Kwendeche to Present 'My Journey' Lecture for Fay Jones School on Sept. 27

Kwendeche

The Henry L. Dumas Library and Cultural Center is located on a historical site in Sweet Home, Arkansas. It honors Dumas, an African American poet and short story writer born in 1934 in Sweet Home.

Kwendeche will present a lecture at 4 p.m. Monday, Sept. 27, in Ken and Linda Sue Shollmier Hall, Room 250 of Vol Walker Hall, on the U of A campus, as part of the fall lecture series in the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design. The lecture will also be available to watch live via Zoom.

Kwendeche, FAIA, NOMA, is the sole proprietor of a fulfilling practice, Produksi Arymeus. The practice is based in the Lamb-McSwain House in Little Rock, the historic property his grandfather built in 1925, which is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

The Fay Jones School's fall lecture series is presented in collaboration with Places Journal, an internationally respected online journal of architecture, landscape architecture and urbanism; and the U of A Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.

Registration for the online version of the lecture is available on Zoom.

In his lecture, "Humnoke to Pulaudaykah to Asmara Back to Humnoke – My Journey," Kwendeche will share his own journeys as a native son to Arkansas who, at an early age, vowed to see the world as a means to explore architecture in person. Architecture has been his chosen career since Alexander Cann's ninth grade civics career paper at Dunbar Jr. High School in Little Rock, with a more intense focus coming during Pat Aydelott's drafting class at Little Rock Central High. These journeys over the last 50 years focused upon identifying the historic and local vernacular of architecture encompassing the site as a comparison study.

Kwendeche's work advocates for historic preservation, creating opportunities for the revitalization of communities in which significant properties are left unattended and in disrepair. Kwendeche will convey the importance of traveling as a means to understand and comprehend how people live and survive in other communities beyond one's home environment. Kwendeche will stress that the profession of architecture is about service to the community in a manner that encourages good design solutions.

His lecture will also honor the late Wali Caradine, AIA, the first African American graduate of the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design, who was a mentor and friend to Kwendeche.

After an eventful tenure with HOK St. Louis, followed by an exciting career as an architect with an Indonesian design firm in Jakarta and Bali, Kwendeche returned home in 2004 to focus on providing architectural services to underserved communities throughout Arkansas.

In 2009, he planned and directed the revitalization of the L.C. and Daisy Bates home located in Little Rock, which now serves as the Daisy Bates House, a National Historic Landmark. L.C. and Daisy Bates are recognized for their role in the Little Rock Crisis of 1957, in which the Little Rock Nine integrated Central High School.

The Little River County Training School Alumni Association in Ashdown engaged his services to assess the condition of four remaining school buildings within a campus that once flourished as the only venue for formal educational training for African American students in Little River County. Through a coordinated effort between Kwendeche and the alumni association, the school campus is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Working with the stewards of the Daisy Bates House and the Little River County Training School offered unique mutual benefits and led to more successful preservation outcomes that broadened the knowledge and appreciation of the places in relationship to the overall community.

As the preservation architect — generally on all projects — Kwendeche begins his process by developing Historic Structure Reports, or HSR. These reports essentially helps assure due diligence, and specifically in the case of the Bates House, the report enabled the L.C. and Daisy Bates Museum Foundation, Inc., to raise funds to complete the overall rehabilitation and restoration work.

Kwendeche's reputation as a good listener and a person of great patience with clients, alumni, administrators, ardent preservationists and funders alike helped advance the rehabilitation of Peake High School, a Rosenwald School located in Arkadelphia. Peake High School now serves as a community resources center and is one of only 18 Rosenwald Schools remaining in Arkansas.

Kwendeche won accolades for transforming a dilapidated house into a community gathering place known as the Washington Heritage House. Situated within the Little Rock Central High National Historic District, the Washington Heritage House is distinctive in that its exterior appears as it did during the Little Rock Crisis of 1957.

He is currently doing research on a school in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, whose legacy thrived during Marcus Garvey's Back-to-Africa movement.

Kwendeche is a 1967 graduate of Little Rock Central High School, where he was a member of the Draftsmen's Society, an Army veteran (MOS 82C20) and a 1976 graduate of Howard University School of Architecture and Planning in Washington, D.C.

He is an abstract sculptor, furniture craftsperson, painter, photographer, sole biker and organic gardener.

The school is pursuing continuing education credits for this lecture through the American Institute of Architects.

This lecture is open to the public. Admission is free, with limited seating. For details on watching the lecture online, please visit the Fay Jones School's lecture page. To register for the entire online lecture series, complete this form on Zoom.

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