This student focused multifamily project occupies a complex Ozark site adjacent to the University of Arkansas in Downtown Fayetteville. Extensive site topography defines the building characteristics in stepping massive forms and angular geometries that are the resultant of Center Street diagonally slicing the hillside, which creates an unusual trapezoidal block. These native characteristics drove the architectural concepts and delivered in built form a stark contrast to the most normative of all student-housing typologies: the Texas Donut. We argue that the Arkansas Bear Claw is a more adept model of dense multifamily living.
The Dogwoodtrot House is aptly named as a synthesis of the strong vernacular typology of a dogtrot house and the woodland hillside site to create a modern model for a suburban home located within Dogwood Canyon in northwest Fayetteville, Arkansas. The home denies the common McMansion typology of the surrounding context and instead creates useful, purposeful, and poetic spaces that capture the dynamics of the site while clearly organizing important interior and exterior spaces for the large family rendered in a simple, warm, and elegant palette.
The Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design at the University of Arkansas is a striking hybrid of a beautifully restored and renovated historical building, Vol Walker Hall (65,000 SF), and a contemporary insertion and addition, the Steven L. Anderson Design Center (37,000 SF). The coupling of old and new invigorates the historical center of the campus and revitalizes the educational environment of Vol Walker Hall, the campus’s original library and home to the School of Architecture since 1968. The expanded facility unites all three departments – architecture, landscape architecture, and interior design – under one roof for the first time, reinforcing the School’s identity and creating a cross-disciplinary, collaborative learning environment.
When investing in your own future, and that of your family, you are investing in a place. If you are an architect, particularly absurd and obsessive questions about where you shall call home become paramount. So, it is a daunting state of affairs when you decide to reside in the second ugliest house on the mountain. It is with great reluctance that my wife (a fellow architect) and I purchased a 90+ year old home in a well-established neighborhood on top of Mount Sequoyah in Fayetteville. Let me stop you right there…if you are thinking classic old historic home with incredible detailing and grandeur just beneath the surface waiting to be revived into its former grandeur…this is not one of those stories.
An architect led design-build project, MOOD RING HOUSE is a low-cost ($80/sf) single family live-work house.
Located in an eclectic neighborhood in walking distance from the city center of Fayetteville, Arkansas, the design is born out of a mix of site limitations and opportunities, economic constraints, and programmatic requirements. With a skewed alignment to the lot lines, the siting preserves two established monumental Catalpa trees, orienting the house to take advantage of north light from a clerestory, and south and west facing views of the immediate forest and the distant mountains, all while fronting the main intersection near the property. Work functions are consolidated at grade, with a majority of living spaces above. The small base minimizes the built footprint to preserve existing trees and reduce foundation costs, which are at a premium in the unstable Arkansas soil. The cantilevers, in concert with the dramatically sloping site, give unique views of the natural landscape to each living space, creating a private enclave amidst the tree canopy. Beneath overhangs are a carport on the west-facing front and an outdoor room on the east-facing rear. The shed roof, when coupled with an inverted truss profile, floods the interior volume with natural light.
The Srygley Pool House is located within a suburban neighborhood that offers little variation from the typical single-family house model. The simple form of the building strikes a bold pose within this landscape. The pool house is wrapped in subdued cedar siding, allowing the seemingly foreign form to coexist with the surrounding brick and cedar residences.
The Montessori Elementary School sits in the small triangular remainder of a site prone to flooding and houses classrooms, a conference room, and a new commercial kitchen.
Referred to as a “community-embedded, supportive learning center,” this library offers not only books, but also a performance space, a teaching kitchen, a greenhouse and vegetable garden, and an arboretum.
The Director of the Library System’s challenge was to create a playground without equipment, where nature and imagination combine to create grand adventures on a six acre natural site in the heart of the capital city.
Empowered by their love of place and a history of previous renovations, the owners of this Mt. Sequoyah property sought a complete transformation for their modest ranch-style home. They came to us for a creative and modern approach to design that would provide natural light and views throughout the project. With deep ties to the surrounding neighborhood, there was also a desire to tastefully censor the adjacent homes without completely severing their connection to this charming community.
Article Source: University of Arkansas Community Design Center + Marlon Blackwell Architect
The Creative Corridor retrofits a four-block segment of an endangered downtown Main Street through economic development catalyzed by the cultural arts rather than Main Street’s traditional retail base. The goal is to structure an identity for the Creative Corridor rooted in a mixed-use working and living environment anchored by the arts.
Project: The Creative Corridor: A Main Street Revitalization
Location: Little Rock, Arkansas, USA
Client: City of Little Rock
Building Square Footage: This project preserves 891,000 square feet of existing space in 28 historical structures and stipulates mixed-use functions in 532,000 square feet among four proposed infill structures. Possible programs include a cinema complex, symphony and ballet offices and rehearsal space, culinary school, art galleries, and corporate offices
Tags: Arkansas, Little Rock, USA Comments Off on The Creative Corridor: A Main Street Revitalization in Arkansas by University of Arkansas Community Design Center + Marlon Blackwell Architect
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