25,000 program provided five awards of $5,000 each to tenure-track faculty engaged in scholarly and/or creative activity in the arts and humanities.

Herman will use this funding to work on his spring 2018 off-campus duty assignment, to support his research on prominent Arkansas-based architects who, through their work, sought to define Ozark regionalism. With this seed funding, he will continue his study of works by Jones, Williams, Fowler, Segraves and others. His work will ultimately lead to a book he plans to call Six Architects, Seven Houses; it will examine mid-century modernism as it was interpreted in the Ozarks.