University of Arkansas Fine Arts Center — Restoring a Beloved Multidisciplinary Arts Center

Fayetteville, AR
In Progress
Type: Academic / Arts / Adaptive Reuse
Theme: Transforming Old Buildings

Project EUI

46%

reduction in energy use compared to the AIA 2030 baseline

TenBerke, along with Miller Boskus Lack Architects, is restoring the University of Arkansas’ beloved Fine Arts Center. Originally designed by native Arkansan Edward Durell Stone, the 1951 structure was the first multidisciplinary arts building in the U.S., folding theatre, dance, music, painting, sculpture, and architecture under one roof. As a pathbreaking building in both pedagogy and design, the Fine Arts Center catalyzed the arts at U of A, garnering international praise. More than 70 years on from its inception, the well-used building thrums at the heart of a bustling artistic community as Northwest Arkansas has become a regional and national hub for the arts. The architecture is celebrated as an important example of International Style Modernism in the US, yet the aging structure called out to be adapted and revitalized to meet the needs of the present and future. Our design aims to restore the building’s original vision and re-establish the Fine Arts Center as a vibrant and flexible creative crossroads on campus and beyond.

The Fine Arts Center was visionary and ahead of its time in combining multidisciplinary arts in one facility in 1951. What is exciting about the promise of this project, reviving this Center, is the opportunity to restore and transform the building for today’s needs in the spirit of that original idea.