Welcome to this edition of the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal Report. I'm your host, Roby Brock.
The Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design at the University of Arkansas dedicated its Anthony Timberlands Center for Design and Materials Innovation in late August. Designed by Grafton Architects of Dublin, Ireland, in association with Modus Studio of Fayetteville, the $42 million primarily mass timber building is over 44,000 square feet. It demonstrates mass timber and wood product construction and houses classrooms, studios, seminar and conference spaces, and a flexible lecture hall and gallery space.
Today we’ll visit with two architects who were at the center of the construction — Chris Baribeau and Jason Wright with Modus Studio — on today’s Northwest Arkansas Business Journal Report.
The inspiring and impressive Anthony Timberlands Center at the University of Arkansas is the crown jewel of the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design. I sat down with architects Chris Baribeau and Jason Wright with Modus Studio to learn more.
Brock: Let’s talk about the $43 million University of Arkansas Anthony Timberlands Center, and I just kind of want to hear — when you guys got hold of this project, when you were pulled into the project — what was your initial reaction? What did you think? Chris, I’ll start with you.
Baribeau: Yeah. Well, you know, the inception of this project was really unique via the competition that the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design held in order to come up with the initial concept and scheme. So they invited six firms to develop an overall concept for what this building could be, and we were fortunate enough to be part of four of those six teams that were pursuing the project.
And then ultimately, through the process and communication with Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara of Grafton Architects, once they were announced as the winner, we were really honored to be a partner and part of that team as the project moved forward. So not only was it a very ambitious project — to aspire to the highest level of design — but also something very near and dear to our hearts in terms of being local to Fayetteville, the University of Arkansas, the Fay Jones School of Architecture, and then another layer on top of that — fabrication, which is something that at Modus Studio we not only design buildings, but also have Modus Shop, which is a fabrication arm of what we do.
Brock: Jason, how cool would it have been to go to classes in this building when you were a student?
Wright: Oh, very, very exciting. And I’m super jealous, honestly, of all these students. I think they’re spoiled rotten. No, seriously, it would have been great. Over the past five years or so, I’ve become so close with the building — almost as if it’s a living object or a living being. And so now that it’s wrapped up, it’s a little sad to kind of part ways, but I’m hopeful that I’ll still be able to just go down the street and visit every once in a while and maybe even step into some studio reviews, which have already started to happen. So that’s really great.
Brock: That’ll be awesome. It’s kind of like you raised this child and now you had to send it off to college, didn’t you?
Wright: That’s right. That’s right. I shed a tear.
Brock: Let’s talk — either one of you guys can take the lead on this question. This is a mass timber structure project, and I’m not sure that everybody listening probably knows what mass timber is. Can you explain what that is and just how it’s incorporated in this project?
Wright: Sure. Yeah, I’ll take this one. So, yeah, mass timber — it’s been around for quite a while in Europe and, I’d say, developed over the past 20, 30 years in the United States. It’s a really great way to utilize our timber basket in Arkansas and generally speaking in the southeastern United States as well. Effectively, you take two-by-fours and imagine making plywood out of two-by-fours — except instead of a four-foot by eight-foot sheet, now you have an eight-foot by 40-foot long slab, seven to nine layers thick. And it’s a great way to build tall structures that would normally just be reserved, say, for single-family homes or two- to three-story structures.
You can really get a lot of benefit from the sort of trestle bridge-like effect — in a sense, lots of many members put together, they won’t fail. So it’s a really good way to use a lot of fiber, which we need to in our state. Quite frankly, we need to manage our forests in such a way that we cull out some more wood, and this is a good way to do that.
Brock: What was the biggest surprise working on this project? You would have gone into it knowing — all right, problem solved, problem solved — but then some things magical happened in the midst of a process like this. What maybe surprised you guys the most about this project?
Wright: That’s a good question. I think what immediately comes to mind is remembering back to when we did Adohi Hall, which was the residential dorm, effectively, on the campus of the University of Arkansas here in Fayetteville. And Chris was the lead on that, and we were kind of trailblazing with mass timber and working with the state fire marshal and trying to get everybody on the same page because it wasn’t a part of the building code. We were trying, to some degree, to put a square peg in a round hole from a code perspective.
But this time around, thankfully, the building code was maturing, and the state Fire Marshal’s Office was really supportive of the whole process. We asked them, “Hey, look, this 2021 IBC building code is coming out right around the time when we’re going to hit the streets and get this project out. Are you okay with us kind of designing to that code?” And they were really open and very accommodating in that respect. And the timing was just perfect — the state legislature effectively adopted the code right at the perfect time so our project could go ahead and move on. And that was a bit of a nail-biter, but at the same time, we were very surprised that it was such a smooth process. And hats off to the state Fire Marshal’s Office for working with us on that.
Brock: All right, Chris, I’ll wrap with you on this question right here. What are your hopes about what the legacy of this building will be?
Baribeau: That’s a great question. I’ll start with the kind of real experience that we, I think, we found through the construction. One of my favorite things about this project is the whole time it was under construction, there were people there wondering, “What is that wood building on MLK?” Because it’s such a prominent position — there’s a lot of traffic in front. So I really think in the hearts and minds of the community, there’s a lot of really unique interest and engaging questions about what in the world this building is because it’s so unique.
And even in watching construction, with all the wood structure going up, people were just generally intrigued, much more so than, I’d say, a traditional or conventional building or a simple boxy form. People really wanted to know more about what was going on at the site, and I think that started at the community level, because we would get questions and hear about that all the time.
So I really hope that the legacy of this building is not only a sustainable one — which naturally is part of the way in which it’s built, the way it deals with energy, the way it deals with solar orientation, the spaces it creates — I think there’s a sustainable legacy.
But I also hope it’s really going to be part of the architectural legacy of Fayetteville and of Northwest Arkansas, just through its aspirational kind of program and goals and the full design team of Grafton and Modus, and under the vision of Dean Peter MacKeith at the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design. So I think we feel really good that the result of the project — the striking form, the strong sense of materiality — all of that, at least we hope, becomes a genuine part of the Fayetteville fabric.
That’s architects Chris Baribeau and Jason Wright with Modus Studio. You can catch more of our interview at nwabusinessjournal.com.
I’m Roby Brock. That’s all for today’s episode. Thanks for tuning in. We’ll see you next time.
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