Fay Jones School Faculty, Alumni Recognized in 2017 AIA Arkansas Awards Program

Timothy Hursley

The Graphic House in Fayetteville, designed by Marlon Blackwell Architects, received a 2017 AIA Arkansas Honor Award. Blackwell is founder and principal of the firm and the E. Fay Jones Chair in Architecture in the Fay Jones School.

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Faculty and alumni of the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design at the University of Arkansas were recently recognized with awards handed out by the Arkansas Chapter of the American Institute of Architects.

Design awards and other awards were given during the 2017 AIA Arkansas State Convention banquet, held Oct. 20 in Hot Springs National Park. Projects by Fay Jones School faculty and alumni won all six awards given in the Design Awards program — two honor awards, three merit awards and one citation award — as well as the People's Choice and Members' Choice awards. This year, 34 design entries were submitted by member firms, and the jury selected the winners from 10 finalists.

In addition, individuals with Fay Jones School ties were honored with the Fay Jones Gold Medal Award and the Dick Savage Award, including Marlon Blackwell, founder and principal of Marlon Blackwell Architects and the E. Fay Jones Chair in Architecture in the Fay Jones School.

The Honor Awards were given for the Graphic House in Fayetteville, a private home designed by Marlon Blackwell Architects, and for the U of A Art and Design District Sculpture Studio designed by Modus Studio.

The Graphic House, built in an "L" configuration on a corner lot, is one level with a second-story loft that creates a bold graphic along the primary street edge. The master bedroom opens onto a bamboo terrace, flooding the room with natural light while providing privacy from neighbors.

The project team included Marlon Blackwell, Meryati Jahari Blackwell and Bradford Payne.

The Sculpture Studio is the first building in the new Art and Design District, located in a former industrial block in south Fayetteville. An existing warehouse was expanded and transformed, with a second floor built to maximize space. The bright palette, use of natural light and highly sophisticated art-making spaces complement the simple use of plan and section to connect studios, galleries and exterior porches. The interior design is purposefully neutral to highlight student work.

The project team included Chris Baribeau (B.Arch. '03), Jason Wright (B.Arch. '04), Jody Verser (B.Arch. '10), Suzana Annable (B.Arch. '12), Matt Poe (B.Arch. '12) and Scott Penman. The firm collaborated on the project with El Dorado Inc. of Kansas City.

The Merit Awards were given to the Harvey Pediatric Clinic in Rogers, Office 1011 in Bentonville and the Walton Arts Center Expansion and Renovation in Fayetteville.

The Harvey Pediatric Clinic, designed by Marlon Blackwell Architects, features a bold profile and strong use of color. Patients enter under an elevated cayenne form and ascend a stair lit by a blue-glass skylight above. Sixteen exam rooms are organized along a loop corridor, creating a simple circulation path from check-in to checkout. Skylights over the two nurses stations bring ample natural light into the center of the building.

The project team included Marlon Blackwell, Meryati Jahari Blackwell, Justin Hershberger, Spencer Curtis (B.Arch. '14), Stephen Reyenga (B.Arch. '13) and Stephen Kesel.

Office 1011, an office building designed by Modus Studio, offers a new approach to cornice and window design in a modern palette of warm cedar and dark grey brick. The open plan features extensive windows, a double-height atrium with sculptural stair and exterior semi-public terraces. The difference between front and back entrances is purposely blurred.

The project team included Chris Baribeau (B.Arch. '03), David McElyea (B.Arch. '06), Jason Wright (B.Arch. '04), Aaron Speaks and Suzana Annable (B.Arch. '12).

The Walton Arts Center Expansion and Renovation, designed by Polk Stanley Wilcox Architects, is a dramatic transformation of the building's public identity. An expanded lobby and cantilevered porch reorient the building to Dickson Street. A glass façade reveals the activity of the double-height lobby and showcases a custom chandelier that is visible even from a distance. A new entrance on West Avenue highlights the smaller Starr Theater.

The project team included Craig Curzon (B.Arch. '92), Mark Herrmann (B.Arch. '02) and Jack Reilly (B.Arch. '06). The firm collaborated on the project with Bora Architects of Portland, Oregon.

The Citation Award, given each year to an unbuilt project that has been designed in theory, was given to Greers Ferry Water Garden in Heber Springs. Designed by the University of Arkansas Community Design Center, the project reframes and refreshes the original vision for a public water garden at Greer's Ferry by mid-century architect Edward Durell Stone. Pairing the dam as hard infrastructure and the water garden as soft infrastructure offers a new environmental model for park design.

The project team included members of the UACDC, Marlon Blackwell Architects, Ecological Design Group Inc. and ETM Associates. The UACDC is directed by Steve Luoni, Distinguished Professor and the Steven L. Anderson Chair in Architecture and Urban Studies.

The People's Choice Award, which is voted on by the public, was given to the ATA International Inc. World Headquarters in Little Rock. This is the center for Songahm Taekwondo training worldwide. Designed by Wittenberg, Delony and Davidson Inc., the three-story office building combines Asian-inspired design with Arkansas materials. A large water feature honors the founder of the school, symbolizing the transfer of knowledge from masters to students. The building houses the operations office, a museum and a training center.

The project team included Chad Young (B.Arch. '95), Jay Clark, Caleb Tyson (B.Arch. '14), Earnest Duckery (B.Arch. '95), Brian Self and Roy St. Clair (B.Arch. '77).

The Members' Choice Award, which is voted on by attendees of the AIA Arkansas convention, was given to Windgate Art and Design at the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith. Designed by WER Architects/Planners, this structure created one place for all of the campus' visual arts programs to collaborate, share, inspire and learn.

The project team included Russell Fason (B.Arch. '00), Eldon Bock (B.Arch. '83), David Sargent (B.Arch. '84), James Meyer (B.Arch. '06) and Jerome Sorensen.

Marlon Blackwell received the E. Fay Jones Gold Medal Award, the highest award AIA Arkansas can bestow. The award recognizes an architect who has demonstrated excellence through artistic vision and design, leadership and service to the state and chapter, and who is held in high regard by the profession and community at large. Blackwell has met those rubrics, gaining international status for his design work while maintaining a thriving local practice.

He served as department head for the Fay Jones School from 2009 to 2015, and was named among the 30 Most Admired Educators by DesignIntelligence in 2015. Work produced in his professional office, Marlon Blackwell Architects, has received national and international recognition, with significant publication in books, architectural journals and magazines and numerous design awards. In 2016, the firm received the Cooper Hewitt National Design Award in Architecture and was ranked No. 1 in the design category of the Architect 50 by Architect magazine, the official publication of The American Institute of Architects. His latest project, the Harvey Pediatric Clinic in Rogers, was featured at the 2017 World Architecture Festival in Berlin.

Tim Maddox, a principal at deMx architecture in Fayetteville, received the Dick Savage Award for notable and significant contributions to AIA Arkansas and the profession of architecture. Maddox graduated cum laude from the Fay Jones School in 2002, and serves in numerous capacities with the local, state and national chapters of AIA. He serves the larger community as chairman for the Northwest Council of United Cerebral Palsy of Arkansas and a member of the Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce, where he currently heads the Construction and Developers Committee.