Latest Blog Posts

Congratulations to nwaAIA member  Fayetteville based Flintlock Architecture & Landscape! Owner, Architect & Landscape architect Alli Thurmond Quinlan put together the design team for the Cultural Arts Corridor, which includes Award-winning landscape architects Nelson Byrd Woltz (NBW).  The extension of Fayetteville’s 1 cent sales tax, which was passed by the voters of Fayetteville on Tuesday,  includes $31.7 million for the Cultural arts corridor, which will replace the parking lot west of the Walton Arts Center with a green civic space, and build a parking deck close by to make up for the lost spaces. Also planned is a nature attraction at the Fay […]

Grassroots 2019 – AIA leadership summit – Washington D.C. – 03.05.2019 – 03.10.2019 Beyond Local Leadership: A Knowledge Adventure Year after year the Arkansas chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) aims to accelerate the profession by sending members to Grassroots in Washington, D.C., an AIA leadership event, where local AIA board members from all over the United States come together to become better leaders for the organization, profession, and most importantly the community. This year I was able to participate in this knowledge adventure as a representative of the Arkansas Emerging Professionals. It was an action-packed experience in […]

Michael Lejong, AIA, LEED AP BD+C, was unanimously elected as the 2020 chair of the AIA National Small Firm Exchange during its annual meeting held in Washington, D.C., at the AIA Headquarters Octagon on Feb. 4-6. He was appointed to the Small Firm Exchange (SFx) in 2015 by AIA Strategic Council member Rob Walker, AIA, to serve as the Gulf States regional representative. During the meeting, the SFx received updated information with focused interaction from AIA national staff and re-booted support relationships with staff team members.  With the meeting being held at AIA National, the format was quite unique and […]

Charles Sharpless, a new AIA Arkansas member, shares this news. He and Jessica Colangelo are partners in the architecture firm Somewhere Studio and professors at the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design at the University of Arkansas. Their Salvage Swings project has been selected for the City of Dreams 2019 Pavilion. Salvage Swings utilizes scrap cross-laminated timber panels from an ongoing construction site to create a fun and inviting summer pavilion at Lighthouse Park on Roosevelt Island. The pavilion is constructed of 12 simple modules that frame a swing and the swinger’s view. The modules are organized in a triangular form, allowing for […]

Little Rock, AR., February 15, 2019 – Patty Opitz, AIA, a senior associate and licensed architect at Polk Stanley Wilcox Architects, has been honored with the Young Architect Award from the American Institute of Architects (AIA). She is just one of 22 architects selected from across the country for this prestigious recognition. The annual program now in its 26th year recognizes individuals who have demonstrated exceptional leadership and made significant contributions to the architecture profession early in their careers. Since the program’s inception, there have only been three other architects from the state of Arkansas who have been honored with […]