Tag Archives: Fay Jones School of Architecture

Greater Little Rock Preservation Awards presented tonight at Quapaw Quarter annual meeting

Posted on by

QQAThe Quapaw Quarter Association will present the Greater Little Rock Preservation Awards at its 2014 Annual Membership Meeting on Tuesday, October 7 at the Ron Robinson Theater.  This year’s award recipients include the Argenta Branch of the William F. Laman Public Library System, Stone’s Throw Brewing Company, the Clinton Foundation, Donna Thomas and Wright Avenue Neighborhood Association, and J. Chandler and Co.  Rachelle Walsh will receive the Peg Smith Award to recognize her exemplary volunteer work. Carolyn Newbern will be presented with the Jimmy Strawn Award, the QQA’s most prestigious award, presented to someone whose efforts on behalf of the preservation of Greater Little Rock’s architectural heritage are an inspiration to the entire community.  Matt DeCample will serve as emcee of the awards ceremony.

The QQA is also kicking off efforts to raise awareness about mid-century modern architecture in Little Rock, beginning with a special lecture from Dr. Ethel Goodstein-Murphree of the Fay Jones School of Architecture.  Goodstein-Murphree’s lecture, “Rock ‘n’ Roll, Poodle Skirts, and a White I-Beam: The Preservationist’s Guide to Loving the 1950s and its Architecture” will be presented at the meeting.

The meeting will begin at 6:00 p.m. following a 5:30 reception at the Ron Robinson Theater at 100 River Market Avenue in Little Rock.  The QQA’s annual membership meeting is free and open to the public.  Nonmembers may join at the door.

Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts to visit Little Rock

Posted on by

NEA LRDr. Jane Chu, a former resident of Arkadelphia, is the new chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts.  On Tuesday, October 7, she will be in Little Rock.

At 1:30, she will be part of a presentation at the Arkansas Repertory Theatre.  Steve Luoni of the University of Arkansas Community Design Center, will lead a discussion of the Creative Corridor.  Dr. Chu will also make remarks.  Mayor Mark Stodola will be the host of the event.  The public is invited to attend.

During her visit in Little Rock, Dr. Chu will also take part in a variety of meetings and tours.

LR Cultural Touchstone: Virginia Bailey

Posted on by

Bailey, Virginia MitchellVirginia Mitchell Bailey was an avid supporter and promoter of visual and performing arts.  A real estate developer, she was a wife, mother, grandmother, and tireless community volunteer as well.  She was a trailblazer in the area of balancing a business career with continued volunteerism.  While today that is common, in the 1960s and 1970s, it was very rare for women to do both.

Virginia served on the Advisory Board of the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C. She was a member of the Fine Arts Club since 1960. She served for 17 years on the Arkansas Arts Center Board of Trustees and for 12 years on the Arts Center Foundation Board. She was Secretary of the Arts Center Board in 1974, President of the Board from 1976 to 1977, and Chairman of the Board from 1977 to 1978. In 1989, she received the Winthrop Rockefeller Annual Award for outstanding service to the Arts Center. In 2001, the Arts Center Board named the Virginia and Ted Bailey Gallery in her honor.

From 1992 to 1995, Virginia served on the Advisory Board of the University of Arkansas School of Architecture. She served as the first President of the Friends of the Arts at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.  She was also a board member of Wildwood Park for the Performing Arts.

In recognition of their philanthropic support for so many charitable groups in the community and elsewhere, and by nomination from UALR, Virginia and her husband Dr. Ted Bailey received the Philanthropist of the Year Award from the Arkansas Chapter of the National Association of Fundraisers in 1994. In 1990, Virginia received one of the annual Outstanding Women of the Year Awards sponsored by Boatmen’s Bank. She was honored with the Little Rock Arts and Humanities Award (AHA!) in 1995.

