Murray Smart (left) and the late Cy Sutherland were teaching colleagues for 24 years. Photo by Chris Hilker.

It has been a rough year for the School of Architecture as we mourn the deaths of distinguished faculty members who helped establish the program, including John G. Williams, Herb Fowler, Keith McPheeters, and most recently Professor Emeritus Cyrus Sutherland, who passed away on Nov. 15. A leader in the movement to preserve Arkansas' historic buildings, Cy Sutherland was also a beloved professor, teaching and mentoring many students during his 32 years at the School of Architecture. Murray Smart, professor emeritus of architecture, former dean and longtime friend and colleague of Cy Sutherland, shares his memories:

I came to teach design and history of architecture at the U of A in 1966, fresh out of graduate school and obnoxiously full of myself, as most brand–new faculty tend to be. I was assigned to teach with Cy. It was a wonderful pairing for me because Cy was supportive in every way. He never said “Oh no, we don’t do it that way here, “ or “we’ve tried that and it doesn’t work,” as other “old faculty” tended to say. He encouraged me in every thing I wanted to try. He was wise enough to know that we really do have to reinvent the wheel time after time. And he seemed to revel in change and experimentation.

He quickly became a role model for me. Two of his special abilities inspired me immediately – his love of history and his respect for others, especially students. And his optimism, charm, and general love of life were infectious. We enjoyed many good times together: talks about history over cups of coffee and various desserts (we both had a sweet tooth we could never satisfy); conferences planning design problems, and juries after the problems were finished; and field trips. I recall trips to SAH [Society of Architectural Historians] and SESAH [Southeast Chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians] meetings; a wonderful photo-safari shooting Louisiana plantation houses; and second-year design field trips to Tulsa, Kansas City and St. Louis. 

One field trip to St. Louis was particularly memorable. Cy and I and six students started off after design class late one winter’s afternoon riding in Cy’s big, old Volkswagen bus with Cy driving. We got to the Arkansas-Missouri state line and Cy said, “Let’s trade drivers, I’m getting sleepy.” (Cyrus had the ability to drop off to sleep in the literal ‘bat of an eye’.) As soon as I took the wheel, Cy dropped off into a deep sleep and we ran into a blizzard. The snow was so wet and heavy that the windshield wipers had a hard time managing it and fuses kept blowing. Time after time we stopped to try to get them working again, even putting chewing gum tinfoil into the fuse box. A couple of hours later, at about Rolla, Mo., we ran out of the storm and Cy awoke, refreshed and ready to take the wheel. He could sleep through anything!  The trip ended on Sunday morning as we were up at the top of the Gateway Arch, watching out the window helplessly as thieves broke the wind-wing of Cy’s van and unloaded all of our suitcases into their car and drove away. Not a carefree trip, but Cy’s joie de vivre made everything seem like a wonderful adventure. 

I have a number of grumpy days, but if Cy did, he didn’t show it. I don’t remember a sharp comment or a thoughtless remark coming from Cy’s lips. He somehow managed to give confidence to others – students, colleagues, friends – especially me.

I miss him. 

For more information on Cy Sutherland's life and accomplishments, including his forthcoming book Buildings of Arkansas, please visit the school's web site.

The Urban Outfitters Corporate Campus In Philadelphia, Pa. was one of two headquarters projects to share top honors in 2008. Designed by Jeffrey Scherer (B.Arch. '71), principal with Minneapolis firm Meyer Scherer & Rockcastle Ltd. Photo by Lara Swimmer.

We want to see it! The School of Architecture is now accepting submissions for the 2009 Alumni Design Awards. Any graduate of the school may submit projects. Winners will be announced April 4, 2009 at an event celebrating a very special moment in the school’s history (more information to come soon, we promise!). Top projects also will be featured in Re:View magazine and on the school’s web site.

Please note that we've made some changes this year. Prizes will be awarded in two categories: architecture and landscape architecture and planning. The total number of awards, and level of recognition, will be determined by the jury.

We've also made submission easier by creating a handy dandy PowerPoint template. To download the template and guidelines, visit Alumni Design Award Submission Guidelines.

