Polk Stanley Wilcox Architects, an Arkansas design firm, has established an endowed scholarship to support students in the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design. The firm’s $50,000 gift has created the Polk Stanley Wilcox Architects Endowed Scholarship in Design Excellence.

In addition to the gift that established the endowed scholarship, the firm contributed an additional $2,000, allowing a scholarship to be awarded for the 2025-26 academic year. The first recipient, Paige Savoy, an interior architecture and design student, was announced at the Fay Jones School’s spring student recognition ceremony in April.

“Polk Stanley Wilcox, as an alumni-led practice, is an integral member of the Fay Jones School’s family,” said Peter MacKeith, dean of the school. “Their generosity to our students and to the overall vitality of the school is reflective of the ethos of the firm. Arkansas-centered, nationally recognized, their commitment to the quality of their professional work and the education of Fay Jones School students is an exemplary legacy for our graduates. On behalf of the school, I am deeply grateful to the PSW leadership for this meaningful scholarship for our students.”

Polk Stanley Wilcox Architects, with locations in Little Rock and Fayetteville, has a long association with the Fay Jones School, said David Porter, principal and chief executive officer. The firm was founded in 1977 by school alumni Tommy Polk, Joe Stanley and Jeff Shannon, and originally called Polk Shannon Stanley Architects. The late Shannon was also a longtime architecture professor at the school and served as dean from 2000 to 2013.

The school became a client when Polk Stanley Wilcox Architects partnered with Marlon Blackwell Architects on the design team for the Vol Walker Hall renovation and the Steven L. Anderson Design Center addition project from 2011-2013. The project received a national AIA Honor Award. Porter said that the experience was particularly special for the firm’s team, as they helped to reenvision the school that had been the alumni’s home for their five years in the architecture program.

“All graduates from the U of A feel, I think, a special kinship to Vol Walker Hall, more than perhaps any other discipline just because of the amount of time you spend in the building,” he said. “It was a great experience for us and an honor to be part of that team and that project.”

The firm also helped create and fund, along with Carolyn Polk, a scholarship in memory of their founding partner Tommy Polk after he passed in 2019. They added Carolyn’s name to the scholarship when she passed in 2020. That was the firm’s first involvement with a scholarship gift to the Fay Jones School.

But the firm’s leadership wanted to do more, and they looked for something that would make a significant impact with the funding level. Similar to the Tommy Polk scholarship, they wanted to invest their money in setting students up well for student success. The new scholarship also emphasizes design excellence, which is a hallmark of the firm.

“It’s an expensive venture to go to school for five years,” Porter said. “We want to be able to focus on students who have need, but also students who are exhibiting those talents to create inspiring and excellent design, and give them the opportunities to get a little extra boost so they never feel like there’s a moment that they can’t pursue their career.”

By investing in students’ education, the firm’s leadership very intentionally aims to influence and elevate the quality of the future professionals who graduate from the Fay Jones School.

“We really want this scholarship to be representative of our entire firm,” he said, “because the vast majority of our not only partners but other professionals are graduates. And we wanted to represent our entire firm.”

This scholarship also provides the opportunity for recipients to work a minimum of one summer in a paid internship in the firm’s offices in Little Rock or Fayetteville.

“We know how important it is to students’ overall growth and experience,” he said. “Getting to work in an office during your education time, we think, makes for a graduate who, when they get out, they’re a little bit better prepared.”

GOING 50 YEARS STRONG

Polk Stanley Wilcox Architects has a professional staff of 42 architects and interior designers, 80% of whom are U of A Fay Jones School graduates. Their nine partners are all U of A graduates, and three of them are women. The recent promotion of Patty Opitz and Sarah Bennings to partner means the firm is now on its third generation of owners.

“It’s important to us to create legacy, to create a firm that’s going to continue for the future,” Porter said. “So, we’re trying to be very thoughtful and intentional about how we move people into leadership positions so that the firm can not only continue but improve.”

The firm operates across a broad range of sectors, including civic, corporate, education, healthcare, hospitality, libraries, residential and housing, sustainability, and worship. Its approach to design excellence is rooted in a deep understanding of each client’s mission, goals and values. Every project is intentionally crafted to reflect the unique story the client wishes to express through their building. The firm’s pursuit of design excellence incorporates a belief toward projects that are timeless, that are crafted with sustainable materials and that grow out of the land where they’re sited.

For Polk Stanley Wilcox Architects, that same pursuit of design excellence has been rewarded with several state, regional and national awards and honors for their design work. National honors include four AIA Honor Awards, three AIA / ALA Design Awards for Libraries, five American Architecture Awards from the Chicago Athenaeum Museum of Architecture and Design, and six American Institute of Steel Construction National Design Awards.

Over the years, the firm has completed hundreds of projects, but three stand out as key milestones in its evolution. The first was the First National Bank of Fayetteville, now known as the Pryor Center Building, located on the downtown Fayetteville square. This was the firm’s first major commission, secured by founders Tommy Polk and Joe Stanley, in partnership with local businessman John Lewis.

The second milestone was the Heifer International Headquarters in Little Rock, completed in 2006 for the global hunger organization. This project earned a LEED Platinum certification — the first in the southern United States — and transformed a former industrial railroad switching yard into one of Arkansas’ largest brownfield recoveries. It received numerous honors, including a national AIA Institute Honor Award, an Urban Land Institute Award of Excellence, an American Architecture Award from the Chicago Athenaeum Museum of Architecture and Design, and a National AIA Committee on the Environment (COTE) Top 10 Green Projects Award.

The third milestone is the recently opened Alice L. Walton School of Medicine in Bentonville, which offers a four-year degree program combining conventional medicine with holistic principles. The building’s design is deeply integrated into its site and community, drawing inspiration from Ozark geology and reflecting the school's focus on mental, physical and spiritual well-being.

“It is an amazing, unique building, with an important mission and a wonderful client,” Porter said.

About the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design: The Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design at the University of Arkansas houses undergraduate professional design programs of architecture, landscape architecture and interior architecture and design together with a liberal studies program. The school also offers a Master of Design Studies, with concentrations in health and wellness design, resiliency design, integrated wood design, and retail and hospitality design. The DesignIntelligence 2019 School Rankings Survey listed the school among the most hired from architecture, landscape architecture and interior design schools, ranking 10th, 14th and eighth, respectively, as well as 28th among most admired architecture schools.

About the University of Arkansas: As Arkansas' flagship institution, the U of A provides an internationally competitive education in more than 200 academic programs. Founded in 1871, the U of A contributes more than $3 billion to Arkansas’ economy through the teaching of new knowledge and skills, entrepreneurship and job development, discovery through research and creative activity while also providing training for professional disciplines. The Carnegie Foundation classifies the U of A among the few U.S. colleges and universities with the highest level of research activity. U.S. News & World Report ranks the U of A among the top public universities in the nation. See how the U of A works to build a better world at Arkansas Research and Economic Development News.