Architecture Lecture tonight: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Robie House: A New Perspective

Posted on by

FLW Robie HouseAs part of the Arkansas Design Network’s monthly architecture lecture series, tonight Jeff Shannon will discuss “FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT’S ROBIE HOUSE: A New Perspective.“ Shannon is a professor of architecture at the University of Arkansas Fay Jones School of Architecture.

The program begins tonight at 6pm in the Arkansas Arts Center lecture hall, with a reception starting at 5:30.

 

Robie house, situated on the edge of the University of Chicago campus, was designed for 28-year-old Frederick  Robie and his young family by Frank Lloyd Wright. Completed in 1910, the house, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, has generally been acknowledged as the “ultimate expression of the Prairie house”, a form pioneered by the Wisconsin-born architect. In addition to designing the structure itself, Wright designed the home’s furnishings and elements of Mrs. Robie’s wardrobe. According to Shannon, most interpretations of the Robie home underestimate the influence of site and context on the design of the house, located on a 60×180 foot lot on the corner of Woodlawn Avenue and South 58th Street, in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood.  Wright’s ability to deal with the challenges he faced “elicited one of the most creative and ingenious responses” of his career.

 

As Dean of the Fay Jones School of Architecture (FJSA), from 2000 to 2013, Jeff Shannon, an award-winning alumnus of  Arkansas and Rice Universities,  developed a variety of new programs, increased the school’s  diversity and raised its national profile. Under his aegis, the school was named for Fay Jones, one of its early graduates and an American Institute of Architects (AIA) gold medalist, who, early in his career, studied with Wright at Taliesin. During Shannon’s tenure, funding was raised to renovate Vol Walker Hall, the school’s home,  and build the widely acclaimed Steven L. Anderson Design Center. Responsible for developing the collaboration of the Fay Jones School of Architecture and the University of Arkansas Press, Shannon, as  executive editor of the publishing venture, is responsible for books dealing with architecture, including Architects of Little Rock, 1833-1950,  by Charles Witsell and Gordon Wittenberg.

 

All ADN lectures are free and open to the public. ADN’s supporters include the Arkansas Arts Center, the Central Arkansas Chapter of the AIA, the Fay Jones School of Architecture and friends in the community. A non-profit,  ADN is a 501-3 organization. For additional information contact ardenetwork@icloud.com.

Steve Wiesenthal FAIA discusses Architectural Heritage + Innovation at the University of Chicago

Posted on by

WiesenthalTonight the Architecture and Design network presents Steve Wiesenthal, FAIA discussing “Architectural Heritage + Innovation at the University of Chicago.”  He is currently Senior Associate Vice President for Facilities & University Architect at the University of Chicago.

The program begins at 6pm in the lecture hall of the Arkansas Arts Center. A reception precedes the lecture at 5:30.

The University of Chicago campus, rooted in the tradition of grey stone Collegiate Gothic and taking inspiration from the forward looking spirit of America’s premier city of architectural innovation, is in the midst of an historic transformation.

In the first two decades of the 21st century, the campus has undergone more change than it ever did in its 110 year history. Guided by principle and overarching planning themes, the University’s campus has buildings designed by a number of architectural luminaries – Helmut Jahn, Tod Willams, Billie Tsien, Jeanne Gang, Ann Beha, MIchael Van Walkenberg, Rafael Vinoly, Ricardo Legoretta among them. In spite of transformative physical changes to its campus, the University remains committed to its core values.

Weisenthal, who has been at the University since 2008, earned undergraduate degrees in architecture and urban studies at the University of Maryland and a Master of Liberal Arts degree from the University of Pennsylvania. Subsequent employment included six years as an architect with Venturi Scott Brown and Associates, the internationally acclaimed architectural firm. Prior to coming to the University, he oversaw the development of the University of California San Francisco’s Mission Bay research and academic campus.

