Category Archives: Architecture

Monday Musings: Rhea Roberts

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rheaSince becoming Executive Director of the Quapaw Quarter Association, Rhea Roberts has led that organization through a planning and rebranding process, expanded programming and outreach efforts, overseen the 50th QQA Spring Tour, and launched a new historic property marker program (new signs are starting to pop up throughout Little Rock).  Tomorrow evening (Tuesday, October 27), the QQA will have its annual meeting and presentation of the Greater Little Rock Preservation Awards. For more information on the awards and other QQA programming, visit their website.

My earliest memory was (age and incident)

I have tons of early memories of playing in the woods and hide and seek at my grandparents’ 1890s farm house.  

When I was in high school and imagined my adulthood, I thought I would be…

Some kind of architect or designer 

Star Wars, Star Trek, Battle of the Network Stars, or Dancing with the Stars?

Star Wars   

 I most identify with the Winnie the Pooh character of…

Rabbit 

The performer I’d drop everything to see is…

Beyonce 

My first paying job was…

After school for the Bandera County Treasurer  

A book I think everyone should read is….

I think everyone should read as much as they can.  I’m a big fan of Letters to My Daughter by Maya Angelou 

My favorite season is…

Summer  

-We are all geeks (or experts) about something. My field is….

Historic Preservation  

Creative Class of 2015: Stephanie S. Streett

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StreettStephanie S. Streett is the executive director of the Clinton Foundation. In this role she oversees the day-to-day operations of the Clinton Presidential Center, including the development and implementation of its educational programs, special events, exhibits, and services as well as staff management. She establishes and cultivates strategic partnerships and cooperative arrangements with state and local governments, the non-profit and private sector, community groups and other organizations. Stephanie also serves as the corporate secretary for the Clinton Foundation Board of Directors.

Stephanie has used her position to broaden culture in Little Rock through the wide variety of exhibits which the Clinton Center has hosted. A wide variety of styles of visual arts, design, contemporary craft, sports, science and history have been showcased in exhibits at the Clinton Center.  She also was instrumental in planning the special events in conjunction with the Clinton Center 10th Anniversary in 2014.  In addition, she has been active in promoting partnerships with the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Together with Kaki Hockersmith, she has facilitated several seminars which have brought key Kennedy Center leaders to Little Rock.

She is the president of the University of Arkansas Alumni Association National Board of Directors and is co-chair of the Board of Directors for City Year Little Rock. She also serves on the Board of Directors for the Downtown Partnership of Little Rock and is a member of the International Women’s Forum Arkansas.

Pop Up in the Rock today from 11am to 5pm along West 9th from Broadway

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Create Little Rock, the young professionals organization of the Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce, and studioMAIN, a collective of design professionals, developers, and contractors, are excited to share developments in the 2015 PopUp in the Rock planning.

This year, PopUp West Ninth will take place Saturday, October 24 from 11am until 5pm. It will span from the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center (MTCC) at Ninth and Broadway to the Dreamland Ballroom at Ninth and State and across the State Street overpass to the campus of Philander Smith. The project will feature a meandering street with the intention of slowing traffic creating a more pedestrian friendly environment, a children’s corner, street musicians and performers, Dreamland Ballroom tours and a PopUp Goodfellas barber shop.

Local food trucks, vendors and entertainment have also been secured including Solfood Catering and Brown Sugar Bake Shop, local food trucks Loblolly, The Beast, Southern Gourmasian, Banana Leaf, Blackhound BBQ, Katmandu Momo as well as the Lost Forty beer garden.  There will be PopUp shopping featuring Mimi Mwafrika designs and Tribal Collections. Great local musicians such as Lucious Spiller and the Arkansas Baptist Choir among several others will perform throughout the day.

PopUp in the Rock began generating community feedback for PopUp West Ninth at the 2014 Juneteenth Celebration of Freedom hosted by Mosaic Templars Cultural Center, Arkansas’s museum of African American history and culture.  Once known as “The Line,” Ninth Street was a bustling east-west thoroughfare with a trolley line. It was a bustling community with a thriving urban fabric of mixed-use development that was largely black-owned.

