Grafton Architects wins competition bid to design Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design's Center for Design and Materials Innovation

Founders Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara of Grafton Architects have been selected as the project architects for the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design's Center for Design and Materials Innovation. Teaming with Arkansas-based firm Modus Studio, together the group will work on the estimated $16 million design project. 

The new center's design will not only be a representation of the University's goals and mass timber initiatives, but it will also respond to the local climate and its environment Farrell explains. The firm was chosen from a shortlist of 6 proposals from a design competition funded by the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities. According to the University, the project is scheduled to begin in the summer of 2020.

The new center is the duo's first built project in the U.S. In a press statement from the University, Farrell and McNamara share, "We are very excited about building our first building in the United States in Fayetteville, Arkansas. This building helps us think about the future optimistically, where the use of timber with all its possibilities, becomes real, useful, and hopefully loved."

The new center's design will not only be a representation of the University's goals and mass timber initiatives, but it will also respond to the local climate and its environment Farrell explains. The firm was chosen from a shortlist of 6 proposals from a design competition funded by the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities. According to the University, the project is scheduled to begin in the summer of 2020.