On Display in the Honors College: A Bold Proposal for Gearhart Hall Courtyard

The students began by observing the courtyard.

This student understood people are not separate from their environment but mold it in their own way.

This quilting pattern, Arkansas Crossroads, grounds the project with a local motif.

Sketches revolving around a blank courtyard explore the possibilities.

The curvahedra sculpture and tiled pavers provides a dynamic contrast to Gearhart Hall’s stately architecture.

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An interdisciplinary honors seminar has yielded an eye-popping idea to energize Gearhart Hall's courtyard. Rendering provided by the students.

An Honors College course that began with silent observation, counting and research in Special Collections has yielded an eye-popping idea for the courtyard at Gearhart Hall: a 12-foot-tall, bright orange geometric shape perched on pavers arranged in a traditional Arkansas quilt pattern. 

"It looks like an extraterrestrial object that's alighted at our doorstep, and will definitely spark interest in our courtyard space, which is seldom used," said Lynda Coon, dean of the Honors College. "We're especially pleased that this brilliant idea was dreamed up by professors and students from colleges across campus."

"Place in Mind," an exhibition exploring the genesis of the project, is currently on display in the second-floor study lounge in the Honors College wing of Gearhart Hall. Beginning at noon Thursday, January 31, all on campus are invited to participate in the second phase of the installation, which will involve spray painting the tiling pattern on the grass in Gearhart Hall's courtyard. 

Past, Present and Future of Courtyard

The sculpture proposal grew out of a two-week Honors College Signature Seminar, Place in Mind, led by Carl Smith, an associate professor of landscape architecture in the Fay Jones School of Art and Design, and Edmund Harriss, an artist and clinical assistant professor of mathematics in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts & Sciences. In the course, and throughout a subsequent semester of special topics studies, honors students majoring in engineering, art, biology, geology, architecture, and landscape architecture used drawing, games, poetry and mathematics to understand the existing qualities of the courtyard and speculate on what it might become in the future. They came up with something quite remarkable: the audacious sculpture, inspired by Harriss' research into fabricating curved geometric forms, or "curvahedra," and the pavers tiled in a quilt pattern, "Arkansas Crossroads," which grounds the project in a local motif.

"The students' concept provides the courtyard with a sense of place and presence; introduces delightful qualities of form, texture, color, playfulness, and light and shadow," said Carl Smith. "Its size announces the intellectual enterprises within Gearhart Hall to the broader campus community. It projects the attributes of innovation and creativity beyond the courtyard, inviting curiosity and engagement, and counterpointing and accentuating Gearhart Hall's fine, stately architecture."

The honors students have relished the opportunity to make their mark on campus.

"I'm going for a degree in biological engineering," said Kanaan Hardaway. "To take a detour and be part of designing an exhibition and sculpture on campus, there's a lot of satisfaction in that."

Abby Rhodes, who is pursuing a double major in mathematics and geology, mapped out the installation of 250 geometric models currently suspended from the ceiling of the second-floor study lounge.

"It's kind of rare that I get to exercise the creative side of my brain in my coursework," Rhodes said. A fan of Harriss' work and curious about landscape architecture, she signed up for the course because "I was interested in how these two fields would collide, and what that might look like."

Next Steps

The Honors College is working with partners across campus to realize the courtyard project. Honors alumna and former Bodenhamer Fellow Emily Baker (B.Arch., summa cum laude, '04), now an assistant professor of architecture on campus, has extensive experience in digital fabrication. Plans call for Baker to work with Facilities Management and a structural engineer to research feasibility and safety. Depending on her findings, she may use equipment in the Fay Jones Fabrication Laboratories to cut the pieces of the sculpture. 

"She'll provide the Lego," Smith quipped. Baker and Smith would then oversee construction, installation and lighting, with continued input provided by Harriss and the students.