Five Architecture School Alumni Honored With Design Awards

Vetro 1925 in Fayetteville, Ark., designed by Timothy W. Maddox. (Photo by Tim Hursley)

Vetro 1925 in Fayetteville, Ark., designed by Timothy W. Maddox. (Photo by Tim Hursley)

Laketown Residence in Saugatuck, Mich., designed by John W. Allegretti. (Photo by Steven Davis)

Laketown Residence in Saugatuck, Mich., designed by John W. Allegretti. (Photo by Steven Davis)

The Morgan Library & Museum – McKim Building Restoration in New York City. (Photo by Graham Haber)

The Morgan Library & Museum – Lighting design by Richard Renfro. (Photo by Graham Haber)

Hoy + Stark Architects Studio Office designed by Patrick E. Hoy. (Photo by James M. Stark III)

HUeC (Hudson Unenclosed Cabana and Landscape) designed by Robert Kerr. (Photo by Sorin Constantin)

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The design of Vetro 1925 in Fayetteville won Timothy W. Maddox a Merit Award in the 2012 Fay Jones Alumni Design Awards competition. Maddox is a 2002 graduate of the university.

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Thirty-one designs – for residences and pavilions, culinary, municipal and commercial spaces, and structures dedicated to culture, education and religion – all vied for recognition in this year’s Fay Jones Alumni Design Awards competition.

Entries came from Fay Jones School of Architecture alumni practicing in cities around the state, as well as in California, Oregon, Tennessee, Michigan, Illinois, Missouri, Texas, New York, Florida and Washington, D.C. After careful review, the three-member jury chose five projects for accolades – resulting in three Merit Awards and two Honorable Mentions.

The alumni design awards were announced and presented April 20 during the school’s annual Honors Recognition reception and ceremony at the Arkansas Union on the University of Arkansas campus.

John W. Allegretti won a Merit Award for Laketown Residence in Saugatuck, Mich. Allegretti, who graduated in 1971 from the university with a Bachelor of Architecture, is a principal architect at Allegretti Architects in St. Joseph, Mich.

The jury called the architecture of Laketown Residence “an intelligent and inspired response to a sensitive site. The desire to minimally impact the existing forest and steep slopes required careful planning. The design of both exterior and interior spaces reflects a considered relationship to the surrounding environment. The color, texture and scale of the exterior walls allow a striking presence in a green ‘natural’ setting. The architecture of the house is a refreshing alternative to common assumptions for lake houses. That it received a LEED Platinum rating is another of the house’s virtues and another representation of the architect’s careful execution and attention to detail.”

Timothy W. Maddox won a Merit Award for Vetro 1925 in Fayetteville. Maddox, who graduated in 2002 from the university with a Bachelor of Architecture, is a principal at deMx architecture in Fayetteville.

“The design of the dining room for restaurant Vetro 1925 is appropriately thoughtful and discrete,” jury members said. “But it is the design of the bar at the front and the restaurant’s street face that are the project’s most apparent strengths. Bright, colored light illuminates the street and the setting, contemporary but a bit reminiscent of Brassaï’s photos of Paris. The result is an urbane architecture that is sufficiently powerful in its impact to make the city, in that setting, seem just a bit bigger than it really is.”

Richard Renfro won a Merit Award for The Morgan Library & Museum – McKim Building Restoration in New York City. Renfro, who graduated in 1979 from the university with a Bachelor of Architecture, is a lighting designer at Renfro Design Group in New York.

“There are no other projects amongst those submitted for the alumni awards program quite like the new lighting for the Morgan Library,” the jury noted. “The lighting scheme is meticulous and overtly contemporary, as is the architecture of Renzo Piano’s addition, and certainly state of the art. Comparison of before-and-after photographs facilitates some understanding of the meticulous, curatorial approach in implementing the new lighting.”

An Honorable Mention went to Patrick E. Hoy for Hoy + Stark Architects Studio Office in Tallahassee, Fla. Hoy, owner of Hoy + Stark Architects in Tallahassee, graduated in 1978 from the university with a Bachelor of Architecture. Jury members called this design for the office for a small architectural firm “characteristic of the type, and a good example: modest materials undisguised and accomplished with equally modest, but careful, details. Natural light is perhaps the greatest amenity, enhanced with an energizing use of color.”

An Honorable Mention also went to Robert Kerr for HUeC (Hudson Unenclosed Cabana and Landscape) in Los Angeles. Kerr, who graduated in 1992 from the university with a Bachelor of Architecture, is a principal at Robert Kerr Architecture Design in Santa Monica, Calif. The jury said the architecture of the pool house and cabana “recalls the David Hockney painting that was the cover illustration for Reyner Banham’s Los Angeles: The Architecture of Four Ecologies.” Members had a “mixed response to the modern white ‘grotto’ but agreed that the modern idiom and white walls, and a beautiful room, are a refreshing alternative to what might have easily been overwrought or more clever than good.”

Jury members were all faculty members of the architecture school: Jennifer D. Webb, associate professor of interior design; Phoebe McCormick Lickwar, assistant professor of landscape architecture; and David Buege, professor of architecture and Fay Jones Visiting Chair.

All entries can be viewed on the school website at architecture.uark.edu/.