Deadline: Submissions must be postmarked no later than February 27, 2009.

This "pumpCAN," created by a team of landscape architecture students, won the grand prize in the second annual CANstruction event. Photo by Russell Cothren.

Sure, they log plenty of hours in studio and the library. Somehow, our students find time to help others, as well:

On November 23 Tau Sigma Delta Honor Society sponsored a pumpkin carving at LifeSource, a non-profit organization that provides food, clothing and other forms of support for families experiencing stress.  Sixteen School of Architecture students helped 20 elementary school kids carve and paint pumpkins into some very creative expressions (Razorback jack-o-lantern, anyone?)

"It was fun!" said Cara Murray, a fifth-year student in landscape architectural studies, who serves as president of Tau Sigma Delta. "We got a break from studio, and a chance to get involved in the community." AIAS and ASLA students helped out, as well.

Intermittent gusts of rain blew the second annual CANstruction event inside Vol Walker Hall this year, where the clank of cans stacking (and falling) reverberated off the walls of the second floor gallery. Sponsored by the Leadership by Design program, CANstruction was held on Halloween, which inspired a FrankCANstein, a tomb, Dracula's castle and the grand-prize winning PumpCan, built in front of Vol Walker because the industrial sized cans were too large to schlep upstairs.

The official can count? 4,123 cans, which were subsequently donated to the Northwest Arkansas Food Bank.

"That's three times what we collected last year - very cool," said Laura Terry, who coteaches the Leadership by Design course with Judy Brittenum. Allen Canning Co., Harp's Food Stores, Marvin’s IGA Grocers, Walmart Neighborhood Market and Sam's Club donated canned goods for this event.

Greg Herman contributed a chapter on the school's 2003 modular design/build project to the latest book on activist architecture.

Architecture professor Greg Herman discusses the creation of a custom-designed $60,000 home with hardwood floors, built-in storage and a deck in the new book Expanding Architecture: Design as Activism. Herman’s chapter, “Market Modular,” explores how he and 15 students made low-cost, high-design housing in Fayetteville a reality thanks to an innovative partnership with Taylor Made Homes, a modular home company formerly based in Anderson, Mo.

“Modular housing is an underutilized type, but it has great potential,” Herman said, “because theoretically at least, you can fast track it.” View images of the project.

Architecture professor Marlon Blackwell's Blessings Golf Clubhouse in Johnson, Ark., completed for John Tyson in 2006, is one of 1,037 projects from 89 countries showcased in the recently published Phaidon Atlas of 21st Century World Architecture. The new atlas focuses on the best buildings of the new millennium, and builds on the success of the Phaidon Atlas of Contemporary World Architecture (2004), which also featured Blackwell’s work. View Tim Hursley photo of Blessings.

Section perspective from Trastavere project by Anne Huynh and Russell Worley, which won first place in the International Design Competition sponsored by the Hnedak Bobo Group.

Three architecture students will bring home some extra cash as well as a broader perspective from their required semester of study abroad. The cash windfall – an unusual turn of events for students returning from semesters in Rome or Mexico – comes thanks to a new International Design Competition sponsored by the Hnedak Bobo Group, an architecture firm based in Memphis, Tenn.

“We’re always looking for something to do for the School of Architecture,” said Mark Weaver, a principal with Hnedak Bobo and ’82 graduate of the School of Architecture. “Foreign study is such an important part of the experience, so this design competition seemed like a nice way to support that,” he said.

Anne Huynh and Russell Worley each won $2000 for their first place submission, which addressed a neglected area in the Trastevere neighborhood in Rome. Their project proposed two mixed-use buildings that would provide a theater, bus depot, market, housing and other amenities for the area; their design also reconnects the site with the Tiber River while exposing some of the ancient ruins below.

Ryan Wilmes won $1000 for his second place entry, which uses as its basis the diverse walls characteristic of Mexico to simultaneously accommodate a rare book library, open chapel and market at St. Lazarus Church in Mexico City.

The Hnedak Bobo Group plans to sponsor this competition for two more years.