Booker T. Washington spoke at Ninth and Broadway in 1913. Miles Davis, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong and others performed at the Dreamland Ballroom and other jazz clubs along Ninth. Daisy and L.C. Bates operated their Arkansas State Press there, and, from the present location of MTCC, the Mosaic Templars operated a politically and financially influential headquarters. The campus of Philander Smith once spanned north to West Ninth before Interstate 630 divided the district. One goal of PopUp West Ninth is to encourage pedestrian and bicycle traffic between Philander Smith and West Ninth Street via the South State Street overpass, thereby bridging the gap that originally tore apart the neighborhood. Utilizing community feedback and knowledge of the deep historical roots of West Ninth, PopUp in the Rock hopes to demonstrate the district’s potential for an equally vibrant future.

 

Creative Class of 2015: Reese Rowland

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reeserArchitect Reese Rowland has literally changed the landscape of Little Rock.  He has designed some of Little Rock’s most recognized buildings, including Acxiom’s River Market Tower Headquarters, Bank of the Ozarks Headquarters, Heifer International’s Education Center, the Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce, the Arkansas Studies Institute and Hillary Rodham Clinton Children’s Library.

Reese has been rewarded with over 60 National, Regional and State Design Awards in the last twelve years. His Heifer International World Headquarters design received the Nation’s highest honor for architecture, the 2008 AIA National Institute Honor Award, one of 13 awarded. The South’s first LEED Platinum building was also named a National AIA/COTE Top 10 Green Building in 2007. In 2011, his Arkansas Studies Institute design received a National AIA/ALA (American Library Association) Award of Excellence, one of five awarded in the biennial competition, honoring the best in library architecture worldwide. In 2015, his Hillary Rodham Clinton Children’s Library won the same Award.

Arkansas Business named Reese to its prestigious list of “25 Entrepreneurs & Innovators of the last 25 years”, crediting his work with helping to transform downtown Little Rock through modern architecture. His work has been published in 25 national and international periodicals, as well as 13 books. AY Magazine named Reese to its list of “12 Powerful Men in Arkansas” for having influence, making a difference, and serving others. Additionally, Arkansas Times Magazine named him as one of “50 Influential Arkansans” as well in 2012.

In recognition of his commitment to design and the architectural profession, Reese was selected as a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects in 2014.  This designation goes to fewer than 4% of all architects.

Architecture & Design Network focuses on architectural photographer Pedro E. Guerrero

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pedro e guererroTonight at 6pm at the Arkansas Arts Center, the Architecture and Design Network, in collaboration with the Arkansas Educational Television Network (AETN), will present an  American Masters Series film “Pedro E. Guerrero: A Photographer’s Journey.”
Following the film, there will be a panel discussion with Dr. Ethel Goodstein-Murphree, Associate Dean, Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design, and Professor of Architecture, Chair; Brian Lang, Chief Curator, Arkansas Arts Center; and Tim Hursley, architectural photographer. A reception at 5:30 will take place prior to the screening and discussion.
Directed and produced by the award winning team of Ray Telles and Ivan Iturruaga, the American Masters Series film, Pedro E. Guerrero: A Photographer’s Journey, recounts the Arizona native’s life (1917-2012) and remarkable career. In 1939, the then 22 year old Guerrero, a novice photographer who had studied photography at the Art Center in Pasadena, CA, was hired by Frank Lloyd Wright to document the construction of Taliesin West, then being built on a site overlooking Paradise Valley. Wright’s spur of the moment decision to hire him led to a relationship that lasted until Wright’s death in 1959, interrupted only by the young man’s Army Air Corps service during WW II.
Guerrero’s twenty year association with Wright catapulted him into the center of modernist art and architecture. Moving to New York City following the war, while still working with Wright, Guerrero was much sought after by major magazines that focused on architecture and design. He also went on to photograph the work of sculptors Alexander Calder and Louise Nevelson as well the artists themselves.
In addition to  excerpts of interviews with art historians and critics long familiar with Guerrero’s work, the film offers a view of  his early life experience – his growing up in an Arizona town, not far from Taliesin West, where educational opportunities for offspring of families with Mexican roots were limited. While  he intended to study art after high school, his introduction to photography altered his course.
Support for  Architecture and Design Network (ADN), a non-profit organization, is provided  the Arkansas Arts Center, the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design, the Central Arkansas Section of the Arkansas Chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and friends in the community. The film’s showing and the reception that precedes it are free and open to the public. For  additional information contact ardenetwork@mac.com.

