Project Statement

The University of Arkansas Cordia Harrington Center for Excellence addresses the present and evolving needs of first-generation students and transfer students, as well as the broader student community, to aid in semester-to-semester retention, on-time graduation, and transition to careers or further postsecondary education.

A new department to the University, the Office of Student Success needed a permanent home on campus. Working closely with the department, the design team, led by HBRA Architects in collaboration with Core Architects, developed a program. The Center’s activities require welcoming spaces and environments that accommodate its distinct needs. The intention was to create a building that would last generations, with spaces that could be flexible and adapt for changing needs over the years.

The 71,000 gross square foot, four-story Center includes tutoring and mentoring spaces, multi-use lounges, classrooms, conference rooms, and faculty offices. A significant food service component adjoining an outdoor courtyard at ground floor level ensures that the building is engaged by the entire campus community.

Prominently located in the historic core of the campus, the sloping site allows the Center to engage grade at two levels, with the south entrance facing Old Main Lawn to the south, and the north entrance using the space between it and Memorial hall to create a landscaped courtyard that provides a pleasant shaded outdoor space to enjoy during the warm months. Its position at the heart of campus reinforces the Center’s identity as a vital hub for student activity and community engagement.

Building massing, site alignments and exterior expression are informed by an earlier Feasibility Study that considered the University’s 1925 Jamieson & Spearl master plan, sculptural massing of adjacent buildings, the Collegiate Gothic grammar of the historic core, and campus vernacular precedents. Standing on the site just to the north of Old Main, this piece of land had previously been described as “the missing tooth” within the campus’s master plan. The footprint of the Cordia Harrington Center for Excellence aligns with Memorial Hall to the north, the Agriculture Building to the west, and Gearhart Hall to the south. The Center also aligns with its neighbors in elevation – one of the greater challenges of the project was to match the floor-to-floor height that is uniform and apparent on all of the surrounding Collegiate Gothic buildings. A chilled beam mechanical system was implemented to maximize the amount of available interior vertical space while sticking to the horizontal alignment across this part of campus. The field stone on the entirety of the building is from the same limestone quarry in Arkansas as its 100 year old predecessors; following the same masonry pattern, the façade strives to be as authentic as it can be while still utilizing modern methods.

Other distinct exterior features include intricately carved stonework, such as finials, crenulations, and buttress caps throughout. However, the most unique elements are the bosses, which feature symbols specific and special to Arkansas’s natural resources and legacy. Located above the main entrance on the south elevation, one can admire the detail of the carved oak leaves, pinecones, quartz, a wild razorback, tomatoes, and the apple blossom. At the very top is, of course, the University of Arkansas seal, carefully and accurately recreated from those existing elsewhere on campus. On the north entrance, located above the Starbucks, is a mythological dolphin, the concept which was hand-rendered at a 1:1 scale by design partner HBRA Architects.

Interior features include an open lobby with custom oak welcome desk, tutoring anchor spaces, and several multi-use conference rooms with views oriented to the historic Old Main Lawn. The center of the interior space is highly detailed with wood paneling, mouldings with historically accurate profiles, GFRG brackets column wraps, and a durable terrazzo floor. An interior lightwell with fritted glass skylight above the welcome desk brings natural light into the inner-most spaces of all levels of the building. This allows all offices and classrooms to have direct access to natural daylight. The ground floor hosts a workshop for campus maintenance, a small campus dining concept, and a stunning terrace room. The northern light filters through the adjacent courtyard to create an environment that all students may enjoy. The cascading arched openings frame and subdivide the generous space. All light fixtures and furniture was specifically selected to complement the timelessness of the structure itself.

In the west and east wings, office, tutoring, advising, and collaboration spaces for various departments are grouped into studios with less formal furnishings and exposed structure and mechanical work. These spaces are planned to foster interaction between students, faculty, and staff while providing flexibility to accommodate future growth and programmatic evolution.

The synthesis of program, space, landscape, and its engagement of the architectural fabric of the University of Arkansas’s Fayetteville campus comprise a building and campus amenity that is at once familiar and unprecedented. The Cordia Harrington Center for Excellence takes its place at the heart of the University, energizing its most significant spaces as the activities that it supports advance the University’s core academic mission.