Digital Exhibit Explores Fay Jones and Frank Lloyd Wright's Legacy of Organic Architecture in Arkansas

Photo Submitted

Exterior view from Fay Jones residence / U of A Fay Jones Collection 1935-2005

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The University of Arkansas Libraries’ Special Collections and Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art Library and Archives recently completed a collaborative digital exhibit titled “Fay Jones and Frank Lloyd Wright: Organic Architecture Comes to Arkansas.”

The exhibit documents the development of these two notable architects’ affiliation, the architecture it spawned, the complex social network of Wright’s Taliesin institute, and the lifelong devotion of a student, Jones, to his teacher, Wright. Both men were proponents of “organic architecture” – the harmonious and seamless relationship between the built environment and nature.

The digital exhibit consists of nearly 150 photographs of the architects’ work, families and colleagues; correspondence; lectures; musings and writings; and other media. Charming and insightful personal recollections by Fay Jones’s wife, Gus, can be seen on a video interview produced by the David and Barbara Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History.

“With this exhibit, fans of Wright and Jones get a glimpse into their mentor-protégé relationship,” said Timothy G. Nutt, head of Special Collections. Jones’s collection of architectural drawings and models is housed in Special Collections’ Arkansas Architectural Archives.

Team members from Crystal Bridges include Catherine Petersen and Jennifer De Martino. At the University of Arkansas, Janet Parsch coordinated efforts with Jason W. Dean, Angela Fritz, Deb Kulczak, Arthur Morgan, Tim Nutt, Martha Parker and Cat Wallack, project curator. In addition, Gregory Herman, associate professor of architecture in the Fay Jones School of Architecture, advised on the project and contributed an essay on Wright, Jones and organic architecture. 

The lives of these two prominent architects – Arkansas native and award-winning architect Fay Jones (1921-2004) and his mentor Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959) – intersected for a 10-year time period, beginning in 1949 when Jones almost literally bumped into Wright at the American Institute of Architects’ convention. Wright was there to receive the AIA’s Gold Medal, the highest award in American architecture, given in recognition of a significant body of work of lasting influence on the theory and practice of architecture. 

Throughout the next 10 years, until Wright’s death in 1959, Jones and Wright would interact, first at Wright’s institute and design studio called Taliesin, near Spring Green, Wisconsin, where Jones, with family in tow, spent a summer as an architecture apprentice. In 1958, Jones convinced Wright to travel to Northwest Arkansas and present a speech at the University of Arkansas, where Jones taught architecture courses. Later, in 1966, Jones was appointed the first chair of the U of A Architecture Department. The School of Architecture was established in 1974, with Jones serving as its first dean. The school was re-named in honor of Jones in 2009. In 1990, Jones himself received the AIA Gold Medal – the only one of Wright’s disciples to receive this coveted award.

Today, their work and influences still intersect. In 2014, Crystal Bridges acquired one of Wright’s Usonian-designed homes, the Bachman Wilson House, which was threatened by regular flooding of the Millstone River in Millstone, New Jersey. The home is now being re-constructed on the grounds of Crystal Bridges and will open to the public this summer. It will be the only building in Arkansas designed by Wright. Visitors will be able to walk through a pavilion designed and built by students and faculty of the Fay Jones School of Architecture on their way to the home. An interpretive model of the home and Wright’s work, also created by students, is currently on display inside the museum.

The digital exhibit is being released to coincide with what would have been Jones’s 94th birthday on Jan. 31. The “Fay Jones and Frank Lloyd Wright: Organic Architecture Comes to Arkansas” exhibit is available online at the University Libraries digital collections website.