Little Rock Look Back: LR Mayor Donald Mehlburger

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Mayor D L MehlburgerOn October 19, 1937, future Little Rock Mayor Donald Lee Mehlburger was born in Little Rock.  His parents were Max A. Mehlburger and Mary Lou Covey Mehlburger who also had another son Max C. Mehlburger.

Mehlburger’s first run for the City Board of Directors was in November 1968 when there was an open seat.  At the time he was 30, the youngest one could be and be elected to the City Board.  He lost that race, but eight years later ran again.  This time Mehlburger won the race.  At his first meeting on the City Board, Mehlburger was selected as Mayor of Little Rock by his colleagues.

Prior to running for the City Board the second time, Mehlburger had been appointed to the Planning Commission.  Planning and growth were two important emphases for Mayor Mehlburger, in addition to public safety.  He stressed the importance of quality growth in the edges of the city and a push for a revitalized downtown.  Mayor Mehlburger was also an advocate for public mass transit.

Due to business interests taking up too much of his time, he resigned from the City Board a few months before his term was up.  But he remained engaged in civic affairs.  Historic preservation was important to Mehlburger.  In addition to owning historic properties, he was a founding board member of the Historic Preservation Alliance of Arkansas.  He had graduated from the University of Arkansas and was a member of Trinity Episcopal Cathedral.  He had also been active with the Junior Chamber of Commerce (Jaycees) and Rotary Club 99.

Mehlburger died on May 25, 1992 and was buried at Mount Holly Cemetery.  His grave marker features an engraved sextant which pays tribute to his career as an engineer.  It also notes that he was Mayor of Little Rock.  Mayor Mehlburger was survived by his wife Susan and his three children – Donald Lee Jr., Harry and Katherine.

$1.5M Grant for Pulaski Tech Center for Humanities & Arts announced

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PTC CHARTSThe Windgate Charitable Foundation has awarded Pulaski Technical College Foundation a $1.5 million grant to furnish and equip the college’s new Center for Humanities and Arts which is nearing completion and is slated to open in January 2016.

The grant is the largest private gift in the college’s history.

“This is such an amazing gift and will be a game changer for the students and the entire community,” said Shannon Boshears, executive director of the PTC Foundation. “Many of our students have never seen a play or been to an art gallery. All of our students will benefit from this by enhancing their college experience and keeping them in school.”

The college will receive $1 million to purchase various and much needed items including musical instruments, art supplies, audio-visual equipment for the performance theater, plus tools and materials for the Big Rock Sculpture Park that adjoins the building. The remaining $500,000 will be used as a challenge grant that Windgate will match dollar-for-dollar to create an endowment to support the building’s operations.

Every student who is pursuing an Associate of Arts or Associate of Science degree will utilize the new building.

“We know that this gift will dramatically impact the lives of our students and community, and with its support to our Fine Arts curriculum, will cultivate an arts appreciation and perspective never before imaginable. That is a life gift for our PTC students and their families,” said PTC President Dr. Margaret Ellibee.

The 90,000-square-foot center integrates Pulaski Tech’s humanities and arts offerings including visual and studio arts, theatre, music, English, speech and philosophy. Inside are art studios, gallery and exhibit space, music rooms, a black box theatre with flexible seating, and 500-seat theatre that will be available for campus and community events.