In August 2025, the University of Arkansas’ Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design opened the doors to its latest educational building – a facility with a fitting name given its material character and namesake. The Anthony Timberlands Center for Design and Materials Innovation, which earned its name from the owner of Arkansas-based timber company, Anthony Timberlands, Inc., is almost entirely built out of … mass timber. Rooted on Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard, the 44,000-square-foot educational building was constructed using various types of wood, including southern yellow pine, black locust, cherry, white oak, bodark and spruce pine-fir.
“The idea is to have this storybook of timber, as the architects call it, and you can walk around the building with students and visitors and go, ‘You ever wonder what cherry looks like?’... We’re trying to indicate that wood is naturally everywhere, and it can be used, and it should be used to its natural advantage wherever you position it,” said Peter MacKeith, Dean of the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design.
The four-story, mass timber-constructed center was added to the university in response to the School of Architecture’s increasing number of admissions and their growing ambition for innovative, hands-on educational experiences. MacKeith saw an addition of a new education building as an opportunity to not only meet student needs through new classrooms and workshops, but to give students a firsthand look at construction with sustainable materials, and to bring attention to the natural resources that Arkansas has to offer.
“This building is an indication that design excellence can occur in Arkansas and at this university, and that the school can be an active actor in promoting design excellence, not only through the quality of our students, but through the work that we do, the buildings that we have, and, of course, we can source this as much as possible out of the state of Arkansas,” MacKeith said.
The center was built using approximately 80% mass timber, with wood sourced primarily out of Arkansas forests (with a few European exceptions). The facility offers a space for mass and timber research as well as a home for the university’s new integrated wood design graduate degree program. At the base of the building is a grand-scale fabrication lab that offers architecture and design students a space to take their projects to the next level.
The design for the facility was acquired through an international competition held by the school and university. Sixty-nine architecture firms from around the world – an “incredibly high number” of submissions for the university, said MacKeith – pitched mass timber-focused design plans for the center. The finalists each received a stipend to further develop their design concepts and to build a model to be judged by the university. The university chose Grafton Architects of Dublin, Ireland, the recipients of the 2020 Pritzker Architecture Prize; modus studio of Fayetteville; and Ground Control of Doylestown, Pennsylvania to bring the building to life.
Jason H. Wright, principal at modus studio, said the opportunity to work on the center was one that couldn’t be ignored.
“We’ve completed a few projects using mass timber, so that definitely piqued our interest, but this project was for the University of Arkansas, which was another bonus. To add to that, it was specifically for the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design, from which myself and my two partners graduated, so there was that emotional connection to the project, as well,” Wright said.
Working alongside Grafton Architects, the modus studio team “acted like a cultural bridge” for the Ireland-based firm, aiding them in the process of designing buildings in the United States, as well as serving as “consultants” to ensure the design was up to code.
“From a design perspective, it was very rewarding to be able to share the table with them and to manipulate the original concept in a way that made it very specific to Northwest Arkansas,” Wright said.
Although students did not aid in the construction of the center directly, they still had a say in the development of the building, according to MacKeith. They received several firsthand workshop opportunities to learn how the architects approached the building’s design and construction. Students also designed almost all of the wooden furniture in the center’s design studios and public spaces.
The cross-collaborative efforts to ensure the facility was top-of-the-line did not go unnoticed. The Anthony Timberlands Center has already received several prestigious awards for its design. Additionally, the public’s positive perception of the project brings in regular tours of the innovative educational facility.
Now that the facility is fully-operational and open to students, MacKeith said he views the Anthony Timberlands Center as a significant accomplishment for the school and university and for his tenure as Dean. Though he is stepping down from the leadership role this summer, he’s not leaving the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design anytime soon. MacKeith will be honing his focus to continue developing the facility.
“I can say that the school is in a very good position, and it’s healthy for there to be a change of leadership,” MacKeith said. “Going forward, I'm going to be at the Anthony Timberlands Center much more than anywhere else and much more focused on the future of this facility and the research and innovation coming out of it.”
This building is an indication that design excellence can occur in Arkansas and at this university..."