re: Arkansas LOVES to screw up 1800 and 1900 buildings on Campus!

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why don't trees grow leaves in Arkansas?

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Harvey practiced in Fayetteville before heading to Auburn.

I happened to be in the Architecture building today and found a notebook laying in the hallway unattended. I thumbed through it to see if I could find a name on it, and these photos were in it. I can only assume they were the inspirations used in designing the new Vol Walker addition.

Well despite your initial reaction, it is viewed as the correct thing to do as far as addition to a historical building. You do not re-create the past, and the modern addition refuses the ornate details of the first building to pay homage to it. You do not build something that would be hard to determine what is old and what is new, rather let the addition speak to something different. It's done everywhere around the world this way, not just Arkansas.

If you don't like the addition is one thing, but to say you do no like it because it is modern would be looked upon as a bad opinion. Architecture is subjective, but this theory is highly accepted. You don't build new buildings to look old like Disneyworld does.

I didn't read all 5 pages, so sorry if someone already cleared this up.

I love the new addition. The primary designer is Marlon Blackwell, who is Department Head of the Fay Jones School of Architecture, and I'm pretty sure that other professors contributed to its design.

I see the addition as a bridge between historic and modern architecture. The addition's simple modern design is beautiful itself, but it serves as a subdued background from which the grandiose aesthetic of historic Vol Walker springs.

I expect people to warm up to the design in the coming years. I think it's shocking to many, but once the shock wears off, people will realize they're staring at a gem.

And I'll add, for perspective to those who are unfamiliar with our campus: the existing buildings are a mish mash of different architectural styles. The "historic" area of campus is not very large, has no consistent aesthetic itself, and is surrounded by starkly contrasting buildings already. All of the new constructions on campus are modern in style--Willard J Walker Hall, JB Hunt, Garland Avenue Center, and the Institute for Nanoscience and Engineering.

People who expect Arkansas to have a consistent aesthetic are being unrealistic.

I would hate to be the General Contractor on that project. You know Blackwell will be doing walkthroughs every other day and will nitpick the hell out of this project. My company has printed the construction documents(blueprints) for this job and an addendum just came out for this thing that reads like a novel.