Fay Jones School of Architecture Addition
University of Arkansas
Every reader of this blog is probably familiar with the name
Frank Lloyd Wright, famous for his works of architecture and infamous for the
abuse of his students. But that’s the topic
of another future blog posting. Some of
Wright’s students actually became famous by their own right; one of which is
architect E. Fay Jones. Back in 1993,
while on a bus trip with my Mom, I had the opportunity to visit Thorncrown
Chapel. This beautiful piece of
architecture, design by Fay Jones and constructed in 1980, is located in Eureka
Springs, Arkansas.
The idea of a tiny chapel in the woods was
conceived by Jim Reed, a retired school teacher who originally bought the
property on which the chapel now stands to build his retirement home. But the intrinsic beauty of the property, and
the constant flood of visitors traipsing over his land, led Reed to build a
welcoming place for these trespassers rather than shooing them off.
The structure is built mostly out of indigenous materials, which greatly
reduced the cost of its construction. The
close spacing of the tall vertical slender members mimic the trees of the
surrounding woods. The natural stone path
leading up to the chapel continues inside and combined with the structure’s
soaring vertical height, the viewer’s perception of inside versus outside is
continuously blurred.
The
architect-designed, custom fabricated light fixtures which are continuously lit
emit a low amber glow, similar to a campfire, that add an extra special touch
to the ambience that only add to experience that you are truly in a very
special place.
To honor the legacy
of Fay Jones and his many years of teaching, the University of Arkansas named
the School of Architecture building on its campus after the former faculty
member. Originally designed and
constructed in 1935 to be the university’s library, this Beaux Arts building
has served as the school of architecture since 1968. Now a planned addition, designed by Marlon
Blackwell, FAIA, once again
illustrates that today’s architects have not a clue as to what they are
doing.
Check out this
rendering which shows the protruding stone clad eyesore poking out into the
fore court of this once grand edifice.
It makes me want to grab a giant pair of pruning shears and lob it off
at the root ball. What an abhorrent
disgrace.
The new addition
bears no resemblance to the surrounding structures, which architects refer to
as contextualism. It makes no attempt to
interpret in modern way the classical proportions or banding of its handsome
neighbors. And where the hell are the
windows? It’s bad enough that
architecture students spend a disproportionate amount of their time slaving
over projects for their studio classes, but to deprive them of any kind of
connection to the outdoors is just cruel, thoughtless, and an abomination in
every sense of the word. Love the
hovering protruding mass out over the landscaped beds. When I was in architecture school, we spent
weeks studying how buildings meet the ground.
I guess this idiot never thought that marrying the building to the site
was an important concept to master.
The AIA’s published critique of this piece of crud says “the completed project promises to be a symbiotic hybrid of
historic and modern, the process by which that hybrid arrives is really a
radical departure from the way architecture has been created in the past.” HUH? What
are these guys smoking?
And the architect that designed this claptrap wrote: “This project provides a forward spirit for
the university, informed by the old, but decidedly new.” UGH.
This is exactly why I will never achieve fellow status with the
AIA. This building is horrible and it’s
embarrassing that it’s a attached to the school of architecture and associated
with an institution of higher learning.
We have got to start speaking out and demanding better performance from
architects.
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