Supporters of the Architecture and Design Network, include the University of Arkansas Fay Jones School of Architecture, the Central Arkansas Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, the Arkansas Arts Center and friends in the community. All ADN lectures are free and open to the public. For additional information, contact ardenetwork@icloud.com.

Architecture critic Mark Lamster featured tonight at Architecture & Design Network

Posted on by

Smark-lamster-presented-dallas-archit-66IZING UP ARCHITECTURE: A Critic’s View

Mark Lamster
Architecture Critic | Dallas Morning News 
Assistant Professor and Dillon Center Fellow | School of Architecture University of Texas Arlington

DATE: Tuesday, March 18, 2014
TIME: 6:00 pm, preceded by a reception at 5:30
PLACE: Arkansas Arts Center lecture hall

Architecture critics are a rare breed in this part of the country. Mark Lamster, a recent arrival at the Dallas Morning News, offers a perspective on the built environment that enables others to see and talk about their surroundings in new and different ways. Lamster, who also teaches a graduate seminar on criticism and critical writing at the University, has, according to the newspaper’s editor, Bob Mong, a “range of interests that rivals those of any architecture critic in the country.” His background in art as well as architecture informs his writing. A contributing editor to Architectural Review and Design Observer, his work has appeared in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Wall Street Journal and many other national publications. Lamster is currently at work on a definitive new biography of the late architect Philip Johnson who, among his many accomplishments, established the architecture department at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. The book is to be published by Little Brown.

For more than a decade, Lamster served as editor of the Princeton Architecture Press. He is the author of several books including Master of Shadows (2009) a political biography of the painter Peter Paul Rubens. Baseball fans may be familiar with his first book, Spalding’s World Tour, the story of a group of all-star baseball players who circled the globe in the 19th Century. That work was a New York Times Editor’s selection. Lamster, a native of New York City, has a B.A. from Johns Hopkins University and an M.A. from Tufts.

Supporters of the Architecture and Design Network lecture series include the Arkansas Arts Center, the Central Arkansas Chapter of the American Institute of Architecture and the University of Arkansas Fay Jones School of Architecture. All Network lectures are free and open to the public. For further information, contact ardenetwork@icloud.com.

Architect Michael Rotondi discusses Hybrid of Extremes tonight

Posted on by

RotondiTonight at the Arkansas Arts Center, the latest in the continuing series of lectures about architecture. HYBRID OF EXTREMES, a lecture by Michael Rotondi, FAIA, architect and educator. He is founding partner and principal of RoTo Architects, Los Angeles, and a Professor in Practice of the Arizona State University School of Architecture.

Based in Los Angeles, Michael Rotondi has been the co-founder of two esteemed architectural firms. He and Thom Mayne, with whom he had a productive partnership, founded Morphosis in 1975. Almost two decades later he established RoTo Architects, a firm committed to enlarging the scope of architectural practice to include issues of socio-economic concern and the environment.

The 2009 recipient of the Los Angeles Chapter the American Institute of Architects gold medal for creating a body of work of lasting influence on the theory and practice of architecture, Rotondi has emphasized  architecture’s role  in “making the world a better place”. He has stressed the importance of architects being aware of the impact of their work on people, places and communities.

Rotondi and a group of friends were instrumental in the 1972 founding of the Los Angeles based California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc). Among the school’s first graduates, the innovative young architect who had earned a degree from California State Polytechnic University in 1971, later served as SCI-Arc’s director (1987-1997). Currently a member of its Board of Trustees, he also teaches there. Rotondi has lectured and taught all over the world.

Rotondi’s participation in Architecture and Design Network’s 13/14 lecture series has been made possible by the Fayetteville based University of Arkansas Fay Jones School of Architecture where he ls this year’s John G. Williams Distinguished Visiting Professor.

In addition to the School of Architecture, Network supporters include the Arkansas Arts Center and the Central Arkansas Chapter of the American Institute of Architects. All ADN lectures are free and open to the public. For additional information contact ardenetwork@icloud.com.