Gift From Doug and Melodie Hurley Establishes Endowed Architecture Scholarship

Doug and Melodie Hurley, both University of Arkansas alumni, have established an endowed scholarship to support architecture students in the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design at the U of A. Their $50,000 gift has created the Doug and Melodie Hurley Endowment for Design Excellence and Professional Practice.

The resulting endowed scholarship is awarded to a rising fourth- or fifth-year architecture student. The scholarship is unique because it also provides the opportunity for a paid summer internship with pb2 architecture + engineering in Rogers. Preference is given to non-traditional students from Arkansas, especially those who must work to help pay for their college experience.

After establishing the endowed scholarship fund, the Hurleys also contributed an additional $2,500, allowing a scholarship to be awarded for the 2025-26 academic year. Zack Badger was the inaugural scholarship recipient. Kimber Stewart was announced as the 2026-27 recipient at the Fay Jones School’s spring student recognition ceremony in April and is currently completing her summer internship at pb2.

“Coming to know Doug and Melodie Hurley over the last 12 years has been one of the true pleasures of my work as dean,” said Peter MacKeith, who stepped down from the deanship on June 30. “As alumni, as friends, they exemplify the Fay Jones School’s larger community. This generous scholarship gift, so grounded in Doug’s own student experience, is also insightful in its emphasis on both student financial support and student professional development. On behalf of the school and our students, I am deeply grateful to Doug and Melodie.”

Pursuing an Education While Making Ends Meet

The Hurleys’ gift is inspired by Doug’s own education journey. Over nearly eight years, he had to balance going to school with working multiple jobs at times to make ends meet. His intention with this scholarship is simple: “I want to help the student like me,” he said. “I want to help the student who has to work to stay in school.”

A Conway native, Doug attended the University of Central Arkansas for three years before transferring to the U of A.

Doug started at UCA because tuition was more affordable than the U of A. He also couldn’t qualify for financial aid, even though his mother was a high school counselor and his father was unable to work due to a disability. He lived at home and worked at a full-service gas station around his class schedule.

“I was flabbergasted I couldn’t qualify for financial aid,” he said.

After two years at UCA, his financial aid application for the U of A was rejected again. So, he remained another year in Conway, taking fewer classes and working more hours to save money.

When Doug was finally able to transfer to the U of A in 1983, he still needed financial aid. He qualified for assistance during his first two years at the U of A, which included a work-study job at the Fine Arts Library. Then the rules changed, and he no longer qualified. He secured a job at the U of A Police Department as a shift supervisor for the Razorback Escort program. He worked Sunday to Thursday, 5 p.m. to midnight, walking the entire campus and checking on the staff. When his shift ended, he’d often go to Vol Walker Hall and work on a studio project or other homework for another two to three hours.

His last semester of college, Doug decided not to work. After working throughout his seven and a half years of college, he wanted to be a regular student.

“I wanted to experience college without having to have a job,” he said. Even with some money in the bank, he barely had the funds needed to get through. He qualified for student loans, which covered tuition and books.

From Internships to Owner of the Company

Doug’s internship experiences were important to his own career development and trajectory. The summer after third year, he interned for about 10 weeks at a Fayetteville firm, Hailey, Powers and Froning Architects. There, he learned what it was like to work in an office among professionals, each with a different view on architecture. This opportunity provided the basis for his career path and how to appreciate design but also the importance of having a buildable solution.

He spent the summer after fourth year interning with John Womack, who had worked with Fay Jones before opening his own practice in the Hathcock Building at the top of Dickson Street. Evenings and weekends that summer, Doug also worked in the warehouse at Montgomery Ward, in the Evelyn Hills Shopping Center.

During the fall of his fifth year, Doug had fewer classes, so he tried working for Womack around his class schedule while still working nights at UAPD and weekends at the warehouse. The constant hustling became too much. He left the architecture firm and warehouse, and, at the end of that semester, he left UAPD. He made the decision to stop working to focus on his portfolio for upcoming interviews.

It was during Doug’s fifth year that he and Melodie started dating. She had started in the professional architecture program, then switched to architectural studies. After Melodie graduated with her architectural studies degree, they were married. Melodie continued to pursue her interior design degree after marriage while working in the U of A Admissions and Financial Aid offices. She completed her interior design degree when that program was still in Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences.

After graduating with his Bachelor of Architecture in 1988, Doug worked for a Mountain Home architecture firm from June to December 1988, while Melodie was still in school. When it didn’t work out, Doug moved back to Conway and again updated his resume and portfolio. He sent out 25 resumes to firms in Little Rock and followed up with 25 phone calls. That netted three job interviews, scheduled over a single day, but no offers.

When he got home from his day of interviews, he had a message that John Mack had called. Mack was Perry Butcher’s partner at the time in the Rogers firm Perry L. Butcher and Associates (PBA). Doug interviewed with Mack and Butcher in February 1989, and they offered him a job.

Doug was made an associate in 1998 once he was licensed, was made a partner in 2001, and took sole ownership of the company on Jan. 1, 2011. The firm was rebranded in 2004, becoming pb2 architecture + engineering. At their peak, they had a staff of 350 with offices in Rogers, Arlington, Dallas, Chicago and Seattle.

Continuing a Legacy, Strengthening a Reputation

Under Doug’s leadership, the dynamics of the firm changed. Following the economic downturn in 2008, the firm started downsizing from its maximum of 350 employees in 2005 to about 65 in 2013. That continued until 2016, when they slowly started rehiring as they steadily began bringing in new clients.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, work with their retail clients exploded in the latter part of 2020 as clients adapted to pandemic conditions. From July to December 2020, they hired 20 to 25 people. Many of those were experienced, licensed architects and engineers working remotely across the country, who’d lost their jobs due to the pandemic. Then in 2021, the firm grew in clients and staff hires, as they started to diversify and bring on more corporate, national clients. Today, they have about 225 total staff, with 41 of those working remotely in 15 states.

Doug’s focus is running the business in a healthy, successful and sustainable way. He spends much of his time making sure his staff have the resources that they need and looking for opportunities to provide growth for the staff and the firm.

“I’m more of a practitioner and all-around jack-of-all-trades architect, where a lot of architects are more design oriented. We all like to design, but my forte has always been the nuts and bolts,” he said. “My firm’s recognition comes from what our clients and contractors say about us. That kind of recognition leads to more work and a good reputation in the industry.” 

The firm focuses on attention to detail and building systems integration, emphasizing design adaptability and innovation, problem solving and critical thinking. In selecting projects, they specialize in retail, multi-use development, entertainment and commercial for new construction, renovation and adaptable reuse. In addition to their national projects, recent local projects include a branch bank for Grand Savings Bank in Farmington, an expansion to the Living Faith Church in Fayetteville, a new facility for First Christian Church of Gravette and the new Fire in the Hole Ride at Silver Dollar City in Missouri.

Their design several years ago for the Hobbs State Park Visitors Center is still viable and thriving today. The project involved collaboration with the Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism, Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission, and the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, among other stakeholders. As a result of the sustainable components built into the structure’s design, the visitor center was awarded the distinct designation of LEED Silver Certification from the U.S. Green Building Council.

The firm currently employs several Fay Jones School graduates, including nine licensed architects and two licensed interior designers. There are 23 architecture graduate interns working toward licensure and 13 interior architecture and design graduates working toward licensure. In addition, there are three summer architecture student interns.

Doug currently serves on the Dean’s Circle in the Fay Jones School and is a John G. Williams Fellow. He currently serves as president of the Arkansas State Board of Architects, Landscape Architects and Interior Designers. Doug and Melodie are members of the Chancellor’s Society and included in the Towers of Old Main, a giving society for the university’s most generous benefactors. They are recognized as Thoroughreds for their consecutive years of support for the U of A and are Life Members of the Arkansas Alumni Association.

The firm also supports a travel scholarship for Honors College students in the Fay Jones School who will participate in study abroad, called the PB2 Architecture and Engineering Honors College International Experience Endowed Scholarship.

“Doug and Melodie have created an opportunity that recognizes an important part of a student’s education happens beyond the classroom,” said Scott Varady, vice chancellor for advancement. “By pairing scholarship support with professional experience, they’re helping students graduate with the confidence and practical experience to begin their careers. Their investment will benefit students, the profession and our state for years to come.”

With this new design excellence and professional practice scholarship, Doug particularly wanted to emphasize preparing students for professional practice. “I wanted something that dealt more with the practitioner side of the industry,” he said. “I really wanted to focus on the practice of architecture and the day-to-day of running a firm and running a business, because you don’t learn that in school.”  

Doug’s journey to the U of A was difficult but not unusual. He hopes this scholarship will help students with similar experiences focus on their passion for architecture and not stress over the financial side.

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.