Project Statement

The Anthony Timberlands Center for Design and Materials Innovation is a center for design education, applied research, and advanced fabrication laboratories for the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design at the University of Arkansas that is constructed significantly from and focused on Arkansas-sourced timber and wood. Conceived as a “Story Book of Timber” where timber would be both the structure and the envelope, the Anthony Timberlands Center is the home for the school's ongoing design-build and graduate programs and houses collaborative efforts with partners in the state's forest industries and outreach programs.

Set on a busy commercial street less than a mile from the University of Arkansas’ main campus, the roof folds and cascades down from north to south, collecting rainwater in large “gutter beams” while bringing in natural light to the fabrication hall and studio spaces inside. The primary northern facade along the street provides abundant daylight while revealing the activity of the school to the city.

Inside, the exposed mass timber structure of glulam columns and beams with cross laminated timber (CLT) walls and decking frame a 7,673 square foot (713 square meter) fabrication hall flanked by specialized lab spaces. Suspended above the fabrication hall by a Queen Post truss are an auditorium and two floors of studio spaces, each of which have views into the shop and views out to the surrounding city and landscape.

Collectively, the building, the programs it houses, and the collaborative relationships it fosters, will be of great benefit to students in their architectural education, revealing a layered and nuanced series of embedded relationships, creating an expanded understanding of sustainability.