$10 Million Grant From Donald W. Reynolds Foundation Brings New Life to Vol Walker Hall

Photo Submitted

Vol Walker Hall

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – A $10 million grant from the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation in Las Vegas will be used to help the Fay Jones School of Architecture grow by providing funds for a much-needed addition to Vol Walker Hall.

The addition will be named the Steven L. Anderson Design Center, pending University of Arkansas Board of Trustees approval, in honor of the foundation’s president. Anderson is a 1976 graduate of the University of Arkansas School of Architecture.

The Fay Jones School of Architecture is housed in Vol Walker Hall, which was completed in 1935 as the University of Arkansas library. It is one of the most beautiful and iconic buildings on campus and has been home to the architecture school since 1968. Since that time the school’s growth has spilled over forcing the placement of the landscape architecture department in a separate building. The addition will enable the school to house under one roof the architecture and landscape architecture departments and the interior design program, which is slated to move to the school July 1.

The planned construction of the 31,000-square-foot Steven L. Anderson Design Center is expected to cost $12.9 million, while a concurrent renovation of Vol Walker Hall has been estimated at $19.8 million, bringing the total cost of the project to an estimated $32.7 million. The university has committed $18.7 million toward the project, an example of how the campus facilities fee is being used to help pay for deferred maintenance and renovation for specific capital improvements.

“Words cannot express how grateful we are for the generosity of the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation,” said Jeff Shannon, dean of the Fay Jones School of Architecture. “Because of this grant and the subsequent addition, we will be able to increase our enrollment by 26 percent in the coming years. We will also be able to bring together our architecture, landscape architecture and, soon, the interior design programs under one roof. The experiences of our students will be forever changed, and they will be encouraged and able to collaborate in a whole new way.”

Design Intelligence, a leading design publication, ranked the Fay Jones School of Architecture among the country’s top 20 architecture and design schools for 2009. For 2010, the magazine named the school one of five “hidden gems” of architecture education.

“As our architecture school continues to compete as one of the best in the nation, it should have a facility to reflect this caliber,” said Chancellor G. David Gearhart. “Capital improvements of this scale can seem out of reach, particularly when countless projects and programs around campus need funding. We rely on private gift support to make some of our plans for the university a reality. The Donald W. Reynolds Foundation has been one of our most generous campus benefactors, and I’d like to offer our sincere thanks for this support. The sky is truly the limit now for our top-tier architecture program, its diverse course offerings and our exceptional students and faculty.

“We are proposing to name the addition for Donald W. Reynolds Foundation president Steven L. Anderson, an alumnus and friend of the university, to honor the profound impact he has had on literally hundreds of organizations across America, not to mention his well respected acumen as an architect practitioner,” Gearhart said.

“Our trustees have chosen to honor 16 years of service by our fellow trustee and president, Steven L. Anderson with the award of this special grant,” stated Donald W. Reynolds Foundation Chairman Fred W. Smith. “Steve’s commitment to the University of Arkansas and the Fay Jones School of Architecture make this a particularly appropriate way for us to recognize his contributions to the many successful programs of the foundation during that time.”

“After graduation from the University of Arkansas I had the pleasure of practicing architecture for 22 years. It was that practice that brought me into contact with Mr. Smith and the Donrey Media Group. Sixteen years ago he asked me to serve as a trustee of the foundation. For the past 12 years I have had the privilege and honor of serving with him as the president of the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation,” stated Steve Anderson. “Few people are fortunate enough in their lifetime to have experienced two careers as fulfilling as I have enjoyed. None of this would have been possible without the education and preparation that I received as a student at the University of Arkansas (Fay Jones) School of Architecture.”

Vol Walker Hall is located in the heart of the University of Arkansas campus, adjacent to Old Main and the Mullins Library, and close to the Fine Arts Library and the Arkansas Union. The Fulbright Peace Fountain, designed by Fay Jones and fellow alumnus Maurice Jennings in 1998, graces the entrance. Jones viewed the 41-foot-tall fountain, one of his last projects, as the “exclamation point” of his career. In April 2009, the School of Architecture was named to honor Fay Jones.

Reynolds Foundation Generosity

Gifts to the University of Arkansas from the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation have had and continue to have a significant impact on the lives of students. In 1999, the foundation gave $21 million to renovate the Razorback football stadium, which was later renamed the Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium. As Frank Broyles stated then, this gift will be “forever remembered as the primary factor that propelled the University of Arkansas football program to a nationally competitive level in terms of seating capacity and architectural design.”

The foundation previously established the Steven L. Anderson Chair in Architecture and Urban Studies in the School of Architecture through a $1.5 million endowment. It also has supported both the Ralph O. Mott Scholarship and the Ralph O. Mott Teaching Award in the architecture school.

In 1999, the Donald W. Reynolds Center for Enterprise Development, in the Sam M. Walton College of Business was dedicated, after being funded through a $7.4 million gift from the Reynolds Foundation. The generosity of the foundation is extensive and dates back to 1983 with support for the Campaign for Books.

About the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation

The Donald W. Reynolds Foundation is a national philanthropic organization founded in 1954 by the late media entrepreneur for whom it is named. Headquartered in Las Vegas, it has committed over $188 million to higher education institutions in the state of Arkansas.