This perspective of Stoneflower in Eden Isle, Ark. and other work by Fay Jones will be on display in Mullins Library April 3 - 5 as part of the school's naming celebration. Courtesy Fay Jones Papers, Special Collections, University of Arkansas.

You heard it here and in the papers that we will soon be the Fay Jones School of Architecture. We've planned a big party – a whole weekend of events – to celebrate. Rather than rehashing events we've worked up a quiz to see if you've been paying attention . . .

True or False:

• Glenn Murcutt will present his last lecture in North America in Fayetteville, Ark.


• Young Fay Jones built a tree house with a working fireplace (then accidentally burned it down).


• Former New York Times columnist Roy Reed conducted a three-year oral history with Fay.


• One of the homes on the tour of Fay's projects is for sale.


• Fay's self-portrait at age 15 and other memorabilia never before seen by the public will be on display.


• Spaces are filling up fast!

Answers: All (T) True. (And yes, some of these facts are new information!) Sign up now to get the scoop on Fay Jones' life and work, hear Murcutt hold forth, and catch up with old friends and professors. Monday, March 16 is the deadline to register for Celebrate Fay Jones School of Architecture.

Double slider table made of cherry, fir and mahogany, 2006. Photo courtesy Tim Latourette.

Furniture and cabinetry by Tim Latourette - explorations in form hand rubbed to a luminous, glowing finish – are currently on display in the first floor gallery of Vol Walker Hall. Exotic woods, leaves turned to lace by beetles and intricate, mortise and tenon joinery are among the treasures that reward close inspection.

Latourette is director of the school's woodshop and occasionally leads classes on woodworking. This semester, he is leading a class on furniture and lighting design for School of Architecture students.

“I think of this as research, backing up the teaching that I do,” he said, gesturing at the tables and cabinets. Among the techniques that Latourette is experimenting with at the moment is the use of bent lamination to create graceful curved shapes that are locked into place using continuous joinery.

“A lot of the students are using bent laminates in their lighting projects. They’re doing some beautiful work – I find it quite inspirational,” he said.

Come by and check it out – Latourette’s work is up through Friday, April 10. Outstanding examples of his students’ furniture and lighting designs will be added to the exhibition on March 30 and displayed through April 10, as well. Read more about Tim's work.

House in Columbia, S.C. inspired by Edward Durell Stone's 1936 design for Collier's magazine. Photo courtesy Ethel Goodstein-Murphree.

Ethel Goodstein-Murphree

“The House of Ideas and the Idea of the House: Edward Durell Stone and the Mid-Century American Home”

6:30 p.m., Tuesday, March 24
Arkansas Arts Center Lecure Hall
Little Rock, Ark.

The internationally acclaimed architect and Fayetteville native son Edward Durell Stone is best known today as a victim of changing tastes, with a disproportionate number of his signature works lost or irrevocably altered. In a lecture titled “The House of Ideas and the Idea of the House: Edward Durell Stone and the Mid-Century American Home,” School of Architecture professor Ethel Goodstein-Murphree will explore a lesser-known aspect of Stone’s career – his role as an early torchbearer for the modern American home.

“Edward Durell Stone warmed up Le Corbusier’s cold ‘machine for living’ and in so doing, made the modern house an American place,” Goodstein-Murphree said.

Scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 24, at the Arkansas Arts Center lecture hall in Little Rock, Ark., Goodstein-Murphree’s lecture will focus in particular on three prototypes for modernist homes that Stone developed for Collier’s magazine in the late 30s. His proposals culminated in “the House of Ideas,” a temporary structure perched on a terrace of Rockefeller Center, high above New York City’s tony Fifth Avenue.

Goodstein-Murphree’s talk is part of a lecture series co-sponsored by the University of Arkansas School of Architecture, the Arkansas Arts Center and the central Arkansas section of the American Institute of Architects. A 6 p.m. reception will precede the lecture. The event is free and open to the public. Continuing Education Units will be awarded to design professionals.

Marlon Blackwell's Gentry Library has won national honors; alumnus Stuart Fulbright (BLA '06) designed the community park adjacent to the library.

Professor Marlon Blackwell devoted seven years to the transformation of a 100-year-old hardware store into the Gentry Library. Recently the hard work has paid off: His sleek hybrid of contemporary design and historic artifact has won a 2009 National Library Design Award from the American Institute of Architects and the American Library Association/Library Administration and Management Association. One of eight winners selected from more than 100 entrants, the Gentry Library is the first Arkansas library to win this award. The project also was featured in the October 2008 issue of Architectural Record devoted to “design with conscience.”

Marlon Blackwell is pleased about the national award and coverage, but he’s most proud of the library’s new role as a linchpin for downtown Gentry.

“The real reward is seeing how much the library is used, and the contribution good architecture can make to a community,” Blackwell said. The numbers back him up: Gentry Library memberships have doubled since the new facility opened, and today 1,900 plus citizens, almost 80 percent of the town’s population, have library cards to check out books.

“The library is well used, and the award is well deserved,” said Jim Furgason, chair of the library board. “People walk into the library, stop, look around and say ‘Wow.’ That expresses our thoughts perfectly about what Marlon has done.”

Wes Hogue, mayor of Gentry, said: “The new library really energized the downtown district. Now we have parking issues, which is a nice problem to have – I’ll take that over a vacant downtown any day.”

How did Marlon complete the project for $108 per square foot? Read more.

Looking for fresh talent – or your first real job? Check out the Jobs + Internships section of the school's Web site. Students and alumni have posted their  portfolios; if you'd like to post yours, please contact Kendall Curlee.

And be sure to check out our new and improved firms and jobs pages:

• Firms may now update their own directory listings and manage job postings.

• Users are now able to search by firm type (very helpful, with more than 250 firms in the directory!)

Note that your firm must be entered on the firms page in order to post a job opening on the jobs page.

You may create a new firm listing and an account by going to firms page and clicking on "Create a firm" (just follow the prompts).

Firms already in the directory will need to create an account to edit their listing or post a new job. If you have any questions, please contact Kendall.