Eleven Fay Jones School of Architecture Alumni Honored With Design Awards

University of Manitoba Campus Master Plan in Winnipeg, Canada, designed by Maury Mitchell.

University of Manitoba Campus Master Plan in Winnipeg, Canada, designed by Maury Mitchell.

Hillary Clinton Children’s Library and Learning Center in Little Rock. (Photo by Timothy Hursley)

Hillary Clinton Children’s Library and Learning Center in Little Rock. (Photo by Timothy Hursley)

American Card Services in Chesterfield, Mo. (Photo by Sam Fentress)

SandRidge Commons in Oklahoma City. (Photo by Timothy Hursley)

The Fort Smith Regional Art Museum in Fort Smith. (Photo by Janet Warlick)

Photo Submitted

Maury Mitchell’s design for Arpent: University of Manitoba Campus Master Plan in Winnipeg, Canada. (Image courtesy Maury Mitchell)

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Maury Mitchell of Toronto has received an Honor Award in this year’s Fay Jones Alumni Design Awards from the Fay Jones School of Architecture. Mitchell and several other alumni were recognized for their design work April 11 during the school’s annual Honors Recognition Reception and Ceremony at the Arkansas Union on the University of Arkansas campus.

Designs for residential, educational, religious, fitness, medical, cultural, commercial, historic and public urban spaces – even a boardwalk and a playhouse – were among 34 projects vying for recognition in this year’s alumni design awards competition. Entries came from Fay Jones School alumni practicing in cities around the state, as well as in California, Florida, Michigan, Missouri, New York, Tennessee, Texas, Canada and Trinidad. A three-member jury chose five projects for accolades – resulting in one Honor Award, one Merit Award, two Honorable Mentions and one Special Distinction for Preservation.

Mitchell won his award for Arpent: University of Manitoba Campus Master Plan, located in Winnipeg, Canada. Mitchell, who graduated in 2003 from the U of A with a Bachelor of Architecture, is with Janet Rosenberg & Studio in Toronto.

Jury members called the project “an outstanding example of landscape architecture” and, in particular, “a careful and considered weaving of built fabric, open space and infrastructure into a holistic and resilient vision.” The project is an “ambitious undertaking whose resolution is replete with sensitive consideration of detail at every scale,” they said, adding that though a master plan is rarely both rigorous and visionary, “Arpent is just that. The project translates hard research and a strong concept into a sensuous environment.”

Four architecture alumni with Polk Stanley Wilcox Architects in Little Rock won a Merit Award for the Hillary Rodham Clinton Children’s Library and Learning Center, also in Little Rock. The members of the project team, Reese Rowland, Dustin Davis, Mandy Breckenridge and Joe Stanley, each received a Bachelor of Architecture from the university in 1990, 2000, 2004 and 1969, respectively.

Despite the complexity and difficulties the site presented, this project “deploys a smart diagram” – a “seemingly floating canopy that collects a series of figures below. The site-specific inflections to this diagram animate the architecture in unexpected and intriguing ways,” jury members said. “Much more than conventional library typology, it is an impressive solution to a complex and especially relevant program. The variety of tangible experiences and thoughtful programmatic sectional variation invites visitors to contemplate as well as engage their immediate domain and potential range.”

An Honorable Mention went to Aaron Young for SandRidge Commons in Oklahoma City. Young, who graduated in 1995 from the university with a Bachelor of Architecture, is with Rogers Partners in New York. Jury members commended this design for “engaging civic and corporate objectives in one project,” a feat that is often discussed but rarely achieved. “The resulting commons are nuanced and multi-faceted yet provide a cohesive response to a complex challenge,” the jury noted.

An Honorable Mention also went to Tony Patterson for American Card Services in Chesterfield, Mo. Patterson, who graduated in 2000 from the university with a Bachelor of Architecture, practices in St. Louis. Jury members noted that the project achieved “more with less,” a design strategy seldom done well. “This project is not only resourceful, but is design at its best, transforming banal industrial park architecture into a memorable experience,” they said.

Four architecture alumni and one interior design alumna with Polk Stanley Wilcox Architects in Little Rock were recognized with Special Distinction for Preservation for the Fort Smith Regional Art Museum in Fort Smith. Reese Rowland, Steve Kinzler, John Dupree and Russell Worley received a Bachelor of Architecture from the university in 1990, 1973, 1969 and 2009, respectively, and Morgan Balmer received a Bachelor of Interior Design in 2010. Jury members called this project “literally and metaphorically a beacon of design in Fort Smith and Arkansas.” They said this was a good example that “preservation doesn’t need to be nostalgic or complacent. … Minimum intervention leads to maximum effect in revitalizing this existing structure.”

Jury members for the awards competition were all faculty members of the Fay Jones School: Kim Furlong, assistant professor of interior design; Marc Manack, assistant professor of architecture; and Carl Smith, associate professor of landscape architecture.<

All entries can be viewed on the